Forage Restaurant: Fall 2013

There are a few places where it doesn't make much sense for me to add my opinions on a chef's talent.  Bowman Brown did it again at Forage and I'd like to just present our meal as it came.  I was less than thrilled that our favorite course (the smoked cheddar) was not captured well via my iPhone, but so it goes.  Check out the meal and let me know what you think!

We started with a juniper soda with sorel sorbet in a sugar rimmed glass.

Potato puffs with house soured cream and elderberry caper dust.

Fermented dragon tongue beans.

Elderberry leather with chicken liver mousse.

Tomato crisp with milk skin.

Smoked cheddar from Gold Creek Farms in Kamas, UT, with barley and epic beer batter.  This was probably the best item of the night and I apologize for getting such a mediocre shot.  That being said, the presentation really did look kind of like a stack of delicious charcoal.

Smoked tomato water gel with corn purée and trout roe.

Potato with trout glaze with wheat grass and onion purée.

Charred heirloom tomatoes with sturgeon and coastal plants from the Salt Lake.

Veggies from the Forage farm in Draper,UT topped with chicken vinaigrette.

Smoked Utah wild trout, apples, onions, apple juice and lovage oil.

Poached egg yolk with grain porridge and buttermilk emulsion.

Duck breast with plum and caramelized onion, finished with fermented plum juice and thyme oil.

"Herbs from the garden".  Burnet sorbet with lemon, sorel curd and basil cake.

Rose hip sorbet and meringue with sparkling yogurt.

Peach, with goat's milk ice cream and toasted granola.

The Verdict?  Forage continues to be the best deal in food in Salt Lake City and proves that our best can run with, if not outshine, the best culinary talent from anywhere in the United States.

 

Brunch at The Wild Grape Bistro

Come for the donut holes and stay for the grits.  I've written about The Wild Grape in the past and it is one of the first places that comes to mind when I'm looking for casual, interesting food.  Until recently I had not tried the brunch options, but I've been twice in the past month.

The 12 minute donut holes are the obvious choice to get things rolling.  While not as delightful as the beignets over at Zy, they are still worth a try, especially if you are a fan of cake donuts.  We usually grab two orders.  The donut holes are served with a vanilla custard and a house-made jam, and the correct application is both - in every bite.

The main plates ranged from decent to great in my experiences with brunch at The Wild Grape.  On the decent side was the biscuits and gravy - house made biscuits and gravy served with two eggs to order and apple wood smoked bacon.  I appreciated the restraint shown on the gravy (more than enough but you didn't have to bob for your biscuits), but overall I'd just say this dish was an average example of a classic.

The shrimp'n'grits was another story: rock shrimp, Spanish chorizo, leeks and peppers all served over cheddar grits was worthwhile.  On a very practical level, it would have been nice if the shrimp had been fully peeled given the cheesy sauce they swam in, but I will order this dish again as it was outstanding.

My daughter (she's 3) had her heart set on French Toast. The brioche french toast on the menu was just the ticket, served with house made sweet ricotta, orange jam and maple syrup.  Having tried I bite I thought this one needed something more to make it onto the list of things I'd order - the ricotta is a great idea but nothing held the dish together - it was just a plate with five separate elements. 

As an avid burrito enthusiast I had high hopes for the Wild Grape breakfast burrito (scrambled eggs, chorizo, breakfast potatoes, ranchero sauce, black beans and queso fresco).  Good but forgettable, it was a bit dry and not worth repeating. 

The artichoke chicken salad felt like it was moving back into the restaurant's wheelhouse (savory, non-breakfast dishes).  The salad is wood grilled chicken, marinated artichoke hearts, goat cheese, pickled beets, herb croutons and honey cider vinaigrette on mixed greens.  Really nice combo - I would order this one again for sure, and can also heartily recommend the grape salad if you're in the restaurant and feeling like greens.

The crab benedict is comprised of cornbread topped with tomatoes, avocado, chilled crab, spinach and the obvious poached eggs with hollandaise.  The dish was good, but I was hoping for a bit more based on the ingredients.  I would not order this one again.

