After posting about the opening I decided that I would go and have dinner there the same night as I realized that my chef-pal Mario would probably oversee the launch for a couple of weeks. It’s always interesting having an opportunity to speak with a chef who’s opening a new offshoot of his/her brand and I was curious to hear about the impetus for this specific restaurant and what his expectations were. And it only took me a  week to post about it.

As with Madre, Mario elected to stay away from the downtown core and move into other regions of the island. This time, he’s chosen Ahuntsic. Ahuntsic – not exactly the first neighborhood that comes to mind when I think of where I want to go and have meal but successful restaurants have managed to establish themselves in Rosemont and Villeray, so why not Ahuntsic. I do know that the restaurant was already getting a thumbs-up from me even before setting foot inside because apart from the fact that there is plenty of parking (with my getting a spot right in front), the parking is free.

Free is always good but free parking in front of the restaurant turned out to be particularly important as the evening went on, because the the torrential rain and hail that oh, came down about an hour after my arrival would have really sucked had I needed to go feed the meter or trudge back to the car after dinner (the precipitation did flood the Acadie circle [again - but that's not particularly difficult since they forgot to add a drainage system during its reconstruction]).

Anyway, À Table follows similar styling cues as Madre and Raza before it; a certain mimimalist esthetic in a long narrow room with the kitchen set up in the back. Like Madre, À Table is less formal than Raza and has uncovered wood tabletops and a smilarly-sized kitchen that diners can look into. Unlike Madre, À Table’s kitchen is fully open with one station actually jutting out of the kitchen space.

À Table’s concept is that the brigade also does the service, which is similar to what is found at local competitor Kitchen Galerie and David Chang’s Momofuku ko. The restaurant was staffed by a team of five: Mario, his executive sous-chef Rodrigo Flores, and three in the brigade who I didn’t recognize. One – Yasmine – has worked with Mario at Raza, so the team had good familiarity with his flavor and presentation habits.

Brigade as service had me expecting a round-robin service as each member of the brigade would handle something different during the meal but the odd thing, which I think had a lot to do with opening week and my being there, was that Mario elected to cook my meal and Rodrigo doing complete service honors. I think that’ll change in the future.

Like many bistros across the Big Croissant, the menu is scribbled on a chalkboard to offer both flexibilty and cost savings (since you don’t have to spend time printing menus). They’ve elected to use a big one installed over the entryway to the kitchen, which is pretty much visible from every table in the eatery. The handwriting makes me suspect that Yasmine drew the short straw to climb the ladder to write out the offering.

Dinner

Week 1′s inaugural menu consisted of:

• ceviche de thon
• soupe froide de mais
• salade de jicama et tomates
• carpaccio de canard
• filet mignon
• omble de l’artique et caviar (uh, I think that should be omble chevalier)
• pétoncles  pôelés
• risotto aux crevettes
• gateau chocolat, glace dulce de leche
• peches caramelisees, mousse orange/fenouil

So: four starters (ceviche, soup, salad, duck), four mains (beef, fish, scallops, shrimp/risotto), two desserts. Small to keep things manageable but pretty fancy (at least for that part of Ahuntsic) and somewhat surprising in terms of its use of some pretty expensive ingredients on launch menu (filet, scallops and tuna don’t grow on trees). Well, if you’re going to launch, put out your best.

I went for the following:

Carpaccio de canard (panais, amarillo, gingembre): that’s the description that was listed on the board. Little surprised to see parsnip since I equate the things with an autumn/winter offering, but I’ll get to it as it served a purpose. I thought this was the best dish of the evening. The parsnip was served warm as a rough purée (I got an intact parsnip tip that was either intentionally included or managed to escape the food mill – textural element I guess) and were overlaid with slices of very rare seared duck which had been sauced with the aji amarillo and ginger sauce. So, the duck warms up and cooks a bit more from the heat of the parsnip, and stays cool but cooks from the acid of the aji amarillo sauce. Microsprouts, edible flowers, haricots verts and lightly-pickled onions and brussel sprout leaves (the man loves his brussel sprouts) finished dressing the plate. So, we have a plate that has sweet (parsnip), savory (duck), acid (onions, sprouts, aji amarillo) and spicy (aji amarillo). I recognize all of Mario’s Nuevo Latino influences but there’s a Vietnamese intellectual twist here.

Risotto aux crevettes (persil, parmesan): a spicy surprise with grey shrimp, parsley oil, shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano and vegetables; I’ve included a photo of Mario spending the 20-odd minutes stirring the rice to make the risotto from scratch. The rice still retained a nice bite to them and the overall dish had the desired creamy unctuous cheesy consistency expected of a risotto. The dish arrived with the grey shrimp finishing off their cooking from heat of the rice; they were sweet and had that nice underlying umami. The same brussel sprouts are intended to help cut some of the richness but I’m not convinced they were necessary here. The spicy surprise? Chile has been added to it, which gives a slightly tingly aftertaste. This was the dish to order for those with really big appetites: the portion size was very generous in terms of the amount of risotto, the shrimp and the shavings of cheese.

