|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
Saratoga Springs Chez Sophie
at The Saratoga Ever
since it opened in 1969, the French restaurant Chez Sophie has been on
the move. Sophie and Joseph Parker started small at their home in the LXR Luxury Resorts, which bought the former Prime Hotel on Broadway in 2005, sought out Chez Sophie because it was renowned in the area for its cuisine and could fulfill its desire to improve the hotel’s dining offering. It produced a new state-of-the-art kitchen and a 100-seat dining room designed to the Parker family specifications, plus a wine cellar with storage for 6,000 bottles and a sculpture garden for patriarch Joseph Parker to display his art. Thus the legacy of legendary French-born chef Sophie Parker will continue as son Paul and his wife Cheryl Clark carry on the family business they acquired following her death in 2001. With the extra room the new space allows, Cheryl Clark said they wanted a sculpture garden to feature the works of her father-in-law, whose paintings and fantastic wire sculptures had been mainstays of their previous decor. The restaurant hours and menu also will be expanded to accommodate breakfast and lunch service. Otherwise, Cheryl said, Chez Sophie would remain the same as it has for decades, only larger and more versatile. Chef Paul cooks in his mother’s classic French style – although, Sophie once demurred, “I don’t even think of it as French. I just think of it as good food.” So good that the New York Times called her bistro in a diner “perfect” and lionized it in a cover story in its food section. Sophie’s cuisine was based on fresh ingredients and straightforward preparations, but each dish seemed touched with something otherworldly. The spirit of Sophie’s food shows up in the
escargots bourguignonne, the house-cured
smoked salmon, farmstead goat cheese in puff pastry and, when available,
a dynamite rabbit pâté with prunes and armagnac and a coulis of
blueberries, an odd combination that tastes wonderful. The menu changes
daily, but expect such main courses as black sea bass steamed in
parchment with aromatic herbs, a pair of grilled quail with truffle
butter and red wine sauce, and rack of lamb with rosemary and garlic.
The duck breast with apricot and green peppercorn sauce and the local
rabbit braised with olives in Belgian beer are house favorites. Dessert could be a
dynamite crème brûlée, rich chocolate cake, fresh lemon cheese tart
or our old favorite, vacherin, a meringue filled with vanilla ice cream
and served with dark chocolate ganache and whipped cream. (518) 583-3538.
www.chezsophie.com. Entrées, $25 to $45. Lunch daily, 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 executive chef from
the posh Sagamore Resort on Lake George left to open a restaurant of his
own in Saratoga. David Britton purchased what for a dozen years had been
the off-again, on-again Springwater Inn, renamed it a bistro, made a few
cosmetic changes and vaulted the enterprise into Saratoga’s top
echelon. “The menu reflects my
travels,” says David, the chef, whose 25-year cooking career began
with a three-year apprenticeship through the American Culinary
Federation at the Arizona Biltmore in Scottsdale. His culinary pedigree
includes stints at hotels in California and Hawaii as well as at the
five-star Inn at Little Washington in Virginia. The high-style menu,
printed daily, reflects several continents and many countries. Appetizers are categorized
as hot and cold bistro fare. The cream of carrot soup might be elevated
with mussels, lemongrass, ginger and coconut milk, and the smoked
Hawaiian marlin embellished with pea shoots and caviar dressing. A
terrine of rabbit could be served with a baby romaine and fried garlic
caesar salad. More exotic fish turn up
in the entrée section called Hawaiian Fish Collection: perhaps
sesame-crusted tuna mignon with wasabi and ginger and grilled opah with
champagne butter. Other possibilities might be roasted In typical bistro style,
there’s often a “plat du jour.” At our visit, it was tandoori-grilled
prime boar chop with curry and long-grain rice. Desserts are as
extravagant as the rest of the offerings. Typical are a trio of crème
brûlées, warm chocolate ganache cake with double chocolate ice cream
and chocolate fondue, orange meringue tart, a crispy All these good tastes are
served up in a couple of pleasant dining areas with black walnut tables
and booths set with white napkins and shaded oil lamps. The artistry
turns up not in the decor but on the plates, which is as it should be.
(518) 584-6440.
www.springwaterbistro.com. Entrées, $23 to $31. Lunch in racing season,
Thursday-Sunday Sargo's The artistic culinary
displays in the entry foyer to the dramatic clubhouse indicate that the
Saratoga National Golf Club is serious about food. So do the reviews and
its award as the best new restaurant in upstate Here is one beautiful
restaurant, part of the top-rated Saratoga National golf course that Tom
Newkirk and Bob Howard from Executive chef Larry
Schepici, a veteran of There’s
a light fare menu to appeal to golfers and casual diners, but the real
culinary extravagance shows up on the dinner menu. Where else locally
would you find dover sole flown in from England, beef tournedos and
seafood neapolitan, veal and lobster lorenzo, and even lobster savannah
(for a cool $48)? Expect to spend big bucks for the likes of wood
grilled swordfish with a ragoût of shrimp and flageolets, veal chop
Michelangelo (here with the works) and
rack of lamb with a minted star anise jus. The moulard duck might be
served three ways: juniper-encrusted breast, confit and pan-seared liver
with a wildberry-duck glace. Oysters mignonette,
dungeness crab cakes, quail stuffed with (518)
583-4653. www.golfsaratoga.com. Entrées, $22 to $48.
Lunch, Monday-Saturday 11 to 4 in season, Saturday
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
page |
Full destination index | |
|
||||||||||||||||||
