13.5% Wine Bar + Food

I know, I know - you're thinking that we should change the name of this blog to "Stuff Cyrus Keefer Feeds Us." And maybe we should. We've covered his cuisine at Fork & Wrench, his Pique pop-up, and at his most recent gig, 13.5% Wine Bar. And we're doing it again. This time, we were invited to a media tasting, which meant we would get to try several more of his dishes than the two of us would normally order on our own.

13.5% Wine Bar has really embraced their new chef. For one thing, notice the recently added "+ Food" in their name. While it's still a great place to enjoy a glass or three of vino, the food game has been stepped up considerably. It's now a place that even non-wine-drinkers can enjoy (they have cocktails and beer, if you're still into the booze). The restaurant is bigger, with table seating for 70, 20 additional at the bar, and al fresco dining, too, courtesy of the new retractable facade.

But we were there for the food, so let's jump right into it. Here's the current menu, for your perusal.

Cyrus started us with an off-menu app of tuna and tomato crudo with miso poached mozzarella. The mozz and tomato made it a bit like a Caprese, but with tuna instead of basil, and the chef's customary touches of Asian flavors, like kombu. This dish hit so many flavor points - tangy, sweet, umami, salty - and I would love to see a larger version of it on the menu.

We had two types of pizza next, the "pizza pie," which had classic pizza flavors and aromas on a crust of pate brisee, or regular pie crust dough. The other was a French bread-style pizza topped with snails and chorizo. The two versions were as different as night and day, the "pie" version light and fresh (despite the very buttery crust) and the other rich and garlicky. Not expecting to get so much other food, we each ate two slices, almost (but not quite) regretting it later in the meal.

Then came a salad of sauteed zucchini, white corn, and baby arugula with fresh cherries and avocado. The vinaigrette showed off the chef's talent with such sauces, being both savory and acidic, with the lightest kiss of black truffle oil. While I normally don't see the point of white corn, especially the tiny kerneled-type, here it punctuated the salad with juicy bursts of texture.

We also tried the tender and cheesy gnocchi-esque goat cheese dumplings with smoked tomato caper sauce and the sous vide octopus with a similarly smoky red pepper sauce, zucchini puree, and polenta. My palate doesn't enjoy smoked + some non-fish seafood, but the octopus was so fork-tender, I ate it all anyway.

So. Much. Food. And we're not done, folks! We also tried "our heavenly take on ramen," which was on the menu the last time we ate at 13.5%. (If soft shells hadn't also been on offer, I would have ordered it.) The soup takes elements from traditional Japanese tonkotsu and Hokkaido-style broths by using both pork (in the form of house-made bacon) and corn (a corn dashi). The genius noodles are actually house-made linguine with baking soda, to give them a very ramen-like bite. There's also a soft-boiled egg, kale, and mushrooms in the mix. There was no way I could finish the dish, so thank goodness for doggie bags.

Our last item, which I didn't photograph, were the pork belly and smoked shrimp spring rolls we had eaten before. They were lovely then and still lovely today, even though I had to eat mine slightly soggy at lunch the next day. Best spring roll in town though.

Whew. Lots of food. No room for Morgaine Brunn's desserts (which could have been a wee peach ice cream-stuffed almond macaron, were we not stuffed). Lots of excellent flavors and textures, too. Cyrus has some great and clever ideas floating around in his head, and the ability to execute them.

The whole purpose of this post is to continue to get the word out about the new focus on food at 13.5% Wine Bar + Food. If you don't go, I'll just have to post again in the future. You are forewarned.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

13.5% Wine Bar

Back sometime before last Christmas, I purchased an Amazon Local deal for 13.5% Wine Bar. We had every intention of using it around the holiday, perhaps during our annual pilgrimage to see the Miracle on 34th Street. Instead, we went to Arthouse, next door, and I can't remember why, Soon, the months slipped by until I realized our deal was about to expire. Before it was too late, we got ourselves to Hampden to enjoy the drinks, appetizers, and entrees to which we were entitled.

Honestly, I'm not much of a wine person. I used to think I preferred reds to whites, but now I feel the opposite. I prefer wines that are bright, crisp, and cold to tannic red vinos that are usually served entirely too warm. And I would much rather have a beer or cocktail than a glass of wine. And though I could have tried any alcoholic beverage on the menu as part of my deal, I started off with a glass of Chateau Gaillard Gamay, a bright rose with a lovely strawberry aroma. Mr Minx, who does prefer reds, had a fruity Reunion Malbec.

For our first courses, I chose the braised pork belly with cabbage. While it could have been a bit warmer in temperature, the pork belly was lusciously fatty and tender. The cabbage accompaniment had been dosed with vinegar, which cut the fattiness nicely, and the crispy shallots added a nutty, burnt-onion crunch. The sauce was very subtle, and I wouldn't have called it a bbq sauce at all.

BBQ Pork Belly: braised pork, red wine BBQ sauce, shaved cabbage, crispy shallots

Mr Minx's duck confit spring rolls were slightly less successful. While the rolls were greaseless and contained a nice amount of duck, they perhaps resembled actual Chinese carry-out spring rolls a bit too much. He felt that they fell flat, and the pungent mustard sauce was the dish's saving grace.

 Duck Confit Spring Rolls: cabbage, red onion, ginger, sriracha honey mustard

His entree, the confit chicken carbonara, was pretty damn good. While the menu listed fettuccine, the pasta he received was actually papardelle, but no matter. The rich sauce, gilded with a raw egg yolk, had just the right balance of smoky and cheesy flavors, and the pasta was silky and well-cooked. The shreds of chicken were completely superfluous, albeit tasty.

Confit Chicken Carbonara: fettuccini, grana padano, fresh egg

I had the lobster and grits. I love shrimp and grits, pretty much every version I've ever tried, and thought that lobster and grits had to be even better. While I enjoyed the dish overall, and it certainly was pretty, it was not without its problems. The grits were what I think of as breakfast-style, lumpy and plain, not creamy and rich. The lobster was extremely salty and a bit overcooked. But the peas tasted fresh and spring-y (the last time we had fresh peas in a restaurant, they were elderly starch-blobs) and the charred lemon added just the right amount of acid.

Lobster & Grits: spring peas, buttermilk grits, charred lemon, lobster jus

I enjoyed my glass of wine so much, I had a second, as did Mr Minx. While the meal was a tad uneven, we enjoyed the experience. The black leatherette chairs at 13.5% are plump and comfortable, making it too easy to sit back and enjoy yet another drink. We were able to snag a table behind a short wall so we could take flash photos without being too obnoxious. And our waitress/hostess was dynamite. I would not be averse to going back to enjoy one of the restaurant's cheese flights with a wine flight to wash it down.


Posted on Minxeats.com.