Summer in New York City is almost too hot...especially this year. Hence the massive exodus each weekend to beaches and anywhere that provides an escape from the heat. But, there is absolutely something to be said about staying put a few weekends in the summer. Chief among them is the fact that you can walk into almost any restaurant without a reservation and get yourself a table. My sister and I found ourselves in just this lucky spot on Saturday. We walked into the Breslin, April Bloomfield's new spot in the Ace Hotel. The lines for a table at The Breslin have been talked about almost as much as the food. So when we walked in there this past Saturday, it was a pleasant surprise that we found no line.
A hot summer day calls for a nice cold cocktail. I chose the Lust for Life that was gin with lavender syrup, mint, lemon juice and soda water. It did indeed make you love life but the mint was the strongest flavor and I wanted a little more lavender to shine through. My sister's favorite drink from childhood was Ribena (a blackcurrant syrup that you mix with water) that we used to have our grandparents smuggle over everytime they visited from London. Since one of her favorite adult drinks is prosecco, it was no small wonder that she choose the London Calling, which is vodka, ribena, lemon juice and prosecco. Both cocktails were excellent and made us conclude that we'd definitely come back for cocktails another night, lines be damned.
After reviewing the menu, we decided that given our heat-reduced appetites our best course of action was to split lots of smaller plates. We began with the salt & vinegar potato chips that arrived in a plastic bag. A bit of a waste of a plastic bag in our mind...why not just serve them in a bowl? But forget about presentation, these were amazing. They had the perfect balance of salt & vinegar flavor, they were crisp and slightly warm, and the flavoring on them had somehow clung itself to each and every chip in an almost powdery-like way. In other words, I'd have a hard time eating at the Breslin without ordering them.
Our next dish was the Shibumi oysters with dill pickle juice. The briny pickles and dill coupled with the oysters was something that just made so much sense that I couldn't believe I'd never thought of them as something to pair before. Now, I'll think about oysters with dill pickles just as much as I imagine them with black pepper mignonette. The pickles chopped into small dice with dill strewn throughout on top of the ridiculously fresh oysters melt in your mouth with briny deliciousness. Trust me and order these.
As a side dish, we got the pole beans with a basil pesto. I love when a simple sounding vegetable side dish blows everything else out of the water. The pesto on the beans was basil and olive oil love that I wanted to bottle up and put on everything. The beans themselves were cooked to the perfect crunchy texture. We finished our veggies mom!
Next up was the seafood sausage with buerre blanc. I love the buttery richness of beurre blanc and this was one of the best beurre blancs I've had. If you think I'm kidding about how good the sauce was, you'd have been amazed to see the vigor with which Karen and I were dipping our puff pastry from our final dish into it not wanting to waste a single drop of heaven. The seafood sausage had a lovely shellfish flavor, as if it had been poached in a shellfish broth before it was grilled. The texture was also smooth and not at all chewy, which is often the problem with a seafood sausage. I personally liked the sauce more than the sausage and could have sacrificed the sausage for just a side of the sauce, but Karen loved the seafood sausage and said if we returned she'd want it again.
Our final dish was the Speck and crescenza tart with spring onions. The puff pastry was buttery and warm and the melted cheese and speck were very delicious. A nice, simple dish that was executed perfectly.
Well since we only had small plates, we most certainly had room for dessert! A fruit dessert is a really nice way to finish an evening out in the summer, so we ordered the trifle with peaches, raspberries, and ginger bread pudding. This is not your mother's trifle. The gingerbread cake is not soaked in pudding for hours, so it's solid cake with custard and fresh fruit layered with it and a sorbet on top. I really liked this take on trifle, because I'm not a fan of soggy cake and the combination of textures was far more satisfying and interesting.
As Karen and I left the Breslin, we heard London calling and had a new lust for life. If only we could walk in there any night and get a table!
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