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“James”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Brooklyn	Moderate	Good

with a lovely low-lit bar outfitted with burnished mirrors, antique glassware and a list of carefully made fresh juice cocktails.

The dining room offers authentic tin ceilings, rough hewn raw brick walls, and bare wood floors, with black leather button-tufted banquettes and a row of tables for two assembled under the striking chandelier centerpiece. Servers are attentive and friendly. They’re dressed neatly in black and have a distinguished air of old school hospitality and style about them. I half expected to be called Madam. There’s no
“How ya doin’? Whadaya want?” here. The servers here are adults and take their role in your dining experience seriously. The effect is quite nice—you feel taken care of.

The kitchen also approaches its role as feeder of guests with an expected amount of integrity and earnestness. For a modest neighborhood establishment, James out does itself. There’s a small menu of seven apps and as many that’s new American in style: a Peeytoe crab cake with smoked mango puree ($16), crispy sweetbreads with Hubbard squash, truffled and a port wine reduction ($12), a plump pan-roasted chicken balanced atop of a mountain of chanterelles, spaghetti squash and spinach ($21), a shell steak with roasted marrow bone in a sauce au poivre with Swiss chard ($29).

With our drinks (the maple, rum and lime cocktail is a great one), we were served a bowl of sliced grilled bread and a tiny pot of butter, which was softened at room temperature, not ice cold. It’s a small point, but it’s one of my pet peeves to be served butter that’s ice cold. How are you supposed to use that? It should be room temperature.

We started with an heirloom tomato salad ($11), a surprise to see on the menu in October. I figured we’d take advantage of the last of the season’s fruit because I’d be surprised to see it still on the menu after this week. The yellow and red tomatoes (juicy and sweet) are sliced in circles, layered up on top of one another like a tomato Lego set, and crowned with basil. While the tomatoes did their job, the menu indicated that they would be served with a warm chevre fondue, but what this turns out to be is a tepid and watery cheese soup that’s neither warm nor fondue like, and that’s where the disappointment lies. How I was craving a nice warm cheese puddle, but instead just a cool cheese soup.
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Posted: October 19, 2008

Other restaurants in Brooklyn :
+ Chickenbone Cafe-- Closed   + Pier 116-- Closed   + Chestnut   + Lunch at Peter Luger's   + 360   + Palo Santo   + The Good Fork   + Porchetta-- Closed Now   + Bocca Lupo   + Flatbush Farm   + DuMont Burger   + Dressler   + Farm on Adderley   + The Grocery   + Saul   + Black Mountain Wine House   + The General Greene   + Char No. 4   + James   + Chestnut   + No. 7   + Vinegar Hill House   + Motorino   + Buttermilk Channel   + Buttermilk Channel   + Vutera   + Watty & Meg    + Prime Meats   + Aqualis Grill   + Jack the Horse Tavern   + Roman's   + Fatty 'Cue   + Thistle Hill Tavern   + Broken English   + Trix, by Dara Pollak   + An Ode to New Orleans in Williamsburg: Maison Premiere, By Dara Pollak   + Brooklyn Wok Shop by Dara Pollak   + Arthur on Smith   + La Vara   + Gran Electrica   + Pok Pok Ny   + Ganso    + Reynard   

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