Trev's Bistro

The Bites of Bliss: Taste Sensations to Remember From End of May in San Francisco and New Orleans

Cioppino, po boys, bananas foster…it doesn’t get much better than dining in San Francisco or New Orleans. O.k., it’s easy to eat decently in both cities with a little research. It’s also very easy to have a tourist trap meal you’ll remember for all the wrong reasons.

These bites are the ones that prove San Francisco and New Orleans are some of the world’s great gastronomic cities. If only I could provide the jazz and fog to each picture for a truly authentic atmosphere.

Cioppino, Pesce, San Francisco

I mean it when I say this is the best cioppino in San Francisco, a city known for the Italian fish stew that has far more worthless renditions of the stew than it should. Pesce’s version is thicker, almost a spicy tomato saffron puree, and enhanced by cubes of polenta with the seafood.

Warm Apricot Bread Pudding and Vanilla Gelato with glass of Housemade Limoncello

Warm Apricot Bread Pudding and Vanilla Gelato, Pesce, San Francisco

It’s hard to pick which is the better dessert. Luckily, they come together for a magical tandem of luscious, melting, sweet bread pudding, and the smoothest of gelato that sings of vanilla bean.Continue reading “The Bites of Bliss: Taste Sensations to Remember From End of May in San Francisco and New Orleans”

Quick Weekend Wrap- From New Orleans Espresso to San Francisco Cicchetti

Next week we’ll finish our visit to New Orleans, including a look at the greatest oysters and slice of cake to be found. Yes, po boys, Commander’s Palace, and a 1 am visit to Café du Monde will be on the agenda. We’ll also be back to the more normal programming schedule with each week’s features returning to their usual time slot.

Velvet Coffee Shop, New Orleans

Unlike recent destinations of Portland and Seattle where nearly every café roasts their own coffee beans or at least serves beans from local micro roasters, New Orleans isn’t too focused on coffee, and certainly on roasting its own beans. A café du lait at Café du Monde or iced coffee at a ubiquitous P.J.’s or Community Coffee is roughly the extent of coffee culture in the Big Easy.

Except at a tiny yellow house Uptown along a boutique and gallery filled gentrified stretch of Magazine Street, a neighborhood exemplified by the mammoth Whole Foods Market across the street. Inside that tiny yellow house resides Velvet, an excellent coffee and artisan teacakes shop that barely can squeeze four customers inside and has a barista area that takes up half of the quaint interior.

Dominated by a painting of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter staring at you as you order a spanish latté, Velvet is a little slice of the third wave coffee generation that has swept across the country much the same way local, organic, seasonal cooking and artisan mixologist cocktails have.

Continue reading “Quick Weekend Wrap- From New Orleans Espresso to San Francisco Cicchetti”

Restaurants: Emeril’s, New Orleans

“Bam!” “Kick it up a notch!” With those famed catchphrases, even passive television viewers who never cook and put no thought into where they dine out know who is being referred to. Julia Child made cooking shows on television watchable. Emeril Lagasse, forgive the expression, kicked the subject of cooking shows on television up a whole additional notch, into what many considered a bonafide primetime television program. Audiences started going crazy over a decade ago watching cooking as entertainment, before it became an entire genre of programming thanks to Emeril and later the Japanese import “Iron Chef” (then “The Next Iron Chef” and every other of the hundreds of cooking reality shows and competitions today…).

No sous chef joined Emeril for the cooking. He didn’t need one. At least a band accompanied the chef/host like Paul Shaffer for David Letterman. The band would specialize in jazz, the music genre that is most often heard at restaurants because it can be a musical version of wallpaper, and of course since Emeril is a New Orleans native, what better music to spice up his Creole and Cajun cuisine than the music that is as synonymous with the Big Easy as gumbo.

Not only did Emeril make the Food Network into a relevant cable network much like “Sportscenter” for ESPN, he became a crossover superstar to network television, appearing almost as often on ABC’s “Good Morning America” as Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson seemed to.