Omble de l’artique et caviar (quinoa, avocat, encre): A nice piece of fish and a fish that I’ve been playing with. The fish arrived with a nice crispy skin that carried a slight buttery taste, and the fish itself was cooked to a nice medium which retained the delicate nature of the char. Nice fluffy quinoa, and textural and savory elements from the mullet roe, the avocado (guacamole) quenelle and the vegetables. As I said, the man loves his brussel sprouts and they’re on the fish as well, but they do work well here as the acid brightens the fish. I would have liked to have just a bit more of the broken ink vinaigrette because that really boosted the savoriness of the dish.

Soupe froide de mais (chair de crabe, pdt): I didn’t eat this but I mention it because I actually wanted to have this for dessert (it’s cold and savory). Unfortunately, they ran out. Boo… hiss… Them’s the breaks of cuisine du marché as the style generally implies limited quantities of everything and it’s not like I identified my dessert selection when Rodrigo took my order. I should have though, as I heard it was really good.

Pêches caramelisées, mousse orange/fenouil: The dessert that I wound up going – slices of caramelised peaches nestled underneath a foam of orange and fennel. Peaches are in season so always a good thing when it comes to market cuisine. Never would have thought that orange and fennel would work together but they kept it in check and it was primarily orange with an anise-y aftertaste. The slivered almonds and filberts added crunch and structure to what would have otherwise been a glass of squishy-soft and liquid.

Wine

Like the other two restaurants, the list is predominantly South American (mostly Argentine) but there are also two reds from Spain and Australia (!) makes an appearance with Yalumba’s Viognier and a Pinot Noir from Scotchman Hills. Reds and whites are available by the glass, but one has to ask what’s currently on offer since that’s not listed on the list. Pommery’s single-serving Pop! also made the list here, so I’ll have to tell them ahead of time to have a silly straw available if Ronny wants to go on her next trip to Montréal.

The house cocktail remains the pisco sour. I declined as I’ve been staying away from pisco since that unfortunate evening with the Colombians and the Peruvians a few years back in Bahia.

I think the list is going to change fairly quickly as they received their liquor license a few hours before opening night. I don’t know what the list will ultimately look like but as À Table deviates more from Nuevo Latino than Madre does, I expect it to eventually offer more regions but not necessarily a whole lot of private imports.

I would have liked to have a Grüner Veltliner since those pair with almost everything and have a nice crispness for summer, but went with a servicable Santa Julia Chardonnay.

Impressions

I have to admit that I’m somewhat of a masochist when it comes to restaurant openings. There’s always something that isn’t quite ready: at Pintxo (day 7) it was the menu and very shaky service, at Madre (day 3) the tables weren’t ready yet and the wine offerings can be charitably described as ”anything palatable we could grab at the Masson SAQ because the liquor license arrived 10 minutes before close” (and that on the day I showed to boot), and that steakhouse in Collingswood (11 days)… it was everything. I elected to risk another opening as I knew that Mario was going to be overseeing the kickoff and wanted to have him tell me his vision and expectations of the new eatery.

Going on day 2 had me dodge one major bullet – the air conditioning was installed and working whereas it hadn’t been fully operational on opening night. I felt this launch was smoother than Madre’s and most things will eventually iron out as they settle in. About the only two things apart from the weather than hampered them on day 2 were:

• no oven – they opened without yet receiving their oven, which isn’t a bad thing given this summer’s hot/humid nature; the flip side is that their own sweet potato rolls won’t be available until it’s installed
• coffee; they’ll need to work on that

That aside, once they get comfortable with the new layout, learn the idiosyncrasies of the neighborhood clientele and figure out what will work best from the market for the neighborhood, I anticipate good things for them, likely to the point where getting a table as a walk-up will probably only work on Tuesdays (so sue me for being lazy and not wanting to call in for a reservation).

What’s going to be of particular interest is Rodrigo Flores, who is tabbed to helm the restaurant. This kid cooks very well, and has demonstrated his ability to handle pressure at both Raza and Madre. While his immediate professional culinary influences have come from Mario’s Nuevo Latino references, his familial background is Mexico and Catalunya. I am hoping that he will bring in Mexican and Catalan elements into his offerings as he further develops À Table.

Successful launch, and people will go, but now the next question for me becomes, will LC uh, “borrow” my Québeçois Latino opening line for her column?

Called “À Table”, it’s a bit of a departure for him as it’s not focused on Nuevo Latino cuisine as his first two establishments are in that the eatery will offer a mix of “cuisine du marché” and “group classics”. It also seems to be borrowing a page from David Chang’s Momofuku ko in that the kitchen brigade will also do service.

Okay. “Québeçois Latino” without waiters. This should be interesting.

