Bess Bistro

Three kinds of salt? Fancy!

    On rare occasions this life of ours is graced with the presence of something near to perfection. We've all had those moments where everything comes together, all the crystalline shells align, and the universe sings in perfect harmony to the music of the spheres. The last time I can recall such a moment, I was in Paris. Until last night, that is. Last night Matt and I were invited to have dinner at Bess. We were treated to a culinary feast. Everything we had, the appetizers and soup, the entrees, and the dessert were out of this world phenomenal! This was a wonderful dining experience and I thank Bess for having us.

The bread

   Bess opened a few years ago right in the heart of West Sixth Street, in the old Stratford apartment building. For those of you who don't know, Sandra Bullock is one of the principle owners of this fine establishment. The interior is warm and inviting, the staff are all friendly. Our server, Jonathan, was one of the best servers I have had at any restaurant in Austin. He was friendly without being overbearing and exceptionally knowledgeable when it came to the entire menu. Bess would be a wonderful place for a special occasion with that special someone. Unfortunately, I was stuck with my dumb brother.
 

Chicken Fresno Chowder

    Matt and I each started with a bowl of soup. Matt ordered the soup du jour, a Fresno chicken chowder that was out of this world good. It was rich and creamy with just enough to spice to liven it up a little. The potatoes in the dish were cooked perfectly, with just a little give left when you took a bite, a rarity as many places overcook their potatoes . I ordered the gumbo, which had tasso ham and andouille sausage in it. It was a very nice gumbo, one of the better ones I've had in a restaurant in Austin. We were also given fantastic corn bread and whole grain rolls to go with our dish. Along with my soup a had a snifter of Calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy. This was a nice reminder of the eight days I spent in Bayeux last spring.

Gumbo

Escargot

   As an appetizer we shared we shared one of my favorite French dishes: escargot! I love this dish, though all too often chefs over cook the snails and they become chewy and difficult to eat. This was most certainly not an issue at Bess. The snails were sauteed to tender perfection in a fantastic white wine garlic butter sauce. The dish reminded me of steamed mussels, but a little earthier from the snails. The ciabatta bread served with it was the perfect accomplice to this dish. The bread had enough body to not get overly soggy from the broth the snails were in but enough pockets and nooks to soak it in an become true heaven. These are, without doubt, the best snails I have ever eaten!

Escargot on Ciabatta

    Next came the entrees, both of which were very good. I ordered steak frites: a hanger steak, cooked to order and topped with a sauce au poivre (pepper sauce for the non-French speakers) and a side of Parmesan pommes frites. I also had them add a little foie gras to my plate, a personal favorite. Everything on the dish was fantastic, the steak was perfectly cooked, the sauce au poivre was out of this world good, and the fries were cooked well. I had a very similar dish to this in a little bistro by the Louvre last spring and the one at Bess rivaled it in quality and flavor, honestly I think the only thing missing from it was the fact that I was in Austin, not on the banks of the Seine. Matt ordered the Pappardelle a la Piquante, a dish of pappardelle pasta with mussels, shrimp, and crawfish in a really good creole parmesan sauce. The dish was nice, it tasted like the sea and had just enough to spice to let your palate know it was there. All in all a complete success for the entree course.

Pappardelle a la Piqaunte

Steak Frites

   Jonathan  practically demanded that we save room for dessert, and we figured who were we to argue with an expert? Matt ordered the Pistachio Lime Tart, a pastry filled with a goat cheese cream and limes with pistachio ice cream and a strawberry beet white chocolate ganache. This was fantastically well balanced, not too sweet, not to sour, it hit the tongue just right and was perfectly refreshing! I, being the lover of beignet I am, ordered the Bess' Beignet. It is four perfectly pillow and fluffy beignet, based on the Cafe du Monde recipe, served with a toffee sauce and a vanilla creme anglaise. The beignet were stunning- cooked perfectly and with just the right amount of cinnamon and sugar, they were 100% spot on. The toffee was absolute heaven, as was the anglaise. As a compliment to my dessert, and appropriate finish to a French meal, I had a double espresso. Normally I wouldn't bother talking about a local restaurant's coffee, because it usually isn't much to write about. This espresso, however, was probably the best I have had since I came back from Paris. It was perfectly pulled and the flavor of the coffee was just strong enough without being aggressively bitter. This was truly the perfect end for to my meal and it really tied up the nostalgic, wistful feelings I was having contemplating the meals I ate while in France.
 

