The Bristol Seafood Grill franchise, with restaurants in Creve Coeur and O’Fallon, Mo., is unveiling a new four-course chef’s tasting menu that keeps things interesting.
The menu, which was previewed last month, features a fruitwood-smoked trout appetizer with pickled cucumbers and onions, dill crème and caraway crackers that plays like a dish at an upscale deli (or a particularly creative break-the-fast after Yom Kippur). The second course is a savory Swiss chard and goat cheese tart with a currant-pignolia relish, followed by a choice of olive oil-poached Alaskan halibut with pappardelle pasta and vegetables in white wine clam broth, or a petite filet mignon and Alaskan king crab with foyot sauce. (For those keeping score, foyot is in the béarnaise sauce family.)
Dessert is an orange panna cotta in a demitasse cup served with a lemon ricotta cookie. The panna cotta is garnished with absolutely adorable little candied kumquat slices that look like breakfast for Barbie and Ken.
The tasting menu is also available with wine pairings, naturally – and on a related note, Bristol has a special machine that will reseal your partially consumed bottles of wine so they can be taken from the restaurant legally.
– Byron Kerman
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2010.