Boulud Sud

Had a lovely date with my husband at the newly opened, Mediterranean-fare-focused Boulud Sud.

The ambience was light and lively, despite my husband's observation that the clientele appeared to be skewed fairly far toward the upper end of the age range. To my right was a couple that fit that demographic. I found their interaction quite bittersweet, as I watched the husband pull himself out of his chair, amble over to his wife, and carefully tug at the sleeves of her sweater since she couldn't quite take her sweater off herself. I actually ended up having quite an extensive conversation with the wife, which included her mentioning her seven children (though not all hers), her fear of her grandchild being brainwashed in a year spent in Isreal, and her utter shock at my name because "That's not a Chinese name!"

On to the food. The food was fresh and well-prepared, and the menu was quite extensive, as you could choose from De La Mer (from the sea), Du Jardin (from the garden), or De La Ferme (from the farm?), and from each you could choose small plates to share, appetizers, and entrees. We opted for the fried artichokes to share (who can resist fried things?), which were delightfully crispy and airy, and came with a yummy garlic aioli. We made the waiters leave the aioli on the table after we'd finished the artichokes so we could dip our bread in it, too. BTW, the bread assortment is delicious! Various focaccia and "flatbread", which the husband and I both thought had exactly the consistency of 蔥油餅 (scallion pancakes). Yummy.

For our entree we had the Salt-Baked Loup De Mer (for two), wrapped in grape leaves and topped with a sauce vierge. Masterfully presented in a... coffin of salt (need a more appealing word than coffin) and then whisked away to be individually plated. The fish itself was moist and delicious but the flavors were subdued - mostly olive oil and just a hint of the grape leaf flavor - and perhaps it was missing just a bit of oomph.

Also ordered a side of roasted beets (with pistachio mousse). Can't go wrong with roasted beets. Is it strange that I've also seen roasted beets with pistachio mousse on other menus? Are beets : pistachios :: bananas : chocolate? In any case, delicious.

Untitled

Danny Meyer's recently opened restaurant in the Whitney Museum on the UES is summery, semi-family-style (entrees are the only items served in individual portions), friendly and delicious. We ate an early dinner (6pm, since that's when the museum closes and we decided to tour the museum beforehand) and had the entire place to ourselves for about an hour.

A Danny Meyer restaurant and an entire kitchen staff and wait staff all to myself! My husband and I whispered about the place needing better marketing as we chomped on our amuse bouche of fresh summer vegetables (initially thought to be the healthy replacement for fresh bread, but we were greeted by warm puffed wheat bread AND minted chickpea crostinis shortly thereafter).

Below you will see: the perfect summer salad. Grilled zucchini with charcoal-flavored sears hinted at summers long past spent in the backyard with smoke billowing from the family grill. Fregola (think big couscous) and cubes of feta on top of the bed of arugula with lemon-basil vinaigrette made for a substantive, yet light, delicious salad. I'm inspired to also add couscous to my salads in the future.

As our main courses we ordered swordfish (me) and pork meatballs (husband). The meatballs were the winner of the night's battle-of-the-entrees. They came with sides of creamy polenta and swiss chard with raisins and pine nuts. And we finished the night with some delicious stumptown banana bread pudding, which had a delightful hit of espresso and a lovely understated banana flavor.

Untitled, I loved your $46 prix fixe, I loved your family-style food presentation and I loved your food. I hope that one day your space will overflow with patrons, while I continue to remember the day I had a Danny Meyer restaurant all to myself.