Zinc and Tonic

Four years ago, getting a cocktail in New Haven was a perilous affair. There were around 2 acknowledged venues for a good mixed drink: Hot Tomatoes and Cafe Bottega. If you could get past the rancid carpet on your arrival and the lusty after-work crowd at the bar and the music that prevented your order from being heard, you then wondered why gin had been banned in martinis and how champagne could be put to such evil uses. Cafe Bottega was a spirited venue, I miss their mojitos, but one venue did not make a drink scene.

Fast forward to the time of Prime 16, 116 Crown and Firehouse 12, places where the staff has opinions about the type of vodka you drink, or the shape of a glass and where you realize that the combination of something simple like vodka, Galliano and orange juice can be divine if done well.

This seems to be the motto of Zinc. In my experience I have had: Nachos, roasted chicken, salad, berries with whipped cream, and a chocolate cake. This should be the sort of stuff you get at a pub, but the simple rules of each dish give life to subtlety. The nachos are sprinkled with duck meat. The salad was dressed with restraint: a little vinegar and a little oil and a little goat cheese. The berries were topped with champagne infused whipped cream, which gave the cream a little more gravity and brought forward the freshness of the berries. It's much mor edifficult to describe why the chicken was such a success without describing...well...really good chicken. But that was executed with crispy, juicy, large proportioned ease as well.

Nothing was too assertive about the meal, everything was perfect. Except for the wine list. Stick to the cocktails. As of this posting they have added a brand new drinks menu, making it one of the better places to drink as well.

Night 1-The Art of Ravioli

In an article about the restaurant Babbo, in Lower Manhattan, NY Times reporter Sam Sifton writes about the ravioli. (For many years, Chef Boyardee, was synonymous with ravioli for me. If this seems unusual to you, check out the parent company of Chef Boyardee, and discover just how much muscle lies at the ready underneath that smiling chef's visage.) Sifton's article hones its contemplation of ravioli to something like the the crux of a zen koan: "The best ravioli is made in stages and eaten leisurely." He also notes that this ravioli comes at a hefty price.

One can debate the merits of going to certain restaurants during restaurant week. If you went to certain restaurants on a normal day, would you spend more than 30 dollars? Ibiza is one of those restaurants where the answer will never be no. In this way Ibiza is the rarest of treats in New Haven, available only when one feels flush with cash and in need of some of the familiar warmth a cozy restaurant can provide. Ibiza can fabricate such intimacy with its sensitivity to the line between the formality one secretly desires from a place where you are going to spend your discretionary budget and the pleasantness of people who seem to want you to enjoy your time at the restaurant. This comes from the simple gestures of welcome at the door, or the pleasant chit-chat from the wait staff.

They also have excellent ravioli. I recommend the baby back ribs, which are cooked to the point of butter-knife tenderness. They are also glazed with a sauce that has slightly caramelized, giving texture to each bite. Ibiza also makes its own ice cream. They often have a honey and lavender ice cream, delivered on a spoon accompanying an apple and lavender tart. The flavor is delicate, with the lavender providing a twist to the flavor. Their Sangria is perhaps their only disappointing menu item, because it lacks the extra layer of surprise that much of their food provides.

-DT

Restaurant Week

I am writing this in anticipation of restaurant week in New Haven. Restaurant Week begins today, seemingly as part of New Haven's pitch to become a more attractive city to people looking to relocate to New Haven. Whenever I pass the State 360 project, I sincerely hope that it's working. Restaurant week in the winter seemed to pass me right by, despite the giant billboard by Ikea, the fliers in handed out by Downtown Ambassadors (those people who look like they are on Safari), and various e-mails, and newspaper articles, I still grumbled that the town just didn't try hard enough to inform me about this upcoming event. I heard about it through a friend on the Wednesday of Restaurant Week. This led to some frantic phoning. Everyone was very polite in saying, "No." My favorite "no" came from Ibiza. When you hear most things said with a slightly Spanish accent, you cannot help but feeling thrilled. After getting used to hearing the response it was easier to phone all the restaurants on the list, the final one being Thali. I didn't want to go to Thali (through no fault of the restaurant, I just was not eager for Indian.) Of course they said they had 2 seats left...5 minutes of haggling with the hostess later, during which I tried to extract myself from the situation by claiming that I wanted a table at what I thought would be a peak time, then asking for more seats, then just plain trying to back out of the arrangement. Once again the people were very patient and accommodating, despite my increasingly frantic demands.

This time around, New Haven went above and beyond by postering the New Haven train station, which I frequent. While I never noticed the poster until the same friend from the winter informed me that Restaurant Week was approaching, the poster was then a nice reminder. I will be going to at least 3 restaurants this week: Zinc, Ibiza and L'Orcio. I will try to fit some others into my lunch schedule. I tried to get reservations to Bespoke a week in advance, but apparently so did hundreds of other people. I also tried to reserve a table at Kudeta, but either they are shunning the 20th century by letting their web-site go defunct and disconnecting their phone, or they are going through some issues with being open. Most of the restaurants use the OpenTable system, which takes some of the thrill out of reservation making, but is a lot faster and less awkward. I will be writing up my impressions of these restaurants after I go, as a mental keepsake for myself, and a guide to restaurants for anyone who might be interested in that sort of thing. I will also provide some thoughts on how the OpenTable system works out. So far, I have been called by one restaurant to confirm my reservation, which is reassuring. Part of me fears that my reservations will never be read and I will hike up to these restaurants just to be turned away at the door. Until soon.
-DT