In its 10th annual restaurant issue in September of 2003, Bon Appétit Magazine referred to Emeril Lagasse’s legacy as having “brought a sense of adventure to the kitchen, inspiring viewers to try new things and season boldly. Besides sparking an interest in cooking, he has made “Bam!” a household word.”

Even when you are cooking at home and decide to throw into the pot that additional dash of cayenne pepper, that’s because of Emeril. Those chefs looking to branch out to your television or your supermarket aisle after cooking for years in intense restaurant kitchens, that’s because of Emeril. The fact that the foodie community rolls their eyes every time another successful restaurant chefs branches out with another restaurant, yet spends more in the green room of a television studio than the kitchen of a restaurant, that’s because of Emeril.Continue reading “Restaurants: Emeril’s, New Orleans”

Cocktails of the Week: The Bandito and The Arrow in the Gale from Cure, New Orleans

On the left is The Arrow in the Gale, on the right is The Bandito

The first two nights of cocktails in New Orleans was rough. Not rough in a sick, too many hurricanes on Bourbon Street way. Rough because destination classic cocktail bar after destination classic cocktail bar that we purposely seeked out crafted some of the most lackluster cocktails I have encountered from supposedly reputable bars.

We needed a remedy fast. The first hint that Cure would be the cocktail cure: get away from the French Quarter. Next, this is the domain of bartenders who cater to drinkers who truly want crafted cocktails, not just some rendition of a sazerac or a Ramos gin fizz, or the bane of cocktailian culture, the hurricane.

Far, far away from the cocktail nightmare that is Bourbon Street, in the up and coming, mostly residential Uptown neighborhood, Cure is a calm oasis of cocktail, and for that matter, bar perfection. Started a few years before the recent rush of “craft mixology” cocktail bars, Cure is the rare cocktail bar where it has received numerous national accolades, and yet still delivers some of the finest, most thoughtful cocktails you will ever drink, along with a friendliness that makes Cure feel like a bar that just opened and is trying to create a fan base. Somehow, the place was nearly empty on Memorial Day evening. What, people do barbeques or something like that instead of have a world class cocktails?Continue reading “Cocktails of the Week: The Bandito and The Arrow in the Gale from Cure, New Orleans”

Wine of the Week: 2009 Sfuso Verdicchio from Scarpetta Wine

The Sfuso Verdicchio would be the white between the glass and bottle of Scarpetta’s Barbera

Scarpetta is the combined winemaking project in Fruili, the terrific wine growing region of Northeast Italy near Venice that is the domain of Pinot grigio, of master sommelier Bobby Stuckey and chef Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, the co-owners of the sensation Boulder, Colorado gastronomic restaurant Frasca Food and Wine, and its sibling pizzeria offshoot Pizzeria Locale.

The two are fervent fans of the Fruili terroir and its bright, minerally, citrus balanced whites, so it was a natural to look towards Fruili when they decided to collaborate on an ensemble label. Of course you can sample their Pinot grigio, Barbera, and other wines at their restaurants. Since it’s now June, the season for crisp, refreshing whites, I can’t recommend enough the Sfuso Verdicchio they have crafted. Too often Italian whites, including Verdicchio, become too acidic or overemphasize their mineral base. Not the case here. Tangerine and walnut notes follow a bright, slightly tart nose, leading to a beautifully floral, pleasant as a summer picnic wine. Enjoy it at that picnic, as an apértif, or better yet, with the sensational corn and prosciutto pizza, by the glass or bottle, at Pizzeria Locale. Don’t even think about passing up the gelato for dessert either, though that wouldn’t be the greatest match for the Verdicchio.

Beer of the Week: Hopitoulas IPA from NOLA Brewing, New Orleans

As challenging as finding a worthwhile cocktail was in New Orleans at a bar not named Cure of affiliated with Cure, finding a beer close to enjoyable was even more daunting. Every choice from Abita, the beloved Louisiana craft brewer, was an embarrassment except for the at least drinkable Restoration Pale Ale when on draft. The Bayou Tèche LA-31 Pale Ale had potential, though never was of a caliber worth seeking out.

