So every once in awhile I get a few hours out with a girlfriend. This is usually a catch up dinner with my bestie or a drink and dinner with a co worker. But these nights are much fewer and farther between than before. So, I like to make sure and spoil myself when I do get to enjoy them. I was able to get one of these nights last week with my bestie and it was much needed and of course a blast. We also had an amazing meal that I am super excited to share with you all. We ate at BLVD and it was really great and I would absolutely return. The restaurant itself is gorgeous and delivers on transporting you to a 1950’s high end supper club. Here’s what we had…So they suggest that you order a few items and share, which I love when restaurants do small plates or as here, “family style”. As a chef especially, but mostly just as someone who loves to eat, I love not being restricted to only trying one dish at dinner.
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We started with the Brussels Sprouts. If done right, one of my favs and these definitely were done right. They are nice large chunks of Brussels Sprouts, crisped and served with red pepper coulis, guanciale and a one hour egg. Guanciale is sort of pancetta like, but it is the actual jowls or cheeks of the pig. This was nice crispy pieces and gave that wonderful salty-crunch to the Brussels. And the one hour egg, which is a sous vide egg that was cooked just perfectly. And when that yolk was broken and made a creamy sauce for these Brussels sprouts, well… heaven in every bite.
We then moved onto the Cavatelli with coffee-braised lamb shoulder, cured olives and preserved lemon. I was expecting this dish to be very rich as most pastas with braised meat sauces can be. However, this was surprisingly lighter than expected. The cavatelli tasted homemade and cooked well; Not too dense. The sauce was light and delicious, using a whole roasted tomato. And then the very best part, the coffee-braised lamb. Wow, such amazing flavor. The coffee came through, but did not over power. The olives and the lemon cut through the richness of the meat. Very well balanced dish and we kept going back in for more.
We tried the crispy skin duck breast and it was between this and the scallops for us and we both felt like we should have tried the scallops instead. This was for sure the most disappointing dish of the night. Even though it was a perfectly fine plate of food, it was not OMG like the rest of the meal and the duck itself was very gamey tasting. More than duck should be. We both only had a piece or two of the duck, yet we did very much enjoy the potatoes sable, haricot verts and the agrodolce. The potatoes were by far the best par tof this dish and I could have eaten a plate of just them.
And finishing with something sweet, of course. The espresso I had was very good quality and my friend enjoyed a delicious tea from there tea menu. Which I loved that they had a tea menu. But she ordered a chocolate cinnamon tea and it was very nice. We chose the Candy Bar for dessert and what a great choice. It was between this and the peanut butter cake, which the busboy did suggest, but then when we asked the server which was better, she used the word rich about 5 times when describing the peanut butter cake. And we wanted something sweet, but a little lighter as we were so full already, so we went with the not-so rich, Candy Bar. It is crispy Italian nougat, chocolate ganache, honey walnut caramel and served with buttermilk sorbet. The candy bar itself was so delicious, but a bit hard to cut and eat. It almost went flying off the plate a few times. But once you can get into it, so yummy! ANs the buttermilk sorbet, I mean come on… sort of speaks for itself. But wow is all I can say. Overall, sweet end to a really nice meal.