Pistachio Lime Tart

Beignet

    I'm sorry that I keep mentioning that trip, I'm not bragging (much), Bess honestly drew all those good memories back for me. This was a fantastic meal at a wonderful establishment and I wholeheartedly recommend it to you. Thank you again to our friends at Bess for hosting us, I hope to come back in soon.

Official AFJ Rating- Five Points of the Lone Star

Zed's Write Up

Zed's

So a couple of weeks back we got an invite for an event Zed's. The good folks over at Newton-O'Neil communications sent us an invite to attend a media event welcoming their new head chef Jacob Hilbert. Having been to Zed's before, this one caught my attention. The food has always been good out at Zed's so the opportunity to come out and have a five course meal as a way saying "hey what's up, good to have you on board," to the new head chef was something we just couldn't pass up. Yeah you read that right, a five course meal. It was....well just keep reading.

Shrimp

First up was the appetizer of fried shrimp and Chef Hilbert's version of a Spanish tortilla. Fried shrimp? Really? Really. Seriously. It was no fast food or frozen-shrimp-in-a-bag from the local mega mart. The shrimp had a fantastic flavor, and the breading had a perfect crunch. For those not familiar with a Spanish tortilla, it has nothing to do with the Latin American style corn or flour based flat breads that we all know and love in Austin. A Spanish tortilla is more like an omelet or a frittata. In this case made with potato and served cylindrically. I've had these before (made by an actual Spanish woman no less!) and Chef Hilbert's version stands up very well, and not just because it was served on its flat end! It was great, and I'd totally get this appetizer again.

Fish and Grits

The next item served was a one of the favorites of the evening for a lot of the participants. I liked it a lot too, but it wasn't quite my favorite course. It was the Southern favorite, fish and grits. In this case it was a perfectly cooked piece of salmon on a bed of grits. Now personally I'm not usually a huge fan of grits but I liked these grits quite a lot. They had a nice rich flavor and a thicker texture than I’m used to with grits. Usually it’s the texture that I don't care for with grits so the thicker texture here may have been what put it over the top for me. This dish may not have been my favorite thing of the evening but if Chef Hilbert decides to keep it around this will be one of my go to items.

Duck

Next up was a lovely piece of duck. I don't know about y'all but I prefer dark meat poultry. White meat is good, but it just doesn't have a lot of flavor. That's what I think I like most about duck: it’s all dark meat! And it came served with BBQ, beans, and cornbread. You can't go wrong with that.

Lamb

Finally, we get to my favorite dish of the evening. Lamb shank.....I still have dreams of the lamb shank.....My brother and fellow Junkie, David, has a theory regarding the inherent tastiness of lamb. He calls it his cuteness quotient. Think about it, beef comes from cows. Beef isn't bad at all. It's pretty good actually. But how cute is it? Any member of the bovine family is sort of there. Even as calves they're not the cutest things around. Chicken, and other poultry, well they're totally cute as chicks but by the time they're old enough to eat they're just sort of there. But think about sheep; even as adults they're pretty cute to look at. And as lambs, well they're just downright adorable! So it follows that lamb should be exquisite. And in this case the lamb certainly was. It was perfectly cooked with plenty of that lamb gaminess that I love so much. The broth was fantastic and it was served with a slightly sweet and spiced couscous. I would order this every time I come in.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte

And finally, mercifully we were served the final course. Don't get me wrong, the evening was great and filled with fantastic food. And the portions were large! All five of them were very generously sized, easily large enough for a regular dinner serving, including this absolutely fantastic chocolate peanut butter torte. A peanut butter mousse sandwiched between a layer of chocolate cake and chocolate mousse. This is another dish that continues to stalk my dreams.....If not for the lamb this may have been my favorite dish of the evening. But to be fair, I do have a quite sweet tooth and chocolate and peanut butter is one of my favorite combinations. I'd order this in a heartbeat!