Finally, we all enjoyed the fig and prosciutto flatbread, which is a house-made whole wheat flatbread topped with sweet and spicy fig jam, crispy prosciutto, smoked provolone, blue cheese crumbles, olive oil and arugula.  I would get this as a starter if you're not sold on the donut holes (you're making the wrong choice, but this was great so at least you'll have that consolation).

The Verdict?  The Wild Grape does its best work on non-breakfast items.  While nothing was bad at brunch, I'd steer anyone towards the lunch side of the brunch menu for the best shot at glory.  While the shrimp and grits was fantastic, I have yet to try anything at brunch that rivals the bison burger or braised beef gnocchi from the dinner menu.

Avenues Proper and Publick House

There are few things nicer than leaving West Valley City, where my office has been temporarily relocated, and driving to the Avenues to eat good food and drink beer on a Friday lunch break.  So much so that I've indulged two weeks in a row at Avenues Proper and Publick House.  At this point I feel like I've tried enough of the menu to give you a pretty good feel for what you should  expect.

First, the patio is just great around lunchtime - plenty of shade and super comfortable seating make you want to carry a business lunch right into an early happy hour.  I would probably head back to Avenues Proper simply for the setting even if the food wasn't stellar.

The menu features some interesting 'Bites' worth trying if you're there.  The obvious choice is the duck fat popcorn, which is popcorn drizzled with duck fat and a bit of fennel pollen.  I wanted this to taste better than popcorn with butter sauce, but really it doesn't.  Still, for $3, it's worth a try and certainly not a bad way to pass a few minutes while you wait for your...

Red Oatmeal Ale on nitro!  This was really one of the best, if not the best, 3.2 beers that I have ever had in my life.  Truly worth a try - I have never before sampled a red oatmeal ale but it combines the smoothness of an oatmeal stout with bitter hops as found in a standard red ale.  Yum.

The house made chips at Avenues Proper are tasty.  They come with sandwiches, but you should probably get an extra order while you're waiting and drinking red oatmeal ale.

As for food, the winner on the menu seems to be AP Burger.  It isn't the best burger in SLC (tip of the hat to The Wild Grape, Pago and The Copper Onion), but it's pretty darn good and it IS the best bun on a burger in SLC.

The Chevre Chaud was lackluster - radish, mixed greens, fried goat cheese and balsamic.  The goat cheese, as the obvious star of the dish, needed a bit more help in order to transform a side salad into a main plate salad.

The only hot "sandwich" on the menu is the Welsh Rarebit.  It isn't a sandwich, it's gorgonzola, raw milk cheddar, bacon, tomato and onion served on something more like a crostini than a slice of bread. This wasn't a bad dish, but I wouldn't order it again.  It is hard to make something that tastes bad when Bacon is the centerpiece.  That being said, if you're feeling like you want a hot meal stick to the burger because cold sandwiches outshine the Welsh Rarebit.

Most of the cold sandwiches at Avenues Proper are somewhat plain - focusing on artisan bread and quality ingredients rather than exotic additions or flavors.  As a lunch option, I thought this style went really nicely as a compliment to the bites and beers available.  The roast beef sandwich was made with grain mustard, arugula, red onion, blue cheese and horseradish aioli.  The demi baguette was the best thing on the plate but the sandwich was overall good.

My favorite sandwich at Avenues Proper is the House Roasted Turkey.  Served on a ciabatta bun and topped with fontina and a healthy dose of grilled kale, this sandwich was the perfect mix of fresh ingredients that play nicely together without getting overcomplicated.  

The verdict? This is one of my favorite places to have a simple sandwich or burger accompanied by some of the best beer on tap in Salt Lake City.  Sit outside if the weather is good.  To date, I can only speak for the lunch offerings, but I would expect a significantly elevated level of creativity and execution at dinner given the prices being asked.  The vibe and drinks at Avenues Proper are enough to make me want to keep coming back, and I hope to report on the dinner menu before too long.