These culinary jewels are rare, and need to be celebrated when found. Thus, a fitting follow-up to my Aster review is another San Francisco eatery: Nico. Nico operates on a "carte blanche" style, where the menu is not known to the guest as the dishes are served. A five course prix fix menu runs for $70, while optional wine pairings run for an additional $65. That equals out to $115 for five courses with wine, right up there in the value department as Aster.
Nico is the brainchild of Chef Nicholas Delaroque, and his wife Andrea. With culinary training in Paris, stints at Manressa (Los Gatos) and Luce (San Francisco) cemented his desire to stay in the Bay Area. Combined that with working in kitchens from Paris to Australia, Chef Nicholas brings to his dishes a global flourish underpinned by classical French techniques.
Walking up to Nico on Sacramento street, a small brown sign is the only indication that the unassuming dark blue façade is your final destination. The exterior front offers a bank of windows, which allows nice light into the front bar area. Walking into the establishment, the bar flanks your right, while the greater stands dead ahead. Behind is the main dining room, which has nice size and is not too packed in with tables.
The center of the main dining room features larger tables for parties greater than three. On the left wall (looking from front to back), bench seating accommodates various size parties, while the right wall has a couple of two-top tables along the wall. Light olive green walls accentuate the warm wood tables, and a central skylight allows the last vestiges of dusk to embrace the current patrons. After walking in, I was led to one of the two tops on the right wall, where I took my seat to start the evening.
After a few moments, my server stopped by to introduce herself and kick off the evening. As mentioned before, the restaurant works on a carte blanche approach so there was no true menu to provide. What they do offer in addition is a menu of select bites one can have pre-dinner. They also offer a "magnum of the day" where the wine director selects a magnum of Champagne to open and sell by the glass (price was $25). This is a nice flourish, as it allows people without the desire or budget to invest in superior bottles of Champagne to try something new.
Feeling in the spirit of the evening, I ordered a glass from the magnum of the day. To go with this, I also ordered the duck pâté served with crostini and pickled radish. Finally, I ordered the five course prix fix menu, with associated wine pairings. Let's begin!
First served was a glass from the magnum of the day: Lancelot-Pienne Cramant, Grand Cru 'Cuvée la Table Rondé'. The Champagne was excellent, offering a nice balance of fruit and minerality, with a healthy amount of dryness and a touch of acidity. An overall well balanced Champagne.
 |
| Spring onion, brown butter and bone marrow Madeleine 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
Following up the Champagne was the first of two surprise Madeleine cakes. The pre-dinner variant was with spring onion, brown butter and bone marrow, and it was delicious. Perfectly baked, the cake was firm yet supple to the tooth. The spring onion offered fresh herb flavors, while the brown butter lent a buttery richness. The final flourish was the bone marrow, which accentuated the butter by providing rich, flavorful undertones.
 |
Pâté with crostini and pickled radish
2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA
|
As one can imagine, the Madeleine did not last long, and was soon followed by the pâté. By itself, the pâté offered rich flavors that paired nicely with the dry, balanced Champagne. The pickled radishes then kicked it up another notch, lending their refreshing pickled notes that helped balance the richness of the liver. The crostini added a nice texture differential, offering crunch to the bite that complimented the soft texture of the pâté. Finally, fresh herbs garnishing the pâté added a tertiary flavor dimension that, while subtle, did not go unnoticed. Overall, a simple yet elegant - not to mention decadent - starter to kick off the meal.
 |
| Artichoke with eucalyptus and lemon 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
Batting second, and the first course of the prix fix service, was artichoke with eucalyptus and lemon. By far the most adventurous vegetable/salad course I have had in a long time, the artichoke was cooked, an then the heart removed. Patrons were asked to eat the leaves as finger food.
Full disclosure, I am not much of an artichoke fan, so this wasn't my favorite dish. That being said, I do appreciate the chef's creativity. The heart itself was tender, and had a nice earthy flavor with eucalyptus undertones. Its flavor was akin to some types of fish, and was really unlike anything that I had ever had from a vegetable.
Moving to the leaves, I will humbly admit that I had zero experience trying to eat artichoke leaves, and at first actually ate one whole (after prolonged chewing). Examining the dish more closely, I noticed that there was a thin layer of flesh on the underside of the leave. Looking ridiculous doing so, I managed to scrape the flesh with my teeth, and thus dispensing with having to eat close to ten whole artichoke leaves. Flavors were very similar as the flesh, and accentuated with the mustard.
