Elske

 

While I do like to go to restaurants with Tasting Menus, it isn't my normal dining choice and the fact that dining at two tasting menu restaurants came so close together was highly unusual.  I had planned a couple of months in advance to go to Elske.  Claudia, the previous restaurant/pop-up that I had gone to with a tasting menu came very quickly and was a quick decision.  Elske has been open for about a year and I have been very interested in it since I heard about it.  Run by husband and wife team, David and Anna Posey, formerly from the One Off Hospitality Group (Blackbird, The Publican, Nico Osteria, etc.), the restaurant is listed as New American, and while many of the ingredients are Midwestern, the recipes used have a decidedly Danish spin (the name is Danish for love).  The place has received a lot of buzz, garnering Best New Restaurant lauds from both Bon Appetit, and Eater, and a Michelin Star in it's first year.  The outside of the building is light colored with large windows, but is otherwise pretty non-descript other than the script neon sign that says "elske" in the corner of one window.  The entrance is hidden.  There is a tall wooden fence next to the building with a large gate door that opens into a very quaint courtyard with crushed stone, lawn furniture with furs laying on them, and a fireplace (which I neglected to photograph).  The entrance to the restaurant is in the back corner of the courtyard.  The only reason that I knew this was because I had been to this building in it's previous restaurant incarnation, though the fence was not there to shield the courtyard.  The inside of the restaurant is simple with both a feel for both retro and Euro simplicity.  We were seated at a table in the center of the room where there was a good view of the dining area, but also of the open kitchen and of the small bar area.  While the restaurant serves both a tasting menu and a la carte, we came interested in the tasting menu, though looking at the menu, there were also some very good things on the a la carte menu.  Both were presented in a very nice menu that looked like a greeting card with a nice and simple hand drawn design of herbs, flowers and mushrooms.This was appropriate because a menu is just that, a greeting card into a chef's establishment, and the design gave us a hint of what was to come.  While we discussed what the plan of attack might be, I ordered a cocktail.  Called a GinTonic, as might be gathered from the name, it was a spin on the standard Gin and Tonic.  This was made with 4 different gins, City of London Dry, Old Raj, Tanquerey, and Citadelle, Elske's Housemade Tonic Syrup, and a Dried Lime.  It was served in a tall glass with a cylindrical ice cube, a mint leaf garnish, and a paper straw.  A good gin and tonic is smooth, sparkling, and sweet, with a generous amount of herbal flavor.  This was that with the complexity that came from the herbal mixtures from the different gins.  It was a nice and refreshing start before we actually ate anything.

Talking to the waiter we found, like many places, if one person was to have the tasting menu, we all would.  We also found that we could augment the tasting menu with dishes from the a la carte menu which we decided to do.  We would be getting an additional course that our waiter helped us to decide when in the progression that it would arrive.  Our first course looked both simple and complex and was very pretty.  Called a Tea of Lightly Smoked Fruits and Vegetables with Radish and Caviar Toast and it served as sort of a prelude to the meal. It was a simple cup with a tea with a lightly smoked flavor and a thin slice of buttered toast with julienned radishes and bites of caviar.  The toast was light and crisp and with the radishes and caviar tasted very fresh and had a nice saltiness to it.

The next course was Sprouted Lentil Crepes with Smoked Whitefish Salad and Tarragon.  It actually arrived while we were working on our first course.  Also meant to be eaten by hand, it was presented folded in wax paper which made it easier to handle.  The crepe was like a thin and delicate pancake, which is how a good crepe is supposed to be, with sprouted lentils used in the batter.  The smoked whitefish salad was both smooth, smoky, and a little salty, which provided some nice flavor.  The tarragon added a nice herbal flavor.  This was a favorite and it was very difficult not to wolf it down and ask for more.

