You won't be saying bye-bye to this Blackbird anytime soon. The chic-chic crowd has been clucking about this restaurant since day one, which was about two months ago. This is one haute spot, and it deserves to be. The food is excellent and, considering the quality, most favorably priced.
Yes, when the place is packed, as it always seems to be, it comes close to being a sardine factory, and the noise level gets up there. However, when the food comes, and the enjoyment begins, all of that fades into the background, and then it becomes time to let the forks roar and the knives sing.
When you first look at the place, you think California minimalist. Seating is for no more than 60, a bar takes up one-third of the sleek contemporary room, and an open kitchen at one end is beautifully styled. The menu is minimalist a la mode, too. The 10 or so starters and an equal number of entrees might make you think that the bread is being sliced a bit too thin, but it is not. The balance and creative selection are there.
To make it even more appealing, the food creations at Blackbird have panache and poise without being forced through a mutation that renders it impossible to identify (a big problem in restaurants where the chef has an ego bigger than the barrel he keeps his press clippings in).
The impresarios who put the wings on this bird are Donald Madia and Paul Kahan. Madia is the front man, greeter and, when necessary, waiter. Kahan is the chef de cuisine (formerly of erw9;'otatoes. The thing to note here is balance: Each ingredient carries its own taste weight without falling over.
An interesting and creative bit of cook work goes into the wood-grilled shrimp with Arborio rice. The rice, formed into a round an inch high, is studded with slivers of Granny Smith apples, black trumpet mushrooms and chunks of shrimp. Resting atop this ''rice puck'' is a whole grilled shrimp. A curried sweet corn broth gives the dish a fine finishing touch.
Reasonable prices? Yes. For example, a simple yet smashing appetizer of pan-fried lake perch is just . But you've never had lake perch like this before. The tender fillets are taste-aligned with roasted garlic, fennel, orange and pine nuts, which really take the perch to another taste level altogether. Then there is a little salmon caviar (whitefish caviar would work, too) to gild the humble perch.
Entrees fare equally well. The chef uses, in most instances, just three flavors to bring home the bacon, so to speak. Roasted wild bass needs only provencal eggplant, roasted garlic sauce and olive tapenade to make it sing. Seared Arctic char (the fashionable fish right now) gets along nicely with yams, shiitake mushrooms and a sherry vinegar sauce. Get the picture? Simple yet exciting, creative yet approachable.
I would gladly return again just to order the venison. Tender medallions, cooked to a perfect shade of pink and lavished with a red wine, thyme and currant sauce. The accompanying Swiss chard and fingerling potatoes were perfect complements.
And should you be in a fowl mood, you won't find a better chicken (and only 3) than the wood-grilled version, which comes with a silky butternut squash bread pudding of sorts, wild mushrooms and sauteed sprout leaves (the fashionable vegetable these days).
Desserts do justice to all that precedes them. There is a luscious assortment of seasonal fruit sorbets (Granny Smith apple, lemongrass) that end the meal on a light note. One not to miss, however, is the warm apple tart, which arrives a la mode with rich chevre ice cream. Also, a charlotte does a delicious yin and yang with the likes of lemon and fig, and a burnt caramel sauce supplies yet another flavor bang.
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Pat Bruno bites into restaurants and food every Saturday from 4 p.m to 6 p.m. on WMVP-AM (1000).
