Irwin had about 7 tables (and an additional private table) in the place and offered 3, 5, and 7 course surprise menus for lunch.  Opening last April, most of the tables were curved upholstered banquet style with a charred wood finish or cream paint on the walls and music in the background.   The good sized round light wood tables were well spaced with a modern yet cold feel to the place.  The chef behind the concept was Irwin Durand, who trained with Guy Savoy and others.  The star of the cooking here though was pastry chef Tessa Ponzo who came out with the best parts of our meal and presented them herself. We chose the 3 course menu and there was a printed menu after.  The only choice to make was if you wanted to add truffles which were brought to the table to entice you.   They are on the main course and my husband opted to add them, a 30 euro supplement.   It is the season and they were quite good, but we’ll get to that in a bit.  Service was friendly and efficent

Set-up

 

Food

Migliacciu is a specialty of Corsican cuisine.  This one was a brioche made with buckwheat and sheep milk cheese.  Topped with herbs, lots of fennel, it was served with a vegetable broth made with some special Corsican marjoram and parsley.   It was interesting but not strongly flavored as I would’ve expected from the description.  The broth was also tasty.  I guess they expected you to get messy eating it as they brought a moist towel to wipe your hands.

 

A poached oyster was served in veal broth with mushrooms, veal shiso.  It was nicely flavored with fun textures.  With it came a fried shell stuffed with raw veal.  The meat was quite tender and nice but the shell was very greasy  – now you needed the wet cloth.

 

Kergo poultry on 3 plates with different preparations of the chicken.  A slice of breast was covered with radish and then truffle if you ordered it.  The jus around the meat was tasty and it was kept moist.   The piece of dark meat was with mashed potatoes and sabayon.  It was the richer plate.  Last was a tart filled with vegetables and chicken and then drizzled with something that gave it flavor but made the crisp shell soft on the bottom.  It was tasty too.  The truffles did have good odor and flavor and so if in season they are a good supplement.

 

They brought slices of brown bread when we were mostly through with the chicken, which was odd timing.  It wasn’t because it was just baked in that the slice was dry and tastless.  However, we were the first to arrive at the place and in usual fashion places that serve tastings eventually equalize the course position of all in the restauant and those that came a half hour or hour after us were just starting their chicken.

 

The first dessert came in two parts and Chef Ponzo wanted you to grab the spoon of creamy  foam first which made for a blury photo.  The theme of the dessert was beer and peanuts with the foam and the plate having different beers in their making along with peanuts.  The foam was quite tasty and the dish below had crisp chips, ice cream, caramel and peanuts.  it was really good and sounded quite complicated from chef’s description.

 

The second dessert was quince pie with honey, chestnut cream and chai spices.  The apple-like quince was good and chef cut it into 4 pieces but it was to be eaten by hand and the plates were all gone.  Now who needs a wipe?