Mandolin

When Greg Cox, the News & Observer's restaurant critic, recently awarded four and a half stars (of five) to Mandolin, a relatively new Raleigh restaurant, I figured I'd have to hit the place soon.  When I then learned that the chef was Sean Fowler, who had helped restore the Fearrington House Restaurant to the heights it had once enjoyed, I made an immediate reservation. 

I'm glad I did. 

Mandolin's frequently changing menu emphasizes local ingredients and traditional Southern food, but with modern cuisine touches.  The bacon-and-mushroom-infused foam on the delicious chicken and waffles is a simple example of the interplay of these two approaches.  The bourbon-marinated hangar steak was tender and flavorful and worked well with the other ingredients stacked both under and above it.  Every dish our group sampled was delicious. 

If you want to see if the place is for you, the online menu is not a bad way to start.  Though last night's menu was not the same as the one online,  the overlap was high, so you can use what's online as a reasonable guide. I should also note that the portions are quite large, so bring a healthy appetite, keep your order short, or plan on asking for boxes to take food home.

Oh, yeah:  Do not miss the miniature corn muffins in the bread basket.  They are wonderful. 

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the kitchen staff included the redoubtable Jeremy Clayman, who is one of the best chefs in the triangle.  I only wish Mandolin would feature him more.

Mandolin definitely is one of the better restaurants in the Triangle, and I recommend it. 

That said, Mandolin is not in the very highest tier of local establishments, at least not yet.  At that level, the restaurants, such as Panciuto, deliver such wonderful preparations that even the foods you know you don't like (in my case, Brussels sprouts spring to mind) surprise you by how delicious they are.  That wasn't quite the case here, as the vegetarians in our group noted. 

Nonetheless, I will certainly go back to see how the restaurant progresses.  I encourage you to do the same.

R.I.P. The Mint

The Triangle's best restaurant, The Mint, is no more. The business is still operating under that name, but Eric Foster and Jeremy Clayman, the two chefs who made it great and who brought molecular gastronomy to the area, have now both left, so the restaurant I loved has died. (Clayman went some time ago, and now Foster is no longer on the restaurant's site.)

If you want to see the difference between the meals I've glowingly described on this blog and what you can buy today, check out The Mint's dinner menu. The main courses, now down to three, sadly resemble the room-service offerings at most Westins--a fine hotel chain, to be sure, and one I quite like and often use, but not where I go for good food.

Clayman has resurfaced at the Busy Bee Cafe, where he's under-utilizing his skills but still producing some very tasty fare. I don't know where Foster has gone.

When those two were working at The Mint, and even when Foster alone was in charge, I was willing to proudly tell anyone that Raleigh had a restaurant that could produce a tasting menu of absolutely top-drawer caliber. I no longer can say that.

A Raleigh winner: great food, great prices

Long-time readers may recall my many posts lauding the food at The Mint, which when it allows Chef Eric Foster to prepare (and charge for) a top-drawer tasting menu is to my taste easily the best restaurant in the area. Back before hard economic times hit The Mint, Eric was part of a team whose lead was Jeremy Clayman, another wonderful chef. We've been waiting to discover where Jeremy would surface so we could rush there and try his cooking. Last week, we found out: the Busy Bee Cafe.

Having read a glowing newspaper article on it and having learned the place does not take reservations, we showed up about 6:45 this past Saturday night hoping we were early enough. We were--though just barely. We seated ourselves, and moments later, the place was 100% full. We were happy to have our table but still a little apprehensive, because one glance at the food menu made it clear that we were a long way from The Mint.

We need not have worried. We sampled four of the five sides (we skipped the salad), the cheese appetizer, a couple individual salads, two entrees, and the featured dessert (strawberry shortcake made with a lavender biscuit and ice cream on top). Every single dish I tried was wonderful. The macaroni and cheese was the best I've ever tasted, light and yet intense, as if the kitchen had somehow infused the pasta with the cheese. The fried green tomatoes showed me once again how a dish I normally find pedestrian can turn into a shining star in the hands of a great chef.

The meal was also a bargain: With a soda (and many free refills), a beer, some coffee, and all that food, the tab (before tip) for four of us was eighty-four bucks. Had we eaten at all sensibly, we could have easily shaved ten or twenty dollars off that total. You could make a meal of the mac and cheese and the tomatoes and escape for less than ten bucks--and be stuffed.

The Busy Bee is loud and rocking and will often make you wait for a seat, but I heartily recommend it. If I had an idle night on my hands (yeah, right), I'd head there in a heartbeat.

Check it out.