Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
It is the annual birthday dinner for our upstairs neighbor. For many years we have celebrated by having a cheese feast at Artisanal. But Artisanal cannot seem to get its ambitious doors open so we cast about for another cheesey way to celebrate her most-recent trip around the sun.
There really is no other cheese restaurant like Artisanal. We look into various places that do raclette service but they are booked up for that night! And, for a city of this size, there are vanishingly few places anymore that do fondue.
But we've found a good one. Taureau is the sister restaurant to La Sirene (which some of us here may recall 1, 2, 3, 4). It is, in fact, a slice of the space that La Sirene expanded into some years ago. And it is an all-fondue prix-fixe menu.
We start with the cheese fondue. Service is pair-wise so we get two choices off the list. Nabe chooses Perigord and we choose Old Swiss, and we supplement the bread cubes with carrots, broccoli, and apple. The Perigord has slices of truffle floating in it and a delicate flavor so someone is using a good grade of oil. The Old Swiss tastes hard-core aged Swiss and nothing but. With this course we drink Alpen Mountain 2014 Apremont, the jacquard wine has sturdy minerality and acidity to sweep all that fat off your tongue but is quiet enough not to introduce any conflicting flavors. I'm always a little confused by wines like this: they're useful at the table but I want them to show a little independence (and they don't).
Next course: oil or broth fondue. We take one of each, and portions of both filet and onglet to dunk. Both hot fluids are augmented with aromatic vegetables and a bit of herb. With this course we drink Dom. Lombard 2012 Côtes du Rhône Brézème "Eugène de Monicault". I had nearly fallen out of my chair when I saw another Brezeme on the list and had to try it. It is all-syrah, of course, clean, reasonably crisp, and shares a dark-earth quality with the wine we know better. Alcohol was also reasonable at 12.5. I read that the vineyard is organic, the yeasts are ambient, and it was good wine. I don't think it has the gravitas to keep/improve for a decade, though.
Final course: chocolate fondue. Both bowls dark, thank you. There is a prodigious board of apple, pear, banana bread, white chocolate cake, strawberry, banana, and marshmallow for dipping. Very good.
This being a La Sirene restaurant, of course, service was charming and a little inept. But the music was not loud, and, in French style, once the dessert was on the table we were left to sit as long as we liked. Payment options are also numerous and slightly puzzling: cash, check, AMEX, or bitcoin. (Honestly, who has bitcoins in their wallet?)
Nabe was happy, we were happy, happy is the general rule at La Sirene so heckuva good dinner.
There really is no other cheese restaurant like Artisanal. We look into various places that do raclette service but they are booked up for that night! And, for a city of this size, there are vanishingly few places anymore that do fondue.
But we've found a good one. Taureau is the sister restaurant to La Sirene (which some of us here may recall 1, 2, 3, 4). It is, in fact, a slice of the space that La Sirene expanded into some years ago. And it is an all-fondue prix-fixe menu.
We start with the cheese fondue. Service is pair-wise so we get two choices off the list. Nabe chooses Perigord and we choose Old Swiss, and we supplement the bread cubes with carrots, broccoli, and apple. The Perigord has slices of truffle floating in it and a delicate flavor so someone is using a good grade of oil. The Old Swiss tastes hard-core aged Swiss and nothing but. With this course we drink Alpen Mountain 2014 Apremont, the jacquard wine has sturdy minerality and acidity to sweep all that fat off your tongue but is quiet enough not to introduce any conflicting flavors. I'm always a little confused by wines like this: they're useful at the table but I want them to show a little independence (and they don't).
Next course: oil or broth fondue. We take one of each, and portions of both filet and onglet to dunk. Both hot fluids are augmented with aromatic vegetables and a bit of herb. With this course we drink Dom. Lombard 2012 Côtes du Rhône Brézème "Eugène de Monicault". I had nearly fallen out of my chair when I saw another Brezeme on the list and had to try it. It is all-syrah, of course, clean, reasonably crisp, and shares a dark-earth quality with the wine we know better. Alcohol was also reasonable at 12.5. I read that the vineyard is organic, the yeasts are ambient, and it was good wine. I don't think it has the gravitas to keep/improve for a decade, though.
Final course: chocolate fondue. Both bowls dark, thank you. There is a prodigious board of apple, pear, banana bread, white chocolate cake, strawberry, banana, and marshmallow for dipping. Very good.
This being a La Sirene restaurant, of course, service was charming and a little inept. But the music was not loud, and, in French style, once the dessert was on the table we were left to sit as long as we liked. Payment options are also numerous and slightly puzzling: cash, check, AMEX, or bitcoin. (Honestly, who has bitcoins in their wallet?)
Nabe was happy, we were happy, happy is the general rule at La Sirene so heckuva good dinner.