At Eater, our jobs leave us with some leftovers, both literal and figurative. Here’s a mix of recent dining observations, recommendations, and other fixations from across the Eater crew. |
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This week, I made up for missing chef Gregory Gourdet’s Kann when I was in Portland, Oregon last year. A friend invited me to join her for a press dinner at Maison Passerelle, Gourdet’s newer French-diaspora restaurant in the New York City outpost of Parisian department store Printemps. At first, it felt almost too fancy to me: I entered through the side entrance by accident, and getting to the restaurant required walking through a room full of shoes I deemed too expensive to even bother picking up, followed by passing through a very swanky bar. But any assumption of stuffiness was immediately dispelled by the service, which was warm and welcoming, with a sommelier who hyped up wines like we were just knocking back glasses in a Brooklyn backyard and not in a corporate-card-worthy Wall Street restaurant.
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Photo credit: Bettina Makalintal |
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I loved the two-butter situation that came with the plantain bread (one cultured and salted, the other herbed and plant-based), and was made a believer in raw asparagus salad thanks to its light dressing of Haitian epis and mustard, which allowed puffed rice to cling to it for a really fun interplay of textures. But I especially loved the duck, which was served two ways. The breast was seared, its skin glazed and cooked until slightly puffed up and pork-rind crispy. Next to it was a meltingly tender confit leg. A tableside pour of tamarind jus added theatrics that felt fitting for the ornate space, while the side of pikliz, rice, and beans served as a reminder that Haiti is part of the French diaspora. Not a lot gets me to the Financial District in my recreational time, but I could be convinced again.
Francky Knapp is still thinking about the pissaladière she ate at NYC’s Schmuck during a recent pop-up featuring Paris’ Le Cornichon: “This pissaladière — a staple of Southern French cooking — had a slightly crispy, dense pastry base that was topped with slow-cooked onions, anchovies (that looked, to me, as if they were in a conga line), black olives, and touches of rosemary. It was jammy, rich, and somehow nostalgic, making me miss the Nice pied-à-terre that I never had.”
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Photo credit: Hilary Pollack |
Hilary Pollack enjoyed whimsical Italian food fit for a princess: “When I received an invite to try ‘medieval Tuscan fairy-core cooking’ at Elisa Da Prato’s new restaurant residency, Da Prato Ristorante & Supper Club, in downtown Los Angeles, I was immediately intrigued. But Da Prato’s beautiful food delivered on that description: a gleaming honeycomb basking in olive oil, topped with delicate herbs; pea shoot salad crowned in corn-husk hair and edible flowers; rabbit studded with olives and sweet, tender onions; and painterly apple- and ricotta-filled ravioli dusted with cocoa powder. The space is airy and accented with gorgeous flower arrangements by cool-girl florist Brittany Asch, and chef Da Prato sat with us during our pasta course and told us stories about how she integrates family recipes and nostalgic flourishes into her cooking, which you can really taste and feel. In a city where many new restaurants feel algorithm-driven and almost corporate, Da Prato was an exciting antidote.”
Lesley Suter spent Memorial Day weekend camping in Joshua Tree National Park: “During the ‘too hot to hike’ hours of 1 to 4 p.m., we drove into the nearby, freshly buzzing high-desert town of Twentynine Palms to poke around some of the many new businesses, including a must-visit psychedelic escape room called Hi-Orbit, and our lunch stop, Grnd Sqrl. The taproom and restaurant pours a massive selection of beers (bonus points for offering perfectly tiny 7-ounce pours small enough to keep you in shape for that sunset hike), and a better-than-it-needs-to-be menu with plenty for desert rats and city slickers alike: burgers, barbecue sandwiches, and three flavors of chicken wings, but also falafel, housemade pickles, and a full array of gluten-free options. We stopped by the 29 Palms Beer Company a few doors down and grabbed a growler of the Jelly Donut peach sour to take back to the campfire.”
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Photo credit: Nadia Chaudhury |
Nadia Chaudhury was impressed by the Salt Lake City taco scene: “While in Utah for what I think is one of the best music festivals in the country (ILU Kilby Block Party), my husband and I had really fantastic tacos twice. First, we stopped by a restaurant within a location of Hispanic supermarket chain Rancho Markets. I got a barbacoa taco (typically one of my go-to choices), which was made with incredibly tender beef, and the taco gobernador, a huge fried taco filled with buttery shrimp and melty cheese. I mix-and-matched the salsas for added spice and brightness. For another lunch, we got takeout from Taqueria Familiar, from where I had THE ideal pollo taco. I truly didn’t know Salt Lake City’s taco game was that good.”
Kaitlin Bray took a trip to Seattle: “Any time I’m in Seattle, Le Pichet is a mandatory stop. I’ve enjoyed numerous languid lunches at the beloved French bistro, so I recently tried my luck at dinner. Without a reservation, it wasn’t in the cards, even on a Monday night. But I circled back the following day for lunch and scored the front window banquette. Sipping on a Calvados and tonic in between bites of little gems dressed with a pitch-perfect anchovy vinaigrette, I felt transported much further afield than I actually was from my home in Portland, Oregon. Do not skip the house-made pork rillettes or the jambon de Bayonne, an air-dried ham from France’s Basque Country.” (Le Pichet is one of our favorite restaurants near the famous Pike Place Market; bookmark it, and our other picks, on the Eater app.)
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