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“Eleven Madison”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Flatiron	Break the Bank	Great

>The meal to come is a refined and lovely one. Daniel takes an elegant approach to cooking. His food, like the restaurant, is for adults. This is not to say it is boring or dull. It’s not. But it is not haphazard, or juvenile in the over-the-top way that some chefs can play things with too much flourish. It is thoughtful, and at times, impeccable.

Take the beet salad—a few cubes of sweet and earthy roasted heirloom beets in assorted colors—yellow, magenta, and pink—set up on the plate like some Mondrian painting, and then dotted with creamy bits of tangy chevre from Lynnhaven Farms. It was gorgeous in the simple freshness of its contrasting flavors. The frog legs, pulled from the bone so the meat is just sweet and tender and requires not an ounce of effort to devour, are tucked in with Oregon chanterelles and a poached egg, and hidden under a frothy cloud of vin jaune (a French wine similar to a sherry). While I liked this dish, this one was too fussy. I would skip the froth, which obscured the beauty and the taste of the poached egg and the stunning runny yolk. But I would not change one thing about the gnocchi of La Ratte potatoes—starchy French fingerlings that Daniel mills down into little potato dumplings that are pressed and lightly pan-fried so they have a slight crisped outer layer. Bite into one and you’ll find a warm steamy creamy potato filling. You’ll possibly well up with tears of joy. These heavenly buttons of potato are piled into a mound and tossed with lemon confit, and hunks of meaty, unctuous sardines, a glorious and unusual touch that adds the right contrast of oil, acid, and salt. (NOTE: These are also served at the bar. Need I say more?)

After our appetizers were cleared, a young sommelier came over to help us chose some more wine. He was tall and lean and quite well-groomed, with smooth dark hair that he had parted on the side and slicked back so that he sort of resembled Clark Kent. Steven and I were quite tipsy at this point, and tried not to imagine him in blue tights as he poured us a beautiful bottle of Burgundy for our next course—one fish and one meat. The fish was a steamed Loup de Mer that tasted nothing like a piece of steamed fish. I expected something mild, but this fish was ramped up with flavor. Possibly it was steamed in an herb salon? I also loved its accompaniments—a shower of zucchini, Meyer lemon, and the most divine addition for texture an ... [more, click below]

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Posted: October 9, 2006

Other restaurants in Flatiron :
+ Suenos   + Amuse-- Closed   + Dos Caminos   + Lucy-- Closed   + Gramercy Taver   + Veritas   + Fleur De Sel   + Bolo -- CLosed   + City Bakery   + Shake Shack   + Kalustyan's Cafe   + Devi   + BLT Fish   + Sugarcane   + BLT Prime   + Barca 18-- CLOSED   + Beppe   + Barbounia   + Boqueria   + Eleven Madison   + Lonesome Dove-- CLOSED   + Hill Country   + Olana   + Wildwood   + Primehouse   + Allegretti   + Bar Breton   + Aldea   + SD26 by Bao Ong   + ABC Kitchen   + Ciano   + The NoMad   

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