Enjoying lunch at Cochon, the excellent pork-centric Warehouse district domain of Donald Link, the NOLA Brewing Co.’s Hopitoulas IPA finally struck a chord. A perfect west coast style, hop heavy without venturing towards imperial IPA territory, the Hopitoulas boasts a beautiful golden hue, crowned with a thicker than normal head. The start almost felt as if it was a stout. A terrific structure provides the base for pleasant forest notes, bright and citric heavy, without being too sweet or herbal in the least. At 6%, even a few of these can be enjoyed on a hut, humid Louisiana summer day, with a baseball game, or the excellent fried alligator at Cochon.

NOLA Brewing operates out of a warehouse on Tchoupitoulas (obviously the namesake for the IPA) west of Downtown along the Mississippi in an industrial area known as East Riverside. I can’t wait until Kirk Coco branches out and creates a brewpub, or at least a tasting room. The brews by brewmaster Melanie Knepp are on a different plane than anybody else in this city. The NOLA Blonde and Brown Ales came first, followed by the Hopitoulas IPA in the brewery portfolio. Intriguing special and seasonal brews such as the Flambeau Red, the Irish Channel Stout, and the Hurricane Saison are now being crafted by this very exciting, emerging young craft brewery. Don’t be surprised to see them at a boutique craft beer shop or bar near you soon.

The LA in NOLA? No, it’s not Louisiana. It’s lagers and ales! Of course you guessed that. At least I guessed the namesake for the excellent IPA correctly.

Restaurants: St. Jack, Portland, Oregon

Portland doesn’t exactly strike you initially as a petite corner of France in the Pacific Northwest. Then again, like France’s two largest cities, Paris and Lyon, Portland is divided by a central river, splitting the city into west and east, as opposed to the Left Bank and the Right Bank. Yes, Ken’s Artisan Bakery bakes some exquisite baguettes and croissants, and the nearby Willamette Valley wine region specializes in Pinot noir, a grape that is most commonly known for being used in the French wine growing region of Burgundy. The largest city in Burgundy? Lyon.

Amidst the microbreweries, coffeehouses, yoga shops, food cart pods, and what not of Southeast Division Street in Portland, there is a sliver of joie de vivre as dainty as a madeleine emerging on 21st Street, between Division and Clinton. One end is anchored by the terrific wine bar that summons its name from the Provence town known best for its summer festival, Bar Avignon, and at the Clinton end is a fervently authentic Lyonnaise bistro with a distinctly Portland voice, St. Jack. Not St. Jacques, but St. Jack. A decision worth pondering over before perusing the French heavy wine list that not surprisingly leans strongly towards Pinot noir, Gamay noir, and Rhône blends.

Just the name itself, like Le Pigeon, signals a dash of flare to go with the classic bouchon standards turned out for centuries in the city that actually is France’s culinary capital. Lyon’s gastronomic headlines may always go to the legendary Paul Bocuse, quite possibly the world’s most celebrated chef who still runs the show at his eternal Michelin three star flagship on the outskirts of Lyon. St. Jack isn’t trying to present Paul Bocuse to Portland diners. They’re aspiring for the likes of La Mère Brazier, a gastronomic destination that happens to have sausages hanging from the ceiling in place of chandeliers and sawdust on the floor instead of carpet.

St. Jack is more refined in atmosphere, with a front room that could serve as a movie set for a 1920’s Hemingway era Parisian bistro with its ardoise announcing specials, wooden tables, and zinc bar, and a back room with similar features minus the bar. On off nights it can feel a bit like Siberia to be placed in the rear. Even the entrance feels like you could be walking in after a stroll along the Saône in Lyon, arriving to tree lined residential street with a corner bistro boasting a single lamp above the door illuminated with the name “St. Jack” written on it. In a neighborhood boasting so much hip, young energy, St. Jack’s presence is a blend of the old guard with this new passion for exploring the world’s food cultures.