The next course was also hand held and it was beautiful in it's simple presentation.  It was a Duck Liver Tart with Salted Ramps and Buckwheat.  They were presented in simple wedges on a cutting board that sort of reminded me of a backgammon design.  The tart itself was excellent (although not as good as the previous dish).  The duck liver mousse had a nice flavor that was augmented with the green salted ramp topping that provided a light garlic/onion flavor.  The buckwheat crust provided a firm backbone and was slightly sweet that played to the sweetness of the duck liver mousse.

We went back to vegetables for our next course.  The dish was simple in it's presentation, but it looked very nice on the black plate that it was presented on.  While I will try anything that I see on a menu that I haven't tried before, I was really unsure about the combination of this dish in my head.  It was Salsify and Endives with Delice Cream, Burnt Bread, and Black Truffles.  Salsify is a flowering plant (also known as oyster plant) with an edible root used in French and German cooking that is texturally like asparagus, but tastes vaguely of oysters.  Endives are a bitter leafy vegetable of the Chicory family and Delice is a French Cow's Milk triple cream cheese with a very soft and buttery texture.  There were several bitter components in the dish, the Endives, the burnt bread, which was in crumb form and the salsify was rolled in, and the truffles.  I did like this, but I think it was because the Delice moderated the bitter and tied everything together.

The menu was following a fairly standard course progression with opening bites, appetizers, and vegetables, next would be fish, which it was.  We had Roasted Monkfish with Onion Soubise (a Bechamel Sauce with Onions and Rice Puree), Parsnip, and Preserved Meyer Lemon.  Monkfish is an ugly fish with an enormous head and a large mouth with the only thing eaten is the meat around the tail.  It is very tender and has a flavor similar to whitefish.  The white sauce added a nice onion flavor and the preserved meyer lemon was presented as a topping that gave the entire dish some tartness.  It wasn't bad and on it's own might have been considered pretty good, but with the other courses that had been presented so far, this fell in the lower half.

Our next course was a feast in and of itself and it's where our additional dish was added.  The course was mostly about duck, with 3 of the 5 courses on the 4 plates including something about duck in the dish.  The main plate was Aged Duck Breast and Mustard Seed Duck Sausage.  The vegetable plate was a Leek Barigoule (a Provencal dish typically using artichokes but in this case using Leeks, braised with Garlic and Carrots in a seasoned broth of water and wine) topped with Creamed Duck Fat.  A very nice and large Dinner Roll was included, and then our supplemental plate, Confit Hen of the Woods Mushrooms, with Chestnut, Pear Cream, and Thyme.  I like duck, so the aged duck breast was a win.  The mustard seed duck sausage was spicy and very tasty.  The leeks were perfectly cooked and were served at the point where the vegetables were between crisp and soft with the creamed duck fat providing a nice bit of savoriness.  The dinner roll was one of the best rolls that I have ever had and I would have been happy to eat it on its own.  It had a nice crust and the inside was just tear apart soft with a nice flavor.  With the extra course, my dining companions liked it and I liked the mushrooms, which were thinly sliced, but the pear cream included pears and I didn't care for it.  The main course was very good and our supplemental had good elements.  I could see how it was all supposed to work together, I just didn't care for the entire combination together.

As might be guessed, the last course was our last savory course.  Our next course was a very simple and cute palate cleanser, Frozen Fennel Jelly with Mint.  It was a simple bite to be eaten by hand with light mint flavor.  It was like a a mint gummy cube and I really enjoyed it.

Palate cleansers are pre-desserts to bridge the gap between the savory main course and the sweet desserts.  Having said that while our dessert was very good, it wasn't exceptionally sweet.  It was Whipped Whey with Earl Grey Ice Cream, Parsnips, Buckwheat, and Lemon.  The whipped whey was very light and interesting.  It was similar to Whipped Cream, but the texture wasn't quite the same.  The Earl Grey ice cream added an herbal and sweet tartness, which the lemon used to tie to the whey, and the buckwheat added a little crunch.  Overall it was a very good meal with some good friends that was enjoyed by all.  I'm glad that I was able to go and was happy to have friends to share it with.