The artichoke was served with a 2014 Clos Cibonne "Cuvée Éspeciale de Vignettes" from the Côte de Provence, France. A delightful rose, its subtle fruit flavors add a nice depth of flavor to the artichoke.
 |
| Veal with seaweed and radish 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
Switching gears to the first of three dinner courses, I was offered a veal dish. The veal was cut super thin, cooked shabu-shabu style in a vegetable broth, and served atop seaweed with thinly sliced radish and dots of bone marrow oil. This was served with a glass of 2017 Mark Tempé "Zellenberg" Haut-Rhin from Alsace, France.
The veal was extremely tender and flavorful, while the dots of bone marrow oil were little bombs of rich savory flavor exploding randomly with every bite. The vegetable broth lent earthy undertones, while the seaweed offered saline notes. The radish slices were a nice flourish as well, weaving their subtle mustard-pepper notes throughout the dish, while balancing the richness of the veal/marrow oil. Finally, the wine did a nice job complimenting the various flavors with its acidity and fruit flavors.
 |
| Abalone with ramp and potato 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
The penultimate dinner course was abalone, served with a ramp-onion relish, fried ramp, potato chips, and a sabayon sauce. Paired with this dish was a 2014 José Antonio Garcia "El Chucqueiro" from Galicia, Spain.
The abalone was perfectly cooked, with mild conch-like flavor and texture. The sabayon provided nice rich flavor notes, while the relish of ramp and onion really lent more zesty herb flavors. The potato chip element was a nice touch, provided both a texture differential, and salty potato flavor that worked nicely with this dish's flavor profile.
While the abalone was outstanding, what really stole the show for me was the wine pairing. The wine offered robust mineral elements, very much like a saline flavor. This paired with the abalone perfectly, lending briny flavors that were otherwise under accentuated. That being said, the fruit still shone through to compliment the dish's overall flavor palette. A simply outstanding pairing of food and wine.
 |
| Entrecôte with asparagus, truffle 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
The final dinner course was entrecôte (ribeye, Delmonico), served with asparagus and shaved black truffle. Paired with this course was a 2014 Domaine Lombard Côtes-du-Rhône from Brézème, France.
The steak was cooked perfectly, most likely using a sous vide to get that perfect pink interior, before being finished on the grill. Being aged for 30 days, the rich earthy flavors really shown, complimented by the shaved truffles. In the center was a sprig of asparagus, which was shaved and then blanched before grilled, thus gaining nice charcoal notes while having excellent texture. A final flourish was the use of oxtail oil, which lent rich flavors to the fresh asparagus.
The wine was balanced for this dish: not too fruit forward to over-shine the beef flavors and earthy truffle undertones, while not too mineral to really blanche the palette and take away from the bold flavors of the dish. Its balanced minerality and subtle fruit enriched the flavor profile of the beef dish, while also helping to cut some of the richness of the beef and oxtail oil.
 |
| Pre-desert surprise: rum cake 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
Before the desert course, the kitchen decided to surprise us again with their take on a classic rum cake. Here we have a cake that has been drizzled with a rum-simple syrup mixture, and topped with a beautiful flower of whipped cream. This preparation was neither overly sweet, nor overly rich in rum flavor as is some rum cakes from the Caribbean. Instead I also detected subtle apple and apricot flavors that were really quite delightful. A really nice surprise from the kitchen.
 |
| Cucumber with Granny Smith, yogurt 2017 Nico. San Francisco, CA |
The cucumber desert was a fitting end to tonight's culinary journey. Chef Nicholas did a nice job crafting tonight's menu to both expand horizons (Artichoke, Cucumber), and put his stamp on some classics (veal, abalone, steak). Every dish had a variety of different flavors and textures, woven together to lead one from beginning to end. Wines were paired nicely to compliment, and at times enhance, the dishes they were served alongside. Combine this with an elegant yet casual atmosphere, friendly staff, and a price that will allow most to enjoy it for themselves. There's no doubt Nico holds a special spot in San Francisco's culinary scene, allowing just about everyone an opportunity take that next step in appreciation of haute cuisine.
Dining date: April 8, 2017
Dining date: April 8, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment