Honeymoon: The Painted Lady, Newberg OR

Thursday May 2, Newberg OR

After a morning tasting wine and a killer lunch at Nick's Italian Café in McMinnville, we spent the afternoon at the B&B where I got in a nice long and much needed nap before we headed down the hill once again into downtown Newberg where we ate at the restaurant that is by most accounts the top-rated one in the Willamette Valley, The Painted Lady. Chef Paul Bachand from Recipe had booked our table for us the night before and The Painted Lady texted me to confirm early in the day on Thursday and I let them know that I was a visiting fine dining chef and I just wanted them to cook for us.


Clean, Spare Dining Room

So when we arrived at the lovingly restored but very tiny Victorian wood-frame house situated on a corner lot behind a white picket fence and were seated in the very nicely appointed, but not over the top, dining room, it was no surprise that food just started coming out of the kitchen. Other tables seated near us were just getting going as well and they were getting the menus and the spiel from the service staff and I could see some of them wondering why we were getting different treatment. All it takes is a phone call.

Before we get into the food, a few comments about the restaurant and the staff. Once the sun set, the dining room was too dark for me to see most of what I was eating and the older I get the more light I seem to need. I don't mind dim lights, but when I have to use my cellphone to illuminate a plate to see the fantastic artwork on it, I call that too dark. I'm not faulting the restaurant on this choice, because that's how they have chosen to do things. I choose differently in my own restaurant. And you will see from the limited number and poor quality of photos how dark it was. I didn't bother to take any photos knowing they wouldn't be any good anyway.

The service was impeccable. I can remember exactly once in the whole 3-1/2 hours we dined at The Painted Lady that an empty wine glass stayed on the table for a minute longer than it should have (according to their service model; me, I could not care less if that glass stays there all night as long as it doesn't get in my way) and that's when every server on the floor was putting plates down at an 8-top nearby. Impeccable. New glassware and a totally new set of silverware with each course and everything about the service was silky smooth and polished.

The service was impersonal. We tried to crack through the starched reserve of some of the servers and we did elicit a smile or two from time to time, but they work from the model that they are servers, they do what you need, and they don't interact any more than necessary with the guests. This is a very old school European model that many of the very high end restaurants in the US aspire to and at The Painted Lady, they succeed very well.

But that's not what I want! I want personality and character from the staff and something that tells me that they are having fun at what they do. I want a server that comes to the table and exclaims, "This dish is freaking awesome; you are so going to love it!" I want to see pride without arrogance on the faces of the service staff, pride that comes from knowing that they are serving an amazing product and providing a unique experience. The service at The Painted Lady was not robotic, but it wasn't charismatic either.

The wines selected for our food were impeccable as well. I really appreciated the selection and variety of local wines that were paired with our dinner. As a chef who pairs wines with each dish on his menu, I can say to The Painted Lady, "Job very well done!" Thank you for introducing me to Walter Scott wines from Eola-Amity Hills, a tiny producer of exceptional wines.

And finally about the food. I sit here at the keyboard and I can tick off several dishes that got my chef juices flowing during the course of our stay in Oregon: the nettle gnocchi and the radishes at Thistle, the potato-nettle pizza at Nick's, and the laap at Pok Pok (to be discussed later in this series). But there was no one memorable dish for me at The Painted Lady. To be sure, I remember the scallop in the scallop crudo for being so sweet and fresh and I remember Ann's chocolate dessert for being so over the top, but the food didn't leave any lasting impression other than it was very high quality and very well presented.

This probably says more about me than it says about the restaurant and Chef Allen Routt, who spent a few minutes with us after dinner, when I learned that he is no stranger to this part of the world, having cooked a stint on the line at the Inn at Little Washington and also having worked for the late Jean-Louis Palladin. This says that I like more direct dishes that are mainly ingredient-driven and perhaps more rustic as a result than I like impeccably executed dishes that are more chef- and technique-driven.

Amuses: Fava Hummus on Papadum, Gougères, and ???

Chef's Trio: Salmon Tartare, Breaded Quail Egg; Goat Mousse on Cheese Straw

Oysters and Lardons

Crabmeat, Caviar, Delicious Curried Soup

Nettle Ravioli, Parsnip Puree, Summer Truffles

I'm a chef and I use truffles all the time. They rarely excite me.

Scallop Crudo, Avocado, Crispy Salmon Skin, Dashi Sphere

This dish got Ann to asking about the dashi sphere but spherification and reverse spherification techniques are not dinnertime conversation for anyone save super nerdy chefs. I played with all this some years ago, but it's just not me or my thing; however, this was probably the dish that I liked best.

Mini Margarita Slushie Intermezzo

You can see from the light of the votive in the intermezzo photo that it is just too dark in the dining room to take pictures. This votive was all the light we had! It's a pity because there are a lot more beautifully presented dishes that you can't see.

Missing are a ling cod dish, a salmon dish (that salmon was super well cooked), a foie gras course (foie doesn't impress me unless you bring out a terrine of it, a loaf of crusty bread, some great wine, and we all sit around getting fat, dumb, and happy!), a beef tenderloin (excellent flavor) dish, a venison dish, a small cheese course, and Ann's chocolate fantasy that was too big for four people. I wish you could have seen the amount of labor that went into that one dish. Chocolate is not my thing, but my hat is off to the person that conceived of and plated that dish.

Zaytinya

Long post warning: a three-hour lunch takes a long time to describe! :)

What a hell of a week this one has been! Two big tops and lots of guests on Tuesday, crushed on Wednesday, full house for our Glen Manor dinner on Thursday, and then the weekend! All of this and being down a cook too. No wonder I haven't had time to think about posting about our trip in to DC last weekend.

We look forward to going to see Cirque de Soleil any time that they are in the DC-Balto area. And this year they were at the Verizon Center with their tribute to Michael Jackson. Cirque always puts on a spellbinding show that is well worth the hefty price of admission and so we save our pennies and splurge on this once-a-year extravaganza.

But first things first. Where to eat? We decided to have a leisurely lunch before the 4pm show and within seconds of looking at restaurants in the vicinity of the Verizon Center, Zaytinya was our choice. I've never eaten there before; Ann has. We love tapas and mezze and the restaurant is directly on the path between Metro Center and the Verizon Center. What's not to love?

So, let's get into our nearly three-hour lunch, shall we? First, an apology. I didn't bring the big camera: no way they would let me tote that in to the Cirque show. So we used Ann's little point and shoot and although it pointed, it didn't shoot worth a damn. Crappy picture warning. They'll help us remember our good times, but otherwise not worth looking at.

Despite leaving a lot of slack in our schedule, we managed to walk in the door just at the time of our reservation thanks to Metro and its balky ticketing equipment. If I used Metro more often, I would hate Metro. We were seated promptly and soon enough our server, Paul, came over with the wine list. I know enough about wine lists to know that I know my own and I know nothing about anybody else's so I asked Paul for help.

We wanted a red and probably not a Greek red. I've tasted a lot of reds from Greece and on a really hot day, didn't want to tangle with a mouthful of Xynomavro, Agiorgítiko, or Mavrodafni, uh, I mean tannins. So with Paul's help, we went to old favorite Chateau Musar from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, ordering a bottle of their Jeune Rouge (young red), a deliciously light-bodied Cinsault-dominant blend.

After toasting with a glass of wine, we got down to looking at the menu and there's just too much food on it! And after talking to Paul for a couple of minutes, I asked him to order for us with preference for the dishes that the kitchen would like us to eat, as opposed to customer favorites. I love to be surprised and there's nothing much that I won't eat.

Within minutes food starting arriving with Paul arriving soon after to explain the dishes to us. He did a fantastic job with our table. Kudos!

Htipiti: Roasted Red Peppers, Feta, Thyme

This spread for our pita was good with especially creamy feta. The peppers, though well prepared, just didn't have the flavor I was hoping for. I'm guessing they are red bell peppers and not something more interesting.

Horta Salata: Fava Puree, Kale, Bull's Blood, Smoked! Olives

This horta salata was the best dish we had all day. It seems it is always this way: the simpler the dish, the better. The interplay of the fave, the lightly cooked kale, and the surprising smoked kalamata olives was exquisite. Ann was equally bonkers for this dish!