A nice break last night from all the reading on primate feeding requirements. They (the staff at the restaurant, not the primates) also make a pretty good chicken wing.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much as the previous night to this dinner had me floating between tables while people shouted “Bam!” around me. However, I figured that that going to a restaurant and actually having a meal was a definite improvement over going to a restaurant and having only ice cubes. Mmm…

But I digress: back to the Commander’s Palace. Touted as one of NOLA’s best restaurants with inventive cooking and the like, we decided that it would be a nice place to end our time in Louisiana. Too bad that a lot of other people had the same idea, but thanks to a little bit of help we snagged a table for 8 at their 9:00 pm service. If this was Spain, it would have been an early dinner, but fairly late after the previous night’s Emeril excursion. After a slight crush that passed as a cab ride through some of the swankier neighborhoods of NOLA, we arrived at stately Wayne Manor the Commander’s Palace.

The dining room is full of plaster songbirds which look anatomically correct, and has the air of a classic old-style dining room with the wallpaper and carpeting and so forth. Our table for 8 turns out to be a round one which would normally seat six comfortably, but we squeeze in anyway because it’s going to be a fun evening. No sign of the other team as we realize that they’re likely seated in the upper chamber(s), which has a well, “colorful” history.

The meal

The wait staff must be tired because they come by within 1 minutes of seating to ask if we’re ready to order. Order? I haven’t even seen the wine list. After brushing them off a couple of times, the service team backs off and leaves us to consider the menu at our own pace. Lots of push for “special” bread pudding and a Jack Daniels soufflé (both requiring advanced prep time). Nothing really leapt out at me and as I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted, I elected for:

Shrimp and Tasso Henican (Louisiana wild white shrimp, Crystal hot sauce, pickled okra and five pepper jelly); this was somewhat odd. I didn’t mind the sliminess of the sauce as the peppery kick was there but it was offset by too much vinegar. The three shrimp also had the funky chemical smell one associates with poorly-kept commercially-processed frozen seafood, which is somewhat odd as Louisiana is supposed to be famous for fresh seafood. The okra was nice but ultimately somewhat of a miss.

Soft-shell crab (soft shell crab with lump crab meat, arugula salad and a light vinaigrette): the blue crabs are bigger than the ones I normally get. The crab itself was lightly battered with a flour dredging and had an interesting textural counterpoint to the lump crab, and I found that the remoulade was better with the soft-shell than the lump. All in all, this was quite pleasant and worked nicely with the remnants of the Riesling I had in glass. Didn’t match the Pinot Noir at all.

Butter Boy was with me at dinner and he had a crawfish maque choux; I think he liked it, though I’m fairly certain he would have enjoyed a bit more crawfish.

I think one person ordered a bread pudding (too sweet) and I saw several of the soufflés, which were deemed excellent. I skipped dessert.
 

The wines

The CP actually has a very large wine list that’s quite deep in primarily French and Napa offerings but they haven’t ignored other regions including Oceania, Spain, Italy, Germany and Austria. The list itself comes in a three-ring binder, which is great for updates, but not so great to flip through in the humidity (moist paper). When digging further into their offers, I began to notice a few things: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti? Sure, it’s there: $2700 for the 2007 (ouch! infanticide at a high price). Lots of 2003 and 2004 (not so hot vintages). Big name bottles but almost all from lesser vintages, and very few bargains as commodity wines had a 3-4x markup.

2006 Weingut Holzapfel Grüner Veltliner Federspiel Achleiten: a nice crisp if somewhat straighforward GV. Nice start to the evening as an apéro.

2007 F.X. Pichler Dürnsteiner Hollerin: a beautiful golden-colored floral Smaragd Riesling with a great balance between honey and acidity. Best bottle of the night and something I’d buy for the cellar: I would have been happy spending the night drinking this and skipping the meal.

2006 Kasuari Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir: I was sorry. I actually wanted something from Bourgogne, but as above most of it was over-priced or out of my allotted price range so a sommelier’s recommendation was required as most of their Californian offerings were not known to me. This was was described as a wine with moderate extraction and a nice balance between acid and fruit which was reminiscent of the Cotes de Beaune. Kasuari turned out to be disjointed high-alcohol pap which smelled and tasted initially of 2×4. After it aerated in glass for 10 minutes (after being decanted to boot), it retained that taste of wood, followed briefly with a hit of cherry cough syrup, then nothing but alcoholic heat. Okay, so I made the wine steward cry, but if this is what the CP’s sommelier thinks is a Beaune-style Pinot, they should start looking for a new sommelier. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that he was personally insulted when I told him that the wine isn’t like anything from Beaune, but his palate’s (considerably more than) a little suspect here.

Impressions

In hindsight, I should have insisted on going to Cochon.

For the cost of the meal, the Commander’s Palace left me wanting. Why? The food. My meal was flawed. In hindsight, everyone’s meal was flawed: . Not sure as to whether it had to do with being the last service, knowing the meeting participants were in town, or just that the brigade was having a bad night, but it didn’t quite reach what we had as expectations. Service was pretty good but restaurants are judged by their food and everyone found flaws with some parts of their meal. Unfortunately,  the sommelier’s little hissy was a detractor for me to be fully comfortable in. Big swing and a miss!

Le Club in San Francisco’s Nob Hill district is relaunching its restaurant and it’s my pal Amy who’s leading the culinary charge as its new Chef de cuisine. Woohoo! Serious props to her.

You have to go.