Étoile is in the the Cockerton house of 1883, a single-family residence.   It remained a dwelling until it was transformed into a commercial space and now offers a farm-to-table tasting menu (with optional wine pairings) four nights a week.  Led by Chef Chris Dupont, the menu starts at 7:00 but the bar opens at 6:00.  They advise you when you make the reservation to be on time and come early if you want to have cocktails or browse around the house.  They have 24 seats available and so each night varies with the configuration of tables.  They have a number of rules for dining there, with non-refundable deposits, gratuity of 25% and are unable to serve vegan or dairy restricted menus, so read over before you may a reservation.  The chef came out to welcome all just before the menu was started and stated that he wanted it to be more like coming to a dinner party than a restaurant and it certainly was a beautiful old room to eat in.  However it was very noisy, with only 7 tables and quite dark.  Pacing and portion control were good until the end of the evening when the charge card machine couldn’t print receipts and it delayed finishing up for at least 20 minutes (which was a lot after 2.5 hours of meal).  I admire what they are doing, but the food was more good than great.  It just opened in June 2024, so maybe give it time.

Set-Up

 

Food

A welcome cocktail was the Orchard which contained aged rum, spiced honey, cider and cocoa bitters.  Its taste profile was dominated by apple.

 

We ordered a second cocktail to start with before our wine – The Moonlight was made with Monkey 47 gin, bergamot, and cocchi americano.  It was okay.

 

The tasting started with an amuse bouche of seared Trumpet mushroom, watermelon radish and a roasted beet dumpling.  They were all fine.

 

The bread service was a honey and cumin brioche and butter. They were dense and herby.

 

Kaluga Caviar topped a buckwheat blini and quail egg.  It was sauced with a thickened beurre blanc.  It was hard to eat but fairly tasty.  There was enough sauce that you could use some of the bread service to mop it up.

 

Pork belly confit was served in a profiterole alongside a brulée apple slice with a  sauce soubise.  The micro greens on this one did not sit well with me, but it did need the color.  The pork was more like a pulled pork and overall the dish reminded me too much of the previous course.  The apple slice was the best part and the sauce was thick and gloppy.  Not great yet.

 

Chicken tempura was served with sweet potato pommes frites and topped with horseradish creme fraîche.  Nice texture on both with very mild flavors.  The chicken stayed moist inside and the fries were definitely sweet potato.

 

The intermezzo was a goat cheese semi freddo with hibiscus granita.  The semi freddo was quite creamy and blended nicely with the lightly flavored granita.  Overall this was bland.

 

Sous vide Black Drum was with crawfish bolognese and roasted cherry tomato.   The fish was cooked perfectly with tons of flavor in the crawfish sauce.  There was a bit of spice to the dish and a good depth of flavor.  Finally a winner.

 

Wagyu beef short rib Tarté was paired with chanterelle mushrooms, potato gnocchi and a black garlic reduction for the last savory dish.  The crust on the pastry was nice with good crispness and the sauce was well reduced but a bit pungent.  A couple of lightly cooked carrots were underneath with the nice gnocchi.  This one was good.

 

Cake on a Plate was actually a little black citrus tart.  A citrus anglaise was on the plate dotted with cocoa powder and the tart was topped with whipped cream.  It was not a sweet finish, instead rather odd.

 

Last treats were a lavender shortbread, a milk chocolate ‘kiss’ and a caramel.  The shortbread was bad – butter had never entered this picture.  The chocolate was way too hard but the caramel was sweet and chewy.