Cafe Mutton was created by chef/owner Shaina Loew-Banayan and was mostly a brunch spot with hours of 10 to 3 Wed to Sun.  But on Friday they change and open for dinner from 5 to 9 and they now take reservations.  Opening around May 2021 it was named as one of the 10 Best New Restaurants by Bon Appetit and by New York Times in the “50 places in America we’re most excited about now.”  It was in a corner building with lots of windows to the street on two sides.  Small bare wood tables filled the room that had the kitchen on one end and music in the background.  The wine list was small but fairly well done with a special offered on one bottle.  The staff is friendly and the vibe was low key and casual.  The menu for dinner changes weekly, often with the menu posted on their Facebook page.  Chef tries to focus on local products, especially the cuts of meat not traditionally coveted.  The combinations were interesting but success was mixed.  I loved the choices but a depth of flavor was not evident in some of the dishes we tried, however many did have nice temperature variations.  I would however, go for brunch if I had the chance.

Set-Up

 

Food

Pig Foot fritters with gribiche were good sized triangles of the fatty pork coated with a fairly tough course mixture.  The rich interior really held the heat and was enhanced by the cold egg sauce.   The coating was oddly tough and the sauce could have used more tarragon or mustard.  They were pretty large pieces and a lot for a “small plate.”

 

Cold Shrimp with hot chili vinaigrette came 6 to and order.  The sauce did have a bit of zip to it and the shrimp were cooked nicely.  These were a much better starter than the fritters – a better amount and tastier.

 

Stewed Swiss chard with pecorino was served in a bowl of chicken broth.  The nicely cooked greens were lovely but the broth almost outshined it – it was that good.  The cheese was a tasty enhancement.  This dish was another success.

 

Roasted maitake mushrooms were plated with an egg yolk dotted with flaky salt.  Some of the mushrooms were cooked to a crispy texture which was fun.  The salt on the egg yolk helped bring out the flavor of the lovely mushrooms.  This plate was good but the chard was better.

 

Roasted beef heart was plated with cold, braised fennel and garlic chive hot sauce.  The heart came sliced and was good with the sauce but even though it was nicely medium rare there were a lot of fibrous threads running through it that made it quite chewy and tough.  The cold braised fennel was delicious.  I was excited to find this on a menu but this was not a plate licking dish.

 

Braised mutton chop was served in a yellow curry sauce.  The curry sauce was extemely mild in flavor and the rice was gummy, probably cooked with too much water.  However even though the rice didn’t separate nicely it was a good conduit for the curry sauce.   Here the meat was quite tender but had little mutton flavor and a lot of bone to cut around.   The lime half on the plate was so hard you couldn’t squeeze a drop out of it.  Again a nice plate but not one I wanted to devour.

 

We thought about trying the shortbread with an amaro dessert listed on the menu but then the server thought they were out of shortbread, so we passed.  I was hoping they’d have a leftover sticky bun I’d seen in the pictures of their brunch, but a no go there too.