Revisiting [ONE]

I've written before about Chapel Hill's [ONE] restaurant. At the time, local chef Shane Ingram was in charge, and I quite liked the place. Some time ago, though, I heard that Ingram was parting ways with [ONE] and returning to his Foursquare Restaurant exclusively. I immediately dropped [ONE] from my list of places to try.

I was wrong.

The other night, a group of us, enticed by a very interesting dinner menu, returned to [ONE]. After sampling a large portion of that menu, including all of the desserts, I'm pleased to report that [ONE] is now even better than before.

Thanks to the fine chef team, the food is inventive and modern and entirely delicious. Executive Chef Sean McCarthy is an active presence in the open kitchen, expediting one moment, doing final plating another, and preparing dishes at other times. The only misstep of the evening was the warm foie preparation, which was dry from over-cooking and which sat on an unfortunate cauliflower puree; the lack of acidity and sweetness from fruit definitely hurt the dish. The rest of the appetizers and main courses were uniformly delicious.

The desserts, which frequently in local places are weak endings to fine meals, were, if anything, a step up. Pastry Chef Deric McGuffey concocts wonderful sweets, which his team, notably a woman whose name I could not get, implements beautifully. Artful in presentation and superb in taste, these desserts are worth a trip in their own right.

As soon as the menu changes, I'll be heading back to [ONE]. If you live in or visit this area, I recommend you do the same.

Black Swan

After a lovely and entirely too calorie-heavy dinner at the wonderful [ONE] restaurant, a group of us headed to the theater to check out Black Swan. The buzz surrounding this one is amazing, so we wanted to see if it deserved all that praise.

It does--but don't go without understanding what you're getting into. Sarah summarized the experience as like being punched in the face for two hours, and that's a fair assessment. The intensity never lifts, and the descent into madness is terrifying and believable.

Natalie Portman is simply brilliant. If she doesn't win the Best Actress Oscar going away, there is no justice. I haven't seen another performance in a 2010 film that even came close to hers.

Everything about the movie works. All the performances, the direction, the script--you name it, and it was strong, very strong.

Just understand that you'll be signing up to watch the disintegration of a person, and that is very hard to do.

I don't regret going, and if you're up for the film's subject matter, I can't recommend it highly enough, but I doubt I'll buy the DVD or watch it again. I just don't know that I want to take that pain again.