Concord Fizz
by Celia Cheng
October 18th, 2007
BACK FORTY
190 Ave B
@ 12th St
212-388-1990
Peter Hoffman’s new East Village restaurant, Back Forty, doesn’t disappoint. The atmosphere fits both the neighborhood and the concept. Referring to the undeveloped quarter of a 160-acre homestead, the “back forty” was where farm families would go to relax and unwind. Likewise, the restaurant is a great laidback joint to gather for food and drinks and take a load off.
The interior space is large and sparse. In addition to the indoor dining areas — one immediately at the entrance to the restaurant, a back room, and a large bar room that also has a table for communal dining — there’s also backyard seating when the weather permits.
Though Back Forty’s menu is more rustic than that of Hoffman’s other (seventeen-year-old) downtown restaurant, Savoy, it keeps with his philosophy of using locally sourced food and beverages, and the flavors of each dish are equally radiant!
I started out with a cocktail, the Concord Fizz, made with Barbancourt white rum, muddled Concord grapes, soda, lime juice and simple syrup (see recipe below). It was so delicious and refreshing that, though I moved on to the wine after my first drink, I had to come back to end the meal with another Concord Fizz. Don’t get me wrong, the food is every bit as good as this drink, but two Concord Fizzes in one meal definitely deem it a craving.
The shaved fennel salad with parsley and crispy chorizo was a savory delight. With fennel in season and ubiquitous on menus all around town, I was worried that I would start to tire of the refreshingly light anise flavor, but the crispy chorizo added another dimension to the vegetable. The cauliflower, a gratin of Parmesan and lemon zest, brown butter and breadcrumbs, was not the least bit heavy; in fact, the accompanying ingredients made this produce shine.
Fries have their own category on the menu and are priced at $6, which is about the same as the starters in The Garden category. This is not unreasonable considering the amount of fries that comes in the basket. It was enough for us to share among three people. The fries are not golden crispy, but rather soft and moist, seasoned with rosemary and sea salt. I enjoyed eating them most with Back Forty’s spicy homemade ketchup. Yummy!
The grass-fed burger was another pleasant surprise. Served on a sesame bun, the beef patty was juicy and cooked to a perfect medium rare as requested. The Heritage bacon was crispy and the Farmhouse Cheddar lightly melted on the patty. The spicy homemade ketchup once again gave the burger a boost in flavor. It was satisfying, but it didn’t weigh me down. Now this is a burger I will come back to!
For dessert, the current seasonal fruit pie is, of course, apple! A taste of this apple pie, a la mode, reminds me of what really good apple pie is and why this American recipe is a gem. The apple cider doughnuts gave me another reason to love Back Forty. These cake doughnuts sit on a plate of apple cider reduction. I initially thought it was aged balsamic vinegar, given the color and thickness, but apple cider reduction is not as tart, and its sweet cider aroma made these tender but dense crumbly doughnuts even more palatable.
I love Savoy, whether for an afternoon snack at the bar or a special dinner (like the recent “Beyond Nose to Tail dinner with Fergus Henderson”). While Back Forty is quite a change of pace from Savoy’s niche in SoHo, it’s a good alternative when you just want to let you hair down and have some good eats.
CONCORD FIZZ
Makes 1 drink
2 ounce Barbancourt white rum
½ ounce lime juice
¾ ounce simple syrup
10 to 15 muddled Concord grapes
Soda
Posted in Alphabet City , American , Drinks , Vegetables
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Breaded & Fried Mushrooms
by Celia Cheng
December 10th, 2006
THOMAS BEISL
25 Lafayette Ave
(Ashland Pl & St. Felix St)
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718-222-5800
Thomas Beisl is blessed with the perfect location — directly across BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, and two blocks away from BAM Harvey Theater. It’s always packed with diners/audiences before and after performances, even though the food is not fantastic. I love Austrian fare, but Thomas Beisl’s dishes are almost unanimously bland. I don’t dream about how tasty the schnitzel will be when entering the restaurant, but rather think that it’s a good place for a quick fix, which is probably why I’ve never written about it. The atmosphere is very pleasant and you always bump into someone interesting, whether it be a critic, a friend, or a performer from the show you just saw.
On this gorgeous Sunday, after seeing Pina Bausch’s Nefes, my sister and I hopped over to Thomas Beisl for an early dinner. We started with an overdressed mixed green salad and the breaded and fried mushrooms special. Though the mushrooms are a special, they’ve been on the board the past three times I visited. I’m not complaining as they are actually the best thing on the menu. Whereas the schnitzels can be dry and tasteless inside, the breaded then fried mushrooms are juicy. The tartar sauce that accompanies adds flavor and makes them fun to eat. We then shared the dinner special, paprika chicken with spaetzle, which turned out to be a huge disappointment. The pieces of chicken were swimming in a watery paprika sauce that was weak and this is an example of why I often steer clear of chicken on a menu — instead of bringing out the flavor in the meat, the chicken is reduced to a nondescript piece of food. The spaetzle were swimming in the pool of sauce too and was equally boring in taste. In need of more vegetables, we added a fennel salad, but in the end the only thing that stood out was the mushrooms.
I mentioned the schnitzel twice but I do want to qualify that while I find the wiener schnitzel and cod schnitzel here disappointing (can you imagine?! When I think cod schnitzel I want to jump for joy, but after tasting it I fall flat on my feet), I do like the celery root schnitzel. I’m beginning to see a common thread and that maybe Thomas Beisl’s forte is in the deep-fried vegetable category. Plus tartar sauce is so yummy! The cucumber and potato salad that come with the schnitzels are also rather lackluster, especially compared to the same salads at Wallsé.
So, after some experimentation, I think the best solution is to go to Thomas Beisl before a performance for a snack — the fried mushrooms of course and a glass of wine or beer. Then after the performance, go for a more satisfying meal elsewhere. The tastiest part of this evening was sitting two tables away from one of the male dancers from the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. That was hot!
Posted in Austrian , Fort Greene , Vegetables
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