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Saratoga Springs 43 Phila Bistro Culinary excitement issues from this suave American cafe-bistro that’s considered the best in town. Michael Lenza, an ex-South Jersey chef, cooked locally at Sperry's before launching his own venture. His wife Patricia oversees the 50-seat dining room, which is lovely in peach and terra cotta. The bar and banquettes are custom-made of bird's-eye and tiger's-eye maple. Caricatures of local businessmen brighten one wall. Arriving almost as we were seated for dinner was a dish of assorted spicy olives marinated in olive oil, the oil useful for dipping the accompanying bread from Rock Hill Bakery, an area institution. Among starters were a smooth chicken-liver pâté served with crostini and cornichons, a terrific trio of smoked seafood (with capers in a little carrot floret and roasted red-pepper crème fraîche) and an enormous pizzetta, a meal in itself. Had we eaten more than a sliver of the pizzetta we never would have made it through the main courses, a choice of up to a dozen ranging from sesame-crusted tuna with tamari sauce to rack of New Zealand lamb with balsamic-strawberry minted demi-glace, including steakhouse offerings with the traditional sides. The Tuscan chicken pasta with roasted peppers, olives and white beans was a lusty autumn dish; ditto for the jerk chargrilled swordfish with papaya-lobster salsa and a Thai red curry sauce. A bottle of our favorite Hogue Cellars fumé blanc accompanied from a varied, well-chosen wine list. The pastry chef is known for distinctive desserts, including an acclaimed 43 Phila chocolate cake soaked in kahlua and covered with a brandied chocolate ganache, deep-dish peach crumble pie, and white chocolate cheesecake topped with blueberry compote, sweet red cherries, whipped cream and a star cookie. We settled for plum-port sorbet, a refreshing ending to an uncommonly good meal. (518) 584-2720. www.43philabistro.com. Entrées,
$20 to $36. Lunch daily, 11:30 to 3. Dinner nightly, 6 to 10 or 11.
Closed Sunday in off-season.
The chef lists 350 dishes
over the course of three months in his changing, rapid-fire menu
scrawled on blackboards at this sleek, cosmopolitan restaurant
transformed from the old Freihofer’s wholesale bread outlet. The
offerings change every two days, which is why there’s no menu posted
at the door (and a sampling only recently turned up on the
restaurant’s ahead-of-the-times website). The restaurant’s
“mission” is in global comfort foods. And “a culinary safari in
Asian, French and American cuisines” is how chef Keith Landry and new
owners Corinne Chauvin and Emily Hopeck describe it. The modern European-style
dining room seats 60 at white-linened tables, with a bar along one side
and a backdrop of windows and walls of taupe. The most adventurous seats
are at the chef’s table for eight in “a Moroccan-style gentleman’s
pantry” off the kitchen, where he produces a succession of four to ten
small courses for $50 and up per person. Back in the dining room,
Saratoga’s most ambitious menu might begin with a coconut-lemongrass
scallop chowder, a lobster chèvre sandwich, Hong Kong shrimp, grilled
duck sausage with braised fennel, calamari “cigars” with
ginger-carrot sauce or pheasant salad with candied orange on rosemary
shortbread. Main courses range from pan-seared escolar with lobster to
royal Thai duck breast and espresso-rubbed filet mignon with a burgundy
demiglace. A dish called “three little pigs” – a sixteen-ounce
frenched pork chop with Asian mizuni sauce – intrigued at one visit.
But some of the fare could be as comforting as “Lena’s pot roast”
or “chicken and sausage a la rocco” or even “meatloaf wellington.”
Desserts follow suit, from
Cuban sugar cookies to sticky date pudding, from soufflés to pumpkin
dumplings with caramel sauce. (518) 587-9463.
www.dinesaratoga.com. Entrées, $27 to $42. Dinner, Wednesday-Sunday
from 5:30.
A former fast-food eatery
is the hottest restaurant in town – according to both its ebullient
Italian chef-owner and his avid following. Chianti is lovingly tended by
David Zecchini from David, who claims to have
been the youngest maitre-d’ in David’s labor of love
includes a passion for food, although lately he has turned over cooking
duties to a chef from Two risottos, one with
porcini mushrooms and the other with crab and scampi, come highly
recommended. So do pastas like rigatoni with Italian tuna, olives and
garlic, and angel hair with jumbo shrimp in a lobster-grappa sauce. Favorite main courses are
scampi marinated with mint in a balsamic-citrus sauce, chicken with
artichokes in a lemon-wine sauce, veal scaloppine with porcini mushrooms
in a white wine sauce, and filet mignon with gorgonzola sauce. Desserts range from lemon
or orange sorbet to profiteroles, tiramisu and a light lemon torte
finished with pine nuts and powdered sugar. The award-winning,
predominantly Italian wine list starts in the thirties and includes many
in the triple digits. Lately, David has branched
out, opening the lively Luna Lounge nightclub at (518) 580-0025.
www.chiantiristorante.com. Entrées, $16 to $28.
Dinner nightly, from
The Wine Bar A shared interest in wine and travel inspired Judith
Evans and her daughter Melissa to open this wine and tapas bar. “We
thought it was something The Evanses gutted a former hair salon to produce
one of Broadway’s most beautiful buildings, inside and out. The
contemporary interior in grays and mauves is elegant and stylish – a
cross between More than 50 wines by the glass are offered. They may be upstaged by the first-rate food, as prepared by chef Mark Graham and offered in “small plate” and entrée sizes. You could make a satisfying meal of “beginnings” like a trio of soups, lobster and sweetbread strudel, foie gras with wine-poached nectarines and an ice wine vinaigrette, a short rib tart and a smoked salmon salad with heirloom radishes, shaved fennel and nectarine. Entrées are available in main-course or tapas portions, the latter at half price. Typical are seared dayboat scallops served with baby beets, white asparagus and a celeriac-potato puree, Cuban spiced pork tenderloin served with crispy plantains, duck breast with a duck confit “stir fry” and a fermented black bean-orange vinaigrette, and rack of lamb with a warm olive sauce and a napoleon of eggplant, tomato and chèvre. Assorted cheeses are offered, as are desserts like warm plum soup with sour cherry ice cream and almond brittle, chèvre panna cotta with honey-walnut-fig compote, a granita sampler and a “s’mores” tart. (518) 584-8777. www.thewinebarofsaratoga.com.
Small plates, $7 to $17. Entrées, $18 to $30. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday
4 to 10, also Sunday during July and August. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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