Dining review: Return visits to some French favorites
I made some return visits to restaurants I haven’t reviewed in a while. This time around, I drop in on a few French favorites.
Coquette
4351 The Circle at North Hills, Raleigh
919-789-0606
Last review: 2009 (4.5 stars)
New rating: 4 stars
My dear Coquette,
It’s hard to believe that six years have passed since I last wrote to you. It was just a few months after your debut at North Hills, remember? Of course, the world saw my words as a restaurant review, but you and I know that it was a love letter.
I was beguiled by your classic French brasserie looks, from the lipstick red upholstery in your dining room to your satin-smooth zinc bar. I swooned over the silky custard of your quiche Lorraine. I went weak at the knees over the ruby flesh of your steak tartare. I got lost in the soulful depths of your cassoulet.
If I’ve been neglectful in writing you in the years since, you can be sure that I haven’t forgotten about you. I still visit you from time to time, but the nature of our relationship requires that my visits remain anonymous. Please know that I continue to look forward to every one of our secret encounters.
It’s only natural, I suppose, that our relationship would lose a little of its magic over the years. I admit that I share part of the blame. I can’t deny that, with the passing of time, I’ve grown a little more, well, critical. I couldn’t help but notice the undercooked crust on your tarte Tatin the last time we were together. And I don’t know how to say this except to just come out with it: your cassoulet was a little dry.
But your mesclun salad was perfectly dressed in a champagne vinaigrette, and your foie gras was velvet on the tongue. Your pommes frites, redolent of truffle oil and bejeweled with fines herbes, are the stuff of dreams. Your Brussels sprouts, transformed by the alchemy of caramelization into something altogether superior, made even more memorable by pairing them with crunchy shards of lardon and serving them over applesauce and cream. And oh! Those profiteroles with chocolate poured tableside!
So, my dear Coquette, I am happy to sign myself as I did before:
Hungering for you,
G
La Résidence
202 W. Rosemary St., Chapel Hill
919-967-2506
Last review: 2004 (2.5 stars out of 4)
New rating: 3 stars out of 5
La Résidence is, by virtue of age and pedigree, the grande dame of French restaurants in the Triangle. Legendary chef and cookbook writer Bill Neal opened the restaurant in 1976 with his wife, Moreton, in the country mansion that is now home to Fearrington House. La Rez, as it has come to be called by locals, has since moved twice, and has been at its current location in a converted Dutch colonial house on Rosemary Street since 1990.
Location isn’t the only thing that has changed. Over the years, the menu has reflected the personal style of each chef who has worn the toque at La Résidence. But the food has never strayed too far from the roots of classical French cuisine that has become synonymous with the restaurant’s name, and is a natural match for the Provencal charm of its dining rooms and trellised patio.
When I last reviewed La Résidence, chef Michael Seese’s signature was evident in elegant creations that included salmon Wellington with a delicate mustard cream sauce, and leg of lamb with pan-roasted vegetables and celery root gratin.
In the decade since, a number of chefs – at least three, by my count – have come and gone.
The latest in the line of succession is Chapel Hill native John Fearrington, who returned from a three-year cooking stint in San Francisco to take over last fall. Chef Fearrington has wasted no time in putting his Southern-accented imprint on the menu with the likes of fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese and espelette pepper aioli, and shrimp and three-cheese grits with applewood-smoked bacon, cremini mushrooms and shrimp jus. And if you’re looking for more traditional evidence that Fearrington is a worthy successor in the long line of chefs at La Résidence, he can turn out a solid beef bourguignon, too,
Provence
203 W. Weaver St., Carrboro
919-967-5008
Last review: 2002 (3.5 stars out of 4)
New rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
When I reviewed Provence a few months after the restaurant opened in a quaint bungalow in Carrboro, I was impressed by the auberge-like charm of the place and by the polished service. But not as much as I was by the food: escargots with garlic a licorice whisper of pastis; terrine of smoked salmon, a pastel patchwork of rosy fish and buttery paté; duck leg confit in a “cassoulet” of lima beans, chorizo and whole garlic cloves. It was easy to see why owner/chef Felix Roux had, over the course of a long career that had taken him from California to Florida, won praise from the likes of Gourmet magazine and the New York Times.
Roux and his wife, Annie, had retired to the Triangle to be near their grandchildren. When the urge to return to the kitchen became so strong that the chef came out of retirement to open Provence, Carrboro was the beneficiary.
Three years ago, Roux retired again – this time for good. Chef de cuisine Baptist Knaven took over as owner/executive chef, and has since worked to maintain the high standard set by his mentor.
He succeeds, by and large, judging by a recent Sunday brunch. Granted, his escargots fall short of the almost impossible-to-match mark set by his predecessor. But his onion soup gratinée, loaded with sweet caramelized onions in a deeply flavorful broth and baked under a dome of blistered gruyere, is superb. Smoked salmon, this time around appearing in a Benedict with textbook hollandaise and poached egg on grilled brioche, is another keeper. So is an order of moules frites that serves up a bounty of plump PEI mussels in a white wine broth punctuated with roasted tomatoes and garlic. And if the wedge-cut fries are not the classic frites you were expecting, they’ll do the trick – especially if you dip them in that saffron-scented aioli that accompanies the dish.
As any self-respecting French restaurant should, Provence has a solid French-leaning wine selection, including half a dozen champagnes – which should come in handy if you’re celebrating, say, a retirement.
Vin Rouge
2010 Hillsborough Road, Durham
919-416-0466
Last review: 2005 (3.5 stars out of 4)
New rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
When Matt Kelly took over the kitchen at Vin Rouge in 2003, it was clear that the young chef was a rising star. Almost overnight, he elevated what had been a pretty good French bistro to best-in-class status. In my review, about a year and a half into his tenure (OK, I confess: I liked the place so much that I allowed myself more than the usual number of visits), I raved about pretty much everything that came out of his kitchen, from house-made charcuterie to textbook chocolate mousse.
In 2012, Kelly opened a second restaurant, a Spanish tapas bar with a Southern accent called Mateo. Once again, he raised the bar for the genre. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder: Would the new venture dilute Kelly’s efforts, and would Vin Rouge suffer as a result? I wasn’t too worried. With talented chef de cuisine Josh DeCarolis doing much of the heavy lifting at Mateo, Kelly should be able to keep things running smoothly at Vin Rouge. But it couldn’t hurt to drop in and see how Vin Rouge was faring.
Turns out Vin Rouge is faring just fine. Over the course of two visits (again, couldn’t resist the temptation), I didn’t encounter a single dish that failed to measure up to my past experiences. A few highlights: roasted beef marrow bones crisscrossed over a small, perfectly dressed vinaigrette salad; veal sweetbreads, their buttery texture set off against crunchy lardons, pistachios and butternut squash in a cider reduction; an irreproachably fresh filet of flounder, pan-seared and napped with black truffle beurre blanc; chocolate mousse, served at the table – and, as in the past, so rich you could almost mistake it for ganache.
Kelly and DeCarolis recently announced plans to open an Italian trattoria called Mothers & Sons next door to Mateo in the fall. When it opens, I think it’s safe to bet on two things: Mothers & Sons will be very good, and Vin Rouge will continue to be very, very good.
The N&O’s critic dines anonymously; the newspaper pays for all meals. We rank restaurants in five categories: ☆☆☆☆☆ Extraordinary ☆☆☆☆ Excellent. ☆☆☆ Above average. ☆☆Average. ☆ Fair.
This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Dining review: Return visits to some French favorites."