A meal at St. Jack is a three course affair, or four if you are inclined for cheese. Don’t try to buck the system. When I lived in France two years ago, a day didn’t go by where I didn’t meet somebody who would almost shed a tear when talking about France’s old dining standards have changed for the new, rapid, Iphone, Twitter generation.Continue reading “Restaurants: St. Jack, Portland, Oregon”

Cocktail of the Week: Heaven’s Kickback, Kask, Portland Oregon

Let’s talk about celery for a second.

Kask’s Heaven’s Kickback on the left and the Bootstrap Buck on the right

That probably lost hundreds of readers instantly.We all know about it’s bitter, funky, watery taste, along with the crunch when you bite into it, often accompanied by some shreds that get stuck between your teeth. It takes more calories to eat celery than you’ll actually consume in the celery (but it’s hard to consume much if not covered in peanut butter…). I’m no advocate for celery. I’ll eat it, I can enjoy it, but it probably is still my least favorite ingredient in the cooking world. My brother won’t even look at it. I know somebody who went so far on a lunchtime diet to have nothing but plain celery (and a piece of a fruit and a cookie).

When celery is considered in regards to cocktails, it generally revolves around the celery sticks in a Sunday morning bloody mary or celery salt on the rim of a tequila drink.

Ariana Vitale, a bartender at Kask, the tiny, handsome Alice in Wonderland meets GQ bar owned by and adjacent to big brother restaurant Grüner, has created a daring cocktail that works beautifully, because of a distinct sour element from celery bitters. The Heaven’s Kickback revolves around Peruvian Encanto pisco. Pisco is an unaged brandy, with far less of the burn associated with most brandies. It’s an excellent cocktail spirit (see all the terrific pisco punches and pisco sours of the world). Then come the sour elements of grapefruit and lemon, some floral notes of St. Germain liqueur, and then a touch of honey.

The finale is the scene stealer, the celery bitters. It’s a complex, startling drink with indeed a kick back at you from that celery, yet remains remarkably easy to drink. Served up in an elegant vintage coupe with a grapefruit twist, there you have finally a smart use of celery in an example of a perfectly balanced, unique cocktail. You’ll like it, even if you look the other way towards celery at the table.

The Cocktails of Portland– On Kask or in a Beaker and Flask

The commonly referred to trinity in drinking circles is the so called French trinity of spirits: calvados, cognac, and armagnac. Then there is the much more vague trinity that encompasses essentially the entire range of options at a bar: the cocktails, the wine, and the beer. Most cities have a real strength in one of these categories, be it New York’s dozens of craft cocktail bars, or San Diego’s shocking number of craft breweries, or San Francisco’s caliber of wine thanks to Napa and Sonoma just up the road.

It is truly startling when happy hour arrives each day in Portland and the immense number of options are set before you once again. Portland happens to be the most microbrewery rich city in the United States with upwards of 40 of them. The Rose City happens to be an hour away from Pinot noir nirvana and one of the world’s premier wine growing regions, the Willamette Valley.

The trinity is truly complete in this city. Craft cocktail bars are sprouting up everywhere now like the roses in the Test Garden in Washington Park. I didn’t sample a single cocktail that wasn’t spectacular until the very last bar. It was a streak nearly as impressive as Cal Ripkin’s consecutive games streak.Continue reading “The Cocktails of Portland– On Kask or in a Beaker and Flask”

Beer of the Week: Adam Old World Ale from Hair of the Dog, Portland, Oregon

Let’s not mess around. Adam is a serious beer. As luxurious as a truffle shaving, as powerful as a stampeding rhinoceros, as refined as the court at Versailles.

The hops are intense, yet not disturbing or obtrusive. The malts shine through glancing off the palate, then making room for a touch of floral and honey. Everything is enviably balanced and even at 10% abv, this is not knock you to the ground strong ale.

Adam would be perfect as a lingering afternoon sipper, an apertif, a digestif, or as a perfect match for a heartier meat. It really is a fine Bordeaux with the energy of a golden retriever. I’m not ashamed to say this might be the leading beer currently produced in our country.