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“Bacaro/Smith & Mills”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Italian	Tribeca	Moderate	Good

If you're hungry, the menu offers salads, oysters (on the half shall and in a pan roast, $12) to start, a section called relishes that are more like small plates-leeks vinaigrette ($6), crunchy hominy ($4), and olives with ricotta salata ($6), and entrees like cassoulet ($19) for dinner, that are all prepped downstairs and prepared to order in the small open kitchen behind the bar.

After our drinks (they go down quick and easy), we had a couple of glasses of wine (a Gruner Veltliner and a Chinon) served in wide tumblers, and the house-cured salmon with fennel salad, capers, horseradish with thick slices of soft black bread from Tom Cat ($13), along with a salad of Bibb lettuces tossed with chunks of roasted butternut squash, toasted pine nuts and Parmesan in a pumpkin seed vinaigrette ($10). The salmon was a nice way to start, though it was cut in slices that could have been thinner and was slapped with horseradish instead of perhaps a lighter stroke. We also enjoyed the Bibb salad but agreed that the vinaigrette was all about the vinegar and was eye-wateringly sharp.

We also shared a crock of cassoulet, stocked up with duck confit pulled from the bone, coins of sausage, and hunks of pancetta, scattered over the top with crunchy layer of spicy bread crumbs. The cassoulet was the right remedy for the frigid weather, though truth be told it reminded me more of my grandmother's cholent than a cassoulet. Anybody here ever have cholent? If you had, you'd remember. It can stay with you (and god save anyone seated next to you a few hours later.) It's a slow-cooked stew of assorted beans, beef shanks, marrow, neck bones and more beans, set in a crock pot on the stove over low heat for the hours and hours on the Sabbath. By the end of the day it all sort of comes together into quite a sturdy stew that's similar to cassoulet, but a bit more heavy and beany. So I guess I feel like while the cassoulet at Smith & Mills tasted great, it should've been called cholent. Hey, chopped liver, er, chicken liver paté, jumped over to hipster-ville, why not cholent? Indeed.

When we scraped the last bits of our "cassoulet" from its white ceramic bowl, we had to be on our way. We had one more place to check out for the story and so our time at Smith & Mills was coming to a close. What a bummer. I would've stayed all night. I have to say I was completely charmed by the place. The service is friendly and very a ... [more, click below]

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Posted: January 7, 2008

Other restaurants in Tribeca :
+ Lunchbox Food Company--Closed   + 66: THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED   + Ola-- Closed   + Bouley   + Dominic   + Landmarc   + Pace-- Closed   + EN Japanese Brasserie   + Centrico   + Cercle Rouge   + The Harrison   + Turks & Frogs Tribeca   + Devin Tavern   + Dani-- Closed Now   + Bacaro/Smith & Mills   + The Harrison   + Matsugen, By Guest Reviewer Kathleen Squires   + Forge   + Macao Trading Company   + Harbour   + Review text tbd...   + Mehtaphor   + Brushstroke   + Jung Sik   

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