For Slow Foodies the arrival of summer can only mean one thing...amazing produce! This July 4th was also my mom's birthday and my job was to find the perfect restaurant.
I stumbled across Lafayette during my ny.eater.com search and was immediately drawn to its menu.
Featuring delicious french fare using fresh local produce and a special of rabbit, I knew it'd be a winner. We met up with some of my mom's college friends and awaited our table.
In addition to the restaurant, Lafayette also features a bakery with delicious all-time favorites like croissants, éclairs, and baguettes, and exotic confectionary creations like 'Lune D'Automne' (The Autumn Moon), a blackberry mousse with apple compote, and hazelnut financier. Well worth checking out if you don't have time for a sit-down meal.
The hostess led our party of 8 to a cozy booth, where we were given fresh sourdough bread.
For appetizers we ordered:
Wood Oven-Roasted Carrots, with blood orange, cloumage, and flax. The carrots were tender and sweet, nestled on top of the cloumage, which is essentially fresh cow milk cheese curd that has the texture of ricotta and deliciously light.
Grilled Asparagus, with Bayonne ham, and citrus mimosa
And the epic Noho Plateau, featuring 12 Oysters, 4 Prawns, 4 Clams, a seafood salad on top, and a salmon tartare below.
The oysters were located from three different locations in Massachusetts, resulting in varying flavors, and the prawns were perfectly tender, but everyone's favorite was definitely the seafood salad.
Once we had finished the glorious seafood plateau, we ordered a set of lovely entrees:
Skate Wing a la Plancha, summer squash, buckwheat, smoked tomato
Steamed Black Bass, shellfish, bouillabaisse jus
Dry-Aged Strip Steak Frites, béarnaise butter
The rabbit special: Roasted Rabbit Farcis
local zucchini Provençal, basil, olives
Black Fettuccine, cuttlefish, ruby shrimp, clams & chorizo
And Wood-Grilled Local Trout, market beans, rhubarb, fennel velouté
My all time favorite was definitely the wood-grilled trout. Somehow the chef was able to add such an intense smoky flavor that it almost tasted as if I was eating meat! The rhubarb added fresh notes of summer and the velouté kept the fish deliciously tender.
But what's a birthday party without cake?!
For birthdays Lafayette whips out this nifty little cake contraption that, unfortunately, is inedible but adds a good deal of spark and just the right bit of embarrassment to the birthday gal or dude! For us, it was our version of fireworks for July 4th.
For the actual dessert:
We went with caramel popcorn bombe with salted caramel ice cream, and decadent warm chocolate sauce...
And a chestnut mille crepe cake, with burnt honey chantilly, and a roasted apricot.
Usually I'm really not a big fan of sticky too sweet caramel but the caramel popcorn bombe was not at all sickeningly sweet, and the popcorn added a really yummy crunch, without getting soggy under the chocolate sauce. The mille crepe was super chestnut-y, which I loved, and the honey added just a hint of sweetness.
Plates were devoured, conversation flowed, and wine glasses were emptied.
If you are in the Noho/Soho area of NYC be sure to check this lovely place out! Make reservations too, they get booked up pretty quickly.
http://lafayetteny.com/
