Tag: restaurant

Le Cremaillere in Bedford

We were always happy to visit Le Cremaillere for an excellent French meal, and this visit was another outstanding one. The restaurant reopened after the pandemic in 2022 with Chef Thomas Burke in charge. The menus were fresh and the chef came and chatted with you during your meal. It couldn’t have been a better experience.

In February of this year, Burke and his partners announced that they were revamping their menu to be “seafood forward,” and renaming the restaurant Le Poisson. They also rearranged the bar area as a lounge where you could eat without a reservation. They started serving in March and those who got there found it impressive. But eventually Burke and the owners had disagreements, and Burke left in late July, taking the “Le Poisson” name with him. The current restaurant simply restored its original name, Le Cremaillere. Watch for Burke to reopen his dream French seafood restaurant soon.

It was this latest incarnation that we visited last weekend. Before we even saw the menu, we received excellent hot rolls and butter and a little amuse-bouche crab puff.

The menu is divided into five courses, Froids (cold dishes), Chaudes (warm appetizers), Les Poissons (seafood) and Les Viandes (meats), and Desserts. You couldn’t possibly eat all five large courses, but they do offer a Chef’s Tasting Menu for $145 , in which you can pick one from each category and receive a smaller portion of it. The only drawback is that your whole table has to order the same 5 things. But this was a disagreement easily resolved, because everything on the menu was outstanding.

We started with the Country Style Duck Terrine, with pistachios, truffle, cornichon and condiments, along with some crusty bread to eat with it. It was silky smooth with a nice crunch from the pistachios. Other choices included smoked salmon, burrata, aromatic house salad and foie gras au torchon.

The Chaudes section included the beloved Billy-Bi (PEI mussels and saffron cream soup) as well as Green asparagus with hollandaise and Hudson Valley foie gras, but we chose the Baked Escargot in Garlic Custard with breadcrumbs, nuts, tomato puree and parsley sauce. This was a really interesting take on escargot: no shells, no curry flavor, but a lovely fusion of flavors.

The seafood course offers sea scallops, sautéed red snapper, and seared Scottish salmon. But the outstanding choice was the Dover Sole with fava bean puree, broccoli, carrot and caviar beurre blanc. I’ve never had a better serving of sole.

The meat course selections include Rack of Lamb, Duck Breast and Roasted Chicken, but we chose the Filet Mignon, with crispy shallot topping, pommes puree, mixed mushrooms and sauce au poivre. It was tender and juicy and much more flavorful than the run of the mill filet you often get.

The waitress suggested come French fries to go with it, but all this food we barely touched them. They were excellent, however.

Finally, while the full dessert menu contains nine selections, the waitress only suggested two when she took our dinner order. We chose the chocolate souffle with Grand Marnier and pistachio. This was a do-it-yourself souflee: you got to poke a hole in it yourself and pour the pitcher of chocolate sauce into it. And, if you look carefully, you will notice a small serving of a rich, chocolate gelato alongside.

And, of course, there were final cookies as well.

This is not an inexpensive restaurant. With 3 glasses of wine, coffee and tea and tax, but before tip the bill for two was $392. But it was a lovely evening, with superb service throughout, and outstanding food in every way. We’ll be back again!

Ventuno is absolutely top notch!

Eating at Ventuno (21 Federal St) is always a great pleasure. The breadth and creativity of their menu makes every visit delightful.

Last week was Nantucket Restaurant Week, and Ventuno gave you a choice of their Restaurant Week menu: 4 courses for $75 or their full menu. The only real difference is that that the smaller menu skips some of the more expensive items, but everything else was the same, and there was plenty to choose from. Either way, you get a selection from Antipasti, one from Primi, one from Secondi and a dessert from Dolci.

We were going to just order from the reduced menu until we discovered the breast of duck on the full menu. Thus, we became a full menu customer.

Our Antipasti choice was a Caesar Salad, made with Romaine, celery, ciabatta-parmigiano croutons, a Caesar dressing and thin slices of parmigiano cheese. Crunchy, delicious and substantial in size.

As a surprise, the waitress gave us an extra little course of the Chef’s Ricotta spread on toast as well. It was smooth, creamy and quite flavorful.

This was followed by Strozzapreti, dre’s spicy chicken sausage, broccoli rabe, and pecorino, served with some extra parmigiano cheese to sprinkle as needed. This was spicy but not overpoweringly so, and quite a change from the usual Nantucket fare.

And finally, the main course: cherry & balsamic glazed duck breast, roasted cherries, farro, radicchio, endive, hazelnut crema & candied hazelnuts, with scallions & pecorino. What a magnificent preparation. Tender, juicy duck breast sitting on the cherries and candied hazelnuts. What could be better?

Well, of course, there was still dessert. We’d had many of the other desserts, so we went with the burnt sugar and orange flan with a candied orange slice in it.

What a great way to finish a terrific meal. We are always really impressed with Ventuno, and hope you will be too!

Black-Eyed Susan’s is back for breakfast

Thanks to Michael and Orly LaScola, Chef Todd Edwards and Anna Worgess, who purchased Black-Eyed Susan’s from its previous owner, Susan Handy, the beloved restaurant is back and this year serving its well-regarded breakfasts 6 days a week. (They are closed on Wednesdays.) Breakfast is served to walk-ins from 7am to 1pm.

Being that it is still early in June, we were able to walk in for breakfast without the longer summer wait and sit at a table. The menu is similar to the old restaurant, offering eggs, scrambles, pancakes, hash browns, French toast, omelets and breakfast sandwiches. But even if you have to wait for a while on the benches outside, it’s worth it. It is just about the only breakfast place downtown and it is simply excellent.

We ordered eggs over easy with sausage and their excellent oat bread toast.

But more to the point, we got our tea in an actual teapot: one of the few restaurants in the Northeast that serves it that way.

And did we mention the service? The staff is warm and welcoming, and you can watch it your order being prepared in the open kitchen behind the counter. Our bill for tea, eggs, sausage and toast was $30.49 including $1.99 tax. And it is likely to be one of the best breakfasts we’ll have here!