This past Wednesday night, I headed to bacar restaurant with a colleague. We had thought we might try the DAT menu, but as it turned out, we both ordered a la carte.
Amazingly, despite having lived here since it opened, I'd never been to bacar before this week. I've heard some buzz that it's been going downhill for a while, but I'm really glad I did give it a chance.
The Food:
I started with an incredibly delicious Caesar Salad ($10). It was very easy on the anchovies, but the cheese was well-aged and the dressing was superb.
M had the Seared Dayboat Scallops ($17). This was three enormous scallops served with baby fennel, olive tapenade and celeriac nage and, while I didn't get a taste, M said they were amazing.
We were brought our amuse BETWEEN courses (either a faux pas, or the kitchen was backed up). It was a small salad of apples, Bleu D'auvergne & candied walnuts. Refreshing with nice, bright flavors.
I was torn between the Painted Hills Ribeye Steak ($32) and the Liberty Farms Duck Breast ($26), but ultimately settled on the duck. It was a miniscule breast - maybe 6 small medallions - cooked nicely rare and properly gamey. I can't stand duck that doesn't TASTE like duck. The potato cake (pretty much a thick latke) and the roasted brussel sprouts were incredibly good. However, the tangerine-cranberry glace was a terribly jarring counterpoint to the duck. It was too tart and didn't compliment the more traditional flavors of the potato and brussel sprouts.
M had the Kurobota Pork Chop ($27), served with a sweet potato mash and mango pineapple chutney. The pork itself was sweet and flavorful, and went beautifully with the pineapple in the chutney. I didn't sample the mash.
For dessert, I had been planning to get the Caramel Panna Cotta I'd seen on the DAT menu, but it wasn't offered on the regular menu. I adore panna cotta, so I asked our waitress if it was available. She said it was, but that it wasn't her favorite. I could see that it might have been subpar if it was prepared solely for the DAT menu, so I ordered the Caramel Chocolate Tart ($9.50) instead. This was a really unique dessert - the crust, which was more like a "cup" to hold the small amount of filling, was made of shortbread. Perhaps a bit too dry, but extremely flavorful, and BIG points for uniqueness. The filling was a rather mild chocolate (I would have preferred a deeply bittersweet chocolate), but the caramel was silky with nice, deep flavor. The fromage blanc gelato was wonderful as well, but again, not quite the right compliment for the flavors in the tart.
M's White Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding ($9) was ridiculously rich and very good. This was served with a goodly amount of whipped cream, but it would have benefitted much more from a scoop of that fromage blanc gelato.
Wines:
I ordered a glass of Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose ($20) to start, and with dinner a Domaine Pavelot Savigny Les Beaune Les Peuillets '02 ($15). The Billecart is one of my favorite champagnes, and was pretty reasonably priced by the glass. The Pavelot was spectacular (albeit a bit overpriced by the glass). I've already ordered the Wine Club's only case, but I know K&L and Ferry Plaza Wine Merchants also just received their inventory.
Service:
It was hit or miss... it turned out that one of our party was not going to be able to make it, and I called several times that afternoon to change the reservation. Each time I called, I either got put on terminal hold (at least 3 minutes each time) or went to a full voicemail box. So when we arrived, I told the hostess our situation, and she got rather huffy.
We had arrived about 25 minutes early so we could enjoy a leisurely cocktail, and when I told her we'd be at the bar, she very curtly told me that our table wouldn't be ready early. Finally, 10 minutes past our scheduled reservation time, I popped downstairs to ask her if our table was ready, and she instructed us to "pay your bar tab and wait for me by the flowers".
When we were led to a strange little half-moon table pushed up against the upstairs railing, that was the last straw. If we'd been there for a romantic dinner, it might have been lovely. But we were carrying briefcases and were in business attire, plus we'd had a third person on the reservation to start with so there was no mistaking that this was a business dinner.
Our waitress, who was very sweet and pleasant, came over and we asked to be moved to one of the three other 2-tops that were available in her section. She was extremely gracious and immediately moved us.
The service from there on out was quite good, except for a single snafu. Without asking, she brought out a second bottle of Panna after we were nearly finished with our main courses, and didn't even leave it on the table. I saw her top another table's glasses off with that bottle, and then set it on the ledge behind us. When the bill came, we'd been charged for that second bottle. I thought this was extremely poor form, and if it hadn't been a business dinner where I was the client, I would have said something.
The total bill was just under $200.
I'm sorry I didn't try bacar while everyone was raving about it, because I imagine it would have been stellar. While this was a very good meal, there were some weird flavor-pairing inconsistencies, like the sauce for the duck and the ice cream thing at dessert. And the pre-meal attitude definitely left something to be desired.
Regardless, I really enjoyed our meal there, and would happily go back if someone else suggested it.
