Bazaar is the name of the temporary restaurant in the Statler Hotel downtown space previously occupied by Sauvage. Chef Belal Kattan, a Syrian-American is the owner behind the concept of blending Syrian flavors with American food. After working in a number of restaurants around town including Cry Wolf and Georgie he has landed in this space for a month offering a 5 course tasting for $135 per person. Previously his pop-ups around town have featured his favorite medium, pasta, and this tasting features it in one course. The space has new paint and less counter seating and more table options. It opened last Friday, goes through June 27 and intends to entirely change the menu after every 6 services, so it wouldn’t be out of the question to go more than once. Thus I’m moving it to the head of the queue to give you ample time to get a reservation and go. It’s a fun casual evening with a limited bar available as well as pairings for the tasting. You can make reservations through Open Table and I suggest you do. There is street parking available or you can valet for free with the Statler (they give you a code). In full disclosure, we first met Belal at Cry Wolf and then ran into him at Georgie and his creativity is matched by his kindness and love for food, so I’m not without prejudice but it’s important to support young, talented people who are trying to make their way in a very competitive field. Hopefully the Statler will see the light and ask him to extend his stay for another month. In the meantime I hope you will try it out and let me know what you think. I enjoyed my dinner there.
Set-up
Food
Hiramasa Crudo, tomato consommé and mint were the first course presented in 2 steps. First was the fish in a shell with very mild seasonings. Nice textural contrast though. When you finished this you turned the plate upside down and the sake was poured in the attached cup and crudo was floating in broth in the bottom bowl. Fun presentation but both with mildly flavored seasoning on the lovely fish.
Olive oil poached hamour was with fava beans, cauliflower purée, trout roe and dill in a lemon beurre blanc sauce. The fish was a yellow grouper like fish with a dense large flake texture. The fish was fantastic as was the surrounding rich sauce. The pop of the roe gave it a fun spark, but mostly I remember the luscious texture of the fish and the decadent sauce.
Raviolo was with truffle ashta (clotted cream), fesikh (salted, smoked fish), brown butter and peas then topped with smoked pork jowl. The raviolo was one large one that contained a runny egg yolk which blended into the sauce when cut. The sauce was parmesan based and on the side was the bread which was helpful in getting all the sauce. The pork was a bit hard to cut without a knife but it was cooked enough you could sever it with the spoon. This was a really tasty dish.
A roll was served alongside the pasta dish and was brushed with the pork fat and dotted with a bit of course salt. It was a nice roll that broke a part easily and was perfect to use to capture great sauces.
Wood fired dry aged duck was with gooseberries, morels, Baharat (infused with Lebanese spices) honey and sauce Bonnefoy (white wine and shallot). His inspiration for the dish was the saying “duck, duck goose” so here you have duck sausage attached to wood fired duck breast meat and next to gooseberries. The sausage had a bit of everything in it including apricots and was glazed with honey. The consommé from the first course was used in making the sauce and a fig leaf sauce was mixed around it. The cauliflower purée was topped with broken bits of crispy duck skin and some mustard seed rounded out the plate. Lots of good flavors and textures on the plate and hard to get all in one bite but well worth the effort.
Sweet koji sorbet was with orange blossom and topped with a sprinkle of salt after placing on yougurt sabayon stuffed with rhubarb chutney. They scored to get Chef Brenda Perez to be the pastry chef for the place. Normally I would object to this monochromatic plating but it was too delicious to care. Cool, sweet, and salty that was heaven in your mouth.
Mille-feuille was filled with cinnamon pastry cream, topped with pistachio praline and beside Earl Grey tea gelato. She said she was just in the mood to make mille-feuille and I’m always in the mood to eat it. The puff pastry was a bit tough yet super crispy and the cinnamon was a good seasoning for the very creamy tea gelato. Nice textures and tastes again make any eating effort well rewarded.
A parting gift was a lemon cookie decorated with raspberries. It was a soft cookie and okay rather than great.
