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“Bistro du Vent-- Closed”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	French	Midtown	Moderate	Great

e said, “Before dinner, you drink a Kir. Wine is only ordered when you sit down at your table.” Oh dear, I was so gauche. This was the first of many Paris lessons I would learn that weekend. Others included: smoke everywhere (a problem since I don’t smoke); drink coffee everywhere (a problem because I was not used to French coffee); and don’t smile anywhere (a problem because I tend to smile when I am happy, and I was very happy in Paris.) To sum up, I was a complete and utter failure as a French person.

Anyway, back at the bar Bistro du Vent in New York City, I knew better than to order a glass of wine, and instead, ordered a blackberry Kir. My friend Janet, a super fit Exhale junkie who practices Core Fusion and lives on fruit shakes, ordered the peach. She tasted hers, while eying my pitcher of blackberry syrup. After a second or two she reached over and swiped my pitcher of blackberry, and said, “I am think I am going to make a Kir smoothie,” as she drizzled the rest of my dark fruit syrup into her peach Kir Royale. Clever. And actually it was pretty good. Go on. Order them all and make your own boozie smoothie. Have fun. It’s allowed.

Once we sat down to dinner at our table, we moved onto wine, and while the list of bottles is terrific, Bistro du Vent also has such a nice selection of reasonably priced pichets (think quartino’s but French, $8-$12), and we went for a couple of these. As we were deciding what to order from a menu of dishes that all sounded great—Housemade Berkshire Sausage with Pistachios, Madeira, and Lentils du Puy ($14), Cod Caked with Brased Greens, Anchovy, Egg and Breadcrumbs ($17), Spit-Roasted Pork Loin with Galic, Cloves, Long Pepper and green Peppercorn Jus ($20)—I looked around the dining room, at tables of friends, dates, and colleagues digging into thick juicy steaks, bronze-skinned chickens, tufted salads of frisee au lardons, and teetering piles of crisp golden frites. As their meals went by, the divine guilty pleasure aroma of just fried potatoes hung heavy in the air—forget perfume, bottle that—and my stomach started to growl. This place was making me hungry.

We started our meal with Boudin Blanc ($8)— housemade chicken and sweetbread sausage served with sauerkraut and a caddy of mustards and cornichons. The fat link had a nice snap on the outside, and while it was a tad too soft on the inside for my taste, it took ... [more, click below]

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Posted: February 13, 2005

Other restaurants in Midtown :
+ Lever House   + Aquavit   + RM   + Joseph's (formerly Citarella The Restaurant)   + Town   + Artisanal   + The Oyster Bar   + Geisha   + David Burke and Donatella Restaurant   + Riingo   + Amma   + Cafe Sabarsky   + The Stone Rose Lounge   + BLT Steak   + V, The Steakhouse-- Closed   + Bar Masa   + Cafe Gray   + The Bar Room at The Modern   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + The Cafe at Aquavit   + Bistro du Vent-- Closed   + Shaburi   + Xing   + The Modern   + Bar Americain   + Alto   + Park Blue   + Mainland-- Closed   + Nobu 57   + Quality Meats   + Dona-- CLOSED   + Daisy May's   + 7Square-- CLOSED   + Amalia   + Fireside   + Anthos   + Patroon   + BLT Market   + Toloache   + Mia Dona   + Park Avenue Summer   + Convivio   + The Oak Room by guest reviewer Julie Besonen   + At Vermilion by guest reviewer Elaine Weiner   + Lunching at Inakaya, by guest reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Marea, by Guest Reviewer Susan Kane Walkush   + Le Bernardin   + New York Central -- A Reason To Eat at the Grand Hyatt Again   + Pampano Botaneria by Dara Pollak   

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