As this was a media event, we won't be giving a rating to Zed's this time around. But not for lack of quality, it’s simply that we can't be sure how representative the tasting menu is likely to be of the menu after Chef Hilbert gets it tweaked the way he wants it. Personally I'm hoping the lamb stays on, and the salmon and grits too. While we may not be giving a rating this time around we are however giving a recommendation. We only write about places we like and we totally dig Zed's!

Zed's
512-339-9337
Website

 

219 West

219 West

A while back our friends at Crave Communications invited us to the opening of 219 West's new home. Of course we just couldn't say no, it's kind of sacrifice we make for our loyal fans! Needless to say we were impressed. So impressed that we decided to go back for a full review. The first thing to know about 219 is how their menu works. At most restaurant menus are set up in a pretty standard fashion - Appetizers, Entrees, Dessert, and drinks are thrown in there somewhere. At 219 they do have a wine list included in the menu, but the rest of it set up according to a drink pairing type of set up. You have your Wine page, your Scotch page, your Julep page, and your Beer page. Under each page heading, whether it be Scotch, Beer or either of the others you start with appetizers (called American Tapas in this case), entrees, desserts and drinks. I ordered off of the beer menu, but Dave opted to pick and choose from a couple of pages.

Here's what I had from the Beer Page-

1. Chipotle mac and cheese as a starter

2. BBQ pork and fried potatoes

3. Independence Austin Amber to drink

Macaroni and Cheese

Mac and cheese has always been one of my favorites and this one was a nice way to start a meal. Plenty of cheese and with nice spice chipotle sauce on top, this is as good a mac and cheese as I have had. The portion size is easily big enough for a meal or a filling appetizer for two. I actually brought some home.

BBQ Pork

The BBQ'd pork was also very nice. Fork tender, and full of smokey flavor with a sweet sauce, and served with fried fingerling potatoes.

And to drink I had the Independence Austin Amber- A nice clean, refreshing brew from one of the better local breweries. I'd recommend it with almost any meal.




David opted for a little trip around the menu. Here's a look at what he had-    

1. Fried calamari steak fingers- The Wine Page

2. Lamb tenderloin- The Scotch Page

3. (512) Pecan Porter to drink- The Beer Page (obviously)

Calamari Steak Fingers

Calamari is a tricky piece of seafood to work with. It needs to be cooked either very, very quickly or for a very long time. If you hit any point in the middle you end up with a piece of inedible rubber with all the flavor of an old tire. This calamari ranks among some of the best I've had. A nice crunchy breading with tender squid in the middle, and a house made spicy aoili. Well worth trying.

Lamb and Brussels Sprouts

Lamb is one my favorite meats, second only to goat. David ordered his medium rare, and it was cooked perfectly. A nice sear on the outside and tender, flavorful, medium rare meat on the inside. Fans of lamb will appreciate this one. It also came with a side of whipped potatoes and some delicious Brussels sprouts. I have become a fan of Brussels sprouts over the last year or so (I sauté mine in bacon fat) and these did not disappoint. They had a nice tender, yet still crisp texture and a great flavor. If like me you have always cringed at the thought of them these might just change your mind.

Lastly, David had the (512) Pecan Porter. It’s A nice heavy ale capable of standing up to the big flavors of this meal. (512) is also a local brewery, and one of our favorites.

Whether you plan on eating a whole meal or just dropping by for some drinks and appetizers, we highly recommend 219 West.

Official AFJ rating- 3 points of the Lone Star-

Three Lone Star Points

219 West
612 W. 6th St
Austin, TX 78701
512-474-2194
Map