Dinner at the River Café

By Luci

Special birthday dinners, for many of us, are the best part of a birthday. This year, I celebrated at The River Café, a charming barge on the East River. It is a world-famous dining destination known for its fine food, beauty and scenic location under the Brooklyn Bridge. I chose it because I knew that my companions like it and it is relatively easy to get to from Staten Island. Arrive early if you would like to sit by a window. It is a favorite for special occasions such as the marriage proposal, made and accepted. The handsome couple rose to the room’s applause with an enthusiastic kiss! 

A summary of the food: gorgeous presentations, glorious food. The menu: fixed price (not noted on the menu as prix fixe) with nicely varied selections for an appetizer, main course and dessert. There was a bit more, an amuse bouche to start and tiny chocolates to end. The cocktails and wine list should make all imbibers happy. The servers were friendly and helpful but a bit hasty in moving almost instantaneously from one course to the next. We could have used a bit more time to digest, think and chat about the food in those intervals. 

Amuse Bouche

We all enjoyed a sparkling rosé with the three delightful concoctions: a bright-tasting, crunchy falafel; a beautiful broth, perfectly clear with intricate tastes of seafood and vegetable; and a pretty concoction whose exact tastes escaped me.

Appetizers

One companion chose Chilled Shellfish and the other, Pear Salad. Both pronounced their selection as delightful. 

The menu describes the chilled shellfish as: sea scallop ceviche, mango and lime, Australian abalone with citrus ponzu sauce, Skookum oysters on the half shell, cucumber Champagne mignonette. 

For the pear salad: D’Anjou pear carpaccio, white balsamic vinaigrette, baby gem lettuce, red endive, golden croutons, warm goat cheese fondue.

I chose Wild Shrimp, described as Pacific blue shrimp, Alaskan King Crab, leek fondue, whipped corn hominy, smoked shrimp jus. As you can see, the shrimp were satisfyingly large, barely cooked, tender - almost soft - and delightfully delicious with a fresh-from-the-sea taste. The king crab was marvelous, in my view the best tasting dish of all. Sometimes I find it hard to describe a dish so delicious. As a beautiful song has a prominent melody with harmonizing background notes, the dish displayed luscious king crab as its prominent taste, accompanied by pleasing vegetal notes. 

The Mains

As the sun set, our selections of the main course arrived. To accompany our choices, we needed a wine that would work with the different tastes of our three selections. Fortunately, with its Romesco sauce, even the branzino qualified for a red wine. A Margaux seemed perfect as you can see from a description of these wines, taken from the Internet: Margaux wines are known for their elegant and refined flavor profile, often described as having silky smooth tannins and an aromatic bouquet of red and black fruit, floral notes, and hints of cassis and violets. They tend to be less powerful than some other Bordeaux regions but are highly regarded for their finesse and aromatic complexity. 

Our 2016 selection was superb, to my taste, the star of the dinner show. Just for fun, I teased the sommelier. After he decanted the bottle and proffered a bit for tasting, I simply took a sip without an ostentatious display of swirling and sniffing. Holding the glass of quite expensive wine, I looked seriously into the sommelier’s face and said, “Surprisingly, it’s acceptable.” The sommelier was taken aback, but seeing that I was now grinning, he laughed …and was most attentive throughout the rest of the dinner.

Our seafood loving companion tucked into branzino.

She loved the freshness of the fish and the variety of tastes, some unusual. The menu description was: Mediterranean sea bass fillet, wild shrimp crust, lemon, olive oil and saffron nage, classic Romesco sauce, Romanesco cauliflower.

My other companion chose a beef dish.

Its description: Char grilled Niman Ranch strip steak, red wine braised prime beef short rib and marrow, smoked shallot Béarnaise. 

The result was applause for the rich tastes of this, shall we say masculine, preparation, so heartily welcome to my athletic companion.

My choice: duck.

The description: Crispy duck breast, spiced cider crust, wild huckleberry reduction, foie gras sauce, Arrowhead cabbage and duck confit roll.

The dish was a bit disappointing. The duck breast was not as rare as I prefer and the crust was, while delicious, over salted. The duck confit roll was pleasant enough, if a bit bland, but the huckleberry reduction rocked with its fruity, stimulating flavors that enhanced the duck and confit.                 

The Desserts

The dazzling lights of night accompanied our desserts.

The always popular, ever entertaining Brooklyn Bridge, rendered in chocolate, was a must for one of us. The taste assessment: satisfying and gratifying. How could it miss with these components: dark chocolate Marquise, passion fruit ice cream, banana-macadamia ganache, banana spuma.

Note: A spuma is a foam or something bubbly and frothy.

The two ladies chose the Mascarpone Cheesecake Tartlet, a  superb compound with pecan crust, tangerine marmalade, tangerine chiffon, and blackberry sorbet. Satisfyingly sweet and sophisticated, this creative classic combination of fruit and nuts made an excellent ending to this special occasion.