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.

You say it's your birthday

It's my birthday too--yeah.

A lazy day it was, which is all I wanted. I'll have a proper birthday party in a month or so, but I just couldn't get my act together now to assemble one.

I sucked at Halo today, but playing it with Scott, Sarah, Kyle, and the random other players of the online Haloverse is fun just because I get to hang with those three.

Dinner tonight was a very special treat: a twelve-course tasting menu at The Mint, courtesy of Executive Chef Eric Foster and his team. Though The Mint, like many fine-dining establishments, has had to retool itself in these down times, I was able to persuade (well, okay, and pay) Eric to blow it out on a special tasting menu. Every single dish was delicious, with amazing combinations of techniques and ingredients. Kudos also go to our amazing (and regular) server, the lovely Thea (whose last name I do not give only because I do not know it), who did a wonderful job managing our rather large group.

If you have some serious coin to blow on a high-end meal, call The Mint, ask Eric to create a tasting menu, tell him you'll pay what it takes, and plan to be amazed.








(* Credits to The Beatles for the first two lines.)

The Mint still rules

A group of eleven of us ate at The Mint last night, and once again I must report that the meal was superb. Chef Eric Foster created a tasting menu for us that was the most ambitious offering we've had in the Triangle area, and he and his kitchen pulled it off admirably. The visual highlight was a tangerine juice globe that covered a small portion of some of the best Ahi tuna I've ever tasted. The sous vide duck was perfect, everything duck can be with none of the usual drawbacks. I could go on and on, but I won't; just go eat there.

I should mention that midway through the meal I learned that Jeremy Clayman, the former Executive Chef, was no longer with the restaurant. I don't know any of the particulars about what happened, but I want to know where he landed so I can eat there. (Jeremy, if you read this, email me!)

The best line of the night came from our server, the redoubtable Thea (whose last name I do not give only because I do not know it), who said,

I've seen the things they can do to a squash in this building, and I'm not worried.

How can you not love a woman who says that?

Make up your own story about why she said it. I'm not telling.

On the last Saturday before Christmas, The Mint had multiple empty tables. I very much hope this place survives; if you live in the area, please give it your business.

The Mint does it again

Tonight, four of us drove through the rain to The Mint for a second try at the tasting menu. We were curious whether our initial experience was a fluke or if the place really was that good.

Four and a half hours and about thirteen courses later, the verdict was clear: The Mint is indeed our area's best restaurant. Chef Jeremy Clayman outdid his previous offering. Our lead server, Thea (who did not give her last name), was efficient and charming and everything a server should be. Every single dish was interesting, inventive, and, most importantly, delicious.

If you live in the Research Triangle area, save up your money, call The Mint, ask for a tasting menu, and tell them I sent you. You won't regret it.

On the writing front, Overthrowing Heaven continues to grow, though never as quickly as I'd like. I have no clue how big this book will be, but my current belief is that it will be longer than Slanted Jack, which was longer by about eighteen percent than One Jump Ahead. We'll see. I know I'm still enjoying this one, which as I've explained earlier in true neurotic writer fashion does worry me a bit. Nonetheless, I must now return to the world of Jon and Lobo.

The Mint: The best restaurant in the Research Triangle area

After the bellydancing show last night, we went to dinner at The Mint at One Exchange Plaza, a relatively new (opened in January) restaurant in downtown Raleigh. We entered with some doubts, because the local Raleigh restaurant critic had given it the same rating as several other places we'd tried recently, and all of them had disappointed us a bit. We left three hours later sure in the knowledge that the critic was wrong--he should have ranked The Mint much, much higher than all the others--and that we'd just eaten at the best restaurant in the area.

The moment you spot the lovely entranceway and take advantage of the free valet parking, you begin to hope for something special. The interior, complete with bank vault door leading from the foyer into the dining room, is elegant and way more big city in feel than one expects in our area. Attractive design touches abound: a winding staircase to the bar upstairs, strands of crystal hanging in the two-story-high windows, nifty place settings and candle holders, and so on. In the wrong mood I might take the designer as having tried a bit too hard, but even then I'd admire the effort. I was in the right mood, however, so I loved the place.

The real star of the show, though, is the food. Executive Chef Jeremy Clayman and Chef Eric Foster (whose title I regret I did not get) are a potent, talented, young team. We'd read in the local paper that they were slowly introducing Raleigh to molecular gastronomy, so we begged them to hold back nothing, to create a tasting menu they wanted to cook, charge us whatever was fair, and hit us with their best shots. They did. The resulting meal included many courses (I didn't count, but at least nine), and each one was delicious, inventive, playful, and interesting. For those afraid of molecular gastronomy, note the first word in that list: delicious. Just order the food, put it in your mouth, close your eyes, and experience it.

We were lucky enough to be able to talk to the chefs for a few minutes after the meal, and they said that they were encountering some resistance to their techniques. Though that's probably something we should expect from Raliegh, I'm still very sorry to hear it, because these two are superb at what they do.

Let me give one example, the dish I believe would be most likely to scare away most diners. (None of the others was this weird, so I figure if you can get your heads around this one, you can handle the rest.) In a beautiful, small, white bowl we received a dish that looked like a slice of sardine sitting atop some reddish-brown crumbs and some tiny yellow-white balls. The dish was in fact a Spanish sardine atop pound cake crumbs and banana ice cream dots--and it wasn't a dessert. Okay, I grant it wasn't traditional, and I can see how it might put you off, but if you passed it by you'd be missing something wonderful. Cut the sardine and use a spoon to put a bit of it, some dots, and some cake crumbs into your mouth all at once. Chew, and you experience the true joy and magic of adventuresome cuisine (molecular gastronomy or otherwise): a wonderful blending of textures (crumbs and popping dots and the soft flesh of the sardine) and tastes that you've never experienced before, something totally new and joyful. The fishiness of the sardine vanished and left a briney flavor that mixed beautifully with the other ingredients. Amazing.

The Mint doesn't post its offer of a tasting menu, but I highly recommend asking them to create one for you. These guys are artists, so hand them money, sit back, and let them work. I'll be returning many times to do it again. I'll also go to try the items on the menu; if they cook it, I want to eat it.

I should also note that the service, led by our main server, Kevin Barrett, was attentive without being intrusive and generally quite good. I'm only downplaying it because the food is so stellar.

I still adore Piedmont and Rue Cler and many other local favorites, and I'll dine at each of them often. When you eat the The Mint's tasting menu, however, you're entering another level. I've dined at about half of the country's top-rated restaurants, and the highest praise I can give The Mint is this: my meal last night held its own against the best I've had.

Keep this place in business, and encourage Clayman and Foster to keep practicing and improving their art. Take a chance on their talents, and you'll be very glad you did.