Impressive. Hard to imagine that Boulevard is nearly sixteen years old this year. I was telling our waitress how I was here twice the first week it opened as thats what I always used to do at every hot new restaurant opening. Over the years, from her humble beginning at L'Avenue, Nancy Oakes has always taken contemporary American cuisine to a new level, something truly world class.
Last night, we started with the seared sonoma foie gras which came on toasted Acme whole grain bread with vanilla sour cherries, house made root beer jelly and beer nut bon bon. It was excellent, although I was slightly disappointed with the portion as I thought it could have been bigger like I've had at La Folie or say Aqua. Then again, Boulevard's version as an appetizer was only $27, so I guess that's fine.
Naturally, we each had to have my favorite accompaniment to seared foie gras...a glass of French sauterne. Despite their huge selection, they only had one sauterne by the glass on the menu, but it was a good one...Chateau Rafon-Lafite at $16/glass.
We ordered one more appetizer which they forgot, but they remedied that quickly when reminded and I could tell that both the server and our waitress genuinely cared. That counts for a lot...service here has always been excellent...the staff extremely well-trained and professional. It makes such a difference.
Anyway, our second appetizer that we also split was the slow roasted black cod and glazed Duroc pork belly ($15). Didn't know what Duroc was, but it was good...menu said solera sherry, aged sherry vinegar, baby potatoes, black garlic, and applewood essence. Also, the two women dining at the next table ordered an appetizer that looked so visually stunning, true perfection of food presentation as an art form. Don't know what it was and we didn't ask, but I'm guessing maybe Japanese hamachi?
To accompany the second appetizer and segue into the main course, we ordered a nice, but not too extravagent bottle of Ferrari Carano. My original intent was that rather than order one bottle priced in the stratosphere, to order something just a little less, but get two different wines. As it turned out, we never did order a second bottle which was good since we continued on elsewhere into the night.
Next up, for our main courses, she had the northern Alaska halibut with rock shrimp fritters, spring garlic aioli, shrimp nage, parsleyed new potatoes with bloomsdale and German red spinach ($32.50). I had a bite and thought it was cooked perfectly, but it was my dish that I really loved...California lamb T-bone! ($36) When it came out, I was like...Oh yes...oh yes. This gorgeous, glorious, perfectly cooked and generous portion of standing lamb T-bone was a thing of beauty (can an entree be called sexy?) and tasted even better than it looked. I was impressed.
On the menu, it was described as from Dixon, wood oven roasted with wild mushroom and sourdough stuffing. Accompaniments on the side were a fondant potato cake with miti cana cheese, hazelnut pesto haricot vert with morel mushroom creme, and roasted lamb jus steeped with rosemary. I thought the haricot vert could have been a touch more tender, but loved the cheesy potatoes. Had to smile when I saw haricot vert...that's my "nom de plume"!
During the meal, I couldn't help but look around and admire the Pat Kuleto decor which I feel has aged beautifully. The sound level was a little high, but then again, it was Friday night and the place was lively. What started as empty quickly filled up with every seat in the house. Hey, what happened to the bad economy? It sure didn't look like it in there. The noise of the room did make me long for the calm, almost chapel-like serenity of Acquerello at times though. Two totally different dining experiences, each with their own merits. No boisterous business couples from Washington DC in the next table there.
For dessert, she had an incredibly rich rasberry sorbet (pretty sure that's what it was) which I had a spoonful that was some of the best I've ever had. As for me, I chose to forego dessert and went with a nice twenty year old port instead. I think it was a Roche Porta (I probably butchered the name, but it was something like that) and they gave you a choice of ten or twenty year old versions. I went with the twenty year old ($16) and was not disappointed with its smoothness and depth of flavor.
All in all, not a bad way to drop a hair less than $300 on a dinner. Had I ordered the other wine that I had also wanted to order, it would easily have been a $400 dinner for two...yikes.
The evening continued on with two wine flights (six tastings, Italy and Spain) at a wine bar called the Hidden Vine and then the Starlight at the top of the Sir Francis Drake before getting slices of pizza at Escape from NY in the wee hours, but thats another review. read more