Avgotaraho: Cured Mullet Roe in Beeswax

Chef Michael Costa brought this plate of pressed mullet roe (avgotaraho, botargo, botarga, bottarga, boutargue) to the table himself and we chatted for just a little bit. I've eaten a lot of roe in my life: I grew up eating herring and shad roe from the Chesapeake Bay and every roe-laden fish that we process in our restaurant kitchen yields a delectable chef snack. I've never seen botarga presented at the table still in its beeswax coating, but it makes for a great presentation. Carter gamely tried it and when Paul asked him about it, Carter said he liked it but wasn't a fan of the texture.

Halloumi, Compressed Watermelon, Watermelon Rind, Tomato

Seriously, who doesn't like seared halloumi? Compressed watermelon, though it makes for a good presentation, has never impressed me. It seems that no amount of work with a vacuum sealer imparts any significant flavor into the watermelon. Hopefully this is a fad that will just go away.

Falafel, Carter's Sole Request

Falafel is not something we would have ordered for ourselves as we've eaten a lot of it in our lives. Delicious, yes; shows something unique about a particular restaurant, no.

Soujouk Pide: Kasseri Cheese, Soujouk Sausage, Egg

Too bad this picture is so awful because the soujouk (sujuk) flatbread in the shape of an eye was really cool! It has kasseri cheese down with hard, dry, fermented, spicy soujouk over. My first experience with this sausage: it's a winner! Really cool to have a poached egg (OK, so theirs is done in an immersion circulator: show-offs!) on top of a flatbread. Chef Michael served this dish himself. Me gusta mucho.

Lamb Shank, Eggplant-Kefalogravieri Mousse

And here is one of the shining stars of the day, not the lamb shank, but the orgasmic eggplant and kefalogravieri mousse/puree. This puree was the single best flavor bite of the day, though the horta salata was the best overall dish. As soon as our eggplants start coming in in our garden, I am certain that Ann will be demanding that I make this. And I will. I will rip this off and make it my own!

Mushrooms! With Dates and Toasted Almonds

Nice hard sear on these mushrooms; great job by the line cooks! What is not to love? I saw beech, porcini, and chanterelles in this mix, but honestly, I was in stuff-face mode and not really in dish dissection mode.

Octopus Santorini: Yellow Split Peas, Capers, Marinated Onions

I wasn't wowed by the octopus. It is a fine dish, but the spice crust dominated the octopus. Nothing wrong with the dish, but one of the weakest on a menu of standouts.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts Afelia

Once again, awesome job on the sear on these sprouts, guys! Just delicious!

Kibbeh Nayeh: Beef Tartare

Kibbeh I have had dozens of times and dozens of ways and this was, to be perfectly frank, boring. The weakest dish of the day. Technically very fresh and very correct. Exciting, no. Is it a contradiction to say that I liked it, though? Pomegranate seeds would go a long way towards bringing some needed acidity to this dish.

Apricot Parfait

What a great presentation! A fun little dessert. I'm not into dessert so I probably didn't appreciate this or the rice pudding as much as I could have. Still, great attention to detail and very nice presentation.

Rice Pudding with Pear Sorbet

Carter Ate a Dozen Pita!

Not pictured is a dish of roasted cauliflower with golden raisins, pine nuts, and caperberries. I liked the flavors, but the cauliflower could have roasted a bit longer to my taste. I loved the caperberry treatment: it was unique in my experience, sliced into rounds and deep-fried. We also had a shrimp dish, Garides Me Anitho, shrimp with dill and lemon that vied with the kibbeh for boring honors. Extremely popular with the masses I am sure and probably the Zaytinya equivalent of our crab cakes: a huge revenue generator.

Ann's son Carter went with us and I have got to say that I was amazed at his performance. In addition to eating four baskets of pita (that's a dozen pita folks: welcome to our food bill at home!), he ate some of every single dish with face-stuffing gusto! When have you ever seen a 12-year old do that?

My hat is off to Chef Michael Costa and his crew, our server Paul, and especially the backwaits and food runners who ran their behinds off in serving us. I was very impressed with the physical facility, the service, the menu, and the food. Zaytinya truly deserves its ranking as one of the best in DC.

Oh yeah. We also went to see Cirque de Soleil. We left at intermission. I want my money back. It sucked that bad. 'nuf said.