Well, readers, I finally spent my hundred dollars! Actually, $80, but I plan to make a lunch revisit very soon. And the restaurant of choice was: Black Creek Bistro!
Black Creek Bistro opened quietly earlier this summer on Parson ave, in the space previously occupied by Elemental. First of all, let's talk a little about the Black Creek philosophy: the restaurant is owned by a farmer, and the farm supplies as many of the vegetables and eggs as possible (soon, the ducks and chickens as well). Care is taken to use as many local products as possible. Dinner scraps are saved as compost for the farm, and leftover vegetable oil is recycled in bio diesel. It sounds like it's right down my alley! So much so, in fact, that I was a little put off to only have heard about it shortly before opening off-handedly from a friend who lives in the area. They didn't do enough advertising (and still don't); but perhaps in was by design to have a soft opening. Since the Eat Local Challenge is coming up, it seemed appropriate to spend my $100 in a restaurant whose philosophy is in line with eating locally.
Black Creek Bistro bills itself as a restaurant & wine shop, and indeed, they sell all wine to go at state minimum (wine consumed on-premise is state minimum plus $7, which is really reasonable, considering some restaurants ahem-CMR-ahem have markups as high as 500%). Being there aren't many places to buy good wine in the area, it's a selling point. So is the happy hour. Every week, two beers and two wines are selected to be the features, and during happy hour, you can buy them at state minimum. We're talking, $3.50 a glass. Seriously, you could go in and have a light dinner at the bar, for $10 a person (click here for happy hour info) - they even have some healthy happy hour options - unheard of in happy hour culture - such as a trio of hummus. They also have a few $5 cocktails, like this pear pomegranate martini I tried:
Husband had the beer feature of the week, a dark German beer whose 22 ounce size made it a steal at $3.
Happy hour also includes a selection of appetizers for $5, and a bistro dinner for $10 (varies daily). Husband and I opted for the crab cakes and the calamari. The crab cakes are of the very crab-filled sort, and are pan seared versus being fried. This scandalized a few other bar guests who could not stop talking about how crab cakes should be crispy. I like the crispy sort, but I like the pan seared sort as well. What was important is that the cakes were full of crabby goodness. They were served with an Old Bay tartar sauce and some yummy, slightly spicy house made pickles:
Next up, the calamari. I was shocked when Husband ordered it, because he usually views calamari with the same contempt he holds for creme brulee - totally overused, overplayed, and overdone. Usually poorly. But this calamari might have made him change his mind. It's some of the best I've had anywhere in a long time, and it might make people who are tired of the cephalopods craze thing twice. Black Creek uses day boat calamari (meaning, the squid is caught in a few hours and immediately sold at shore, whereas typically fishing boats go out for days or weeks and freeze everything on board). The calamari, improperly termed as "tempura" on the menu, is cut into large chunks, dusted with cornmeal, and fried. Perfectly. The texture is fresh and perfect, only slightly chewy - in the good way which it should be, firm to the bite. Alongside was a rather confusing mound of undressed greens (note to the chef: just save the money and leave them off) and an heirloom tomato marinara, which could have used a little more zing - onions, spice, and herbs would have been a fair treatment, as the pure tomato flavor wasn't quite enough of a foil. But still, some of the best calamari in the city. We were fortunate enough to have the last order. And, considering it was a Monday, surely leftover from last week. A testament to the freshness upon arrival (our server told us there is no freezer on site):
I really wanted to try the slow roasted duck gnocchi, but we both decided it sounded a little heavy for the time of year (don't worry, I'll go back), and instead selected the Garlic Festival Shrimp, which were firm, crunchy shrimp sauteed in large amounts of garlic and served with an heirloom tomato sauce (this time what seemed like an aioli base, rather than the straight tomato with the calamari). These were delightfully garlicky and good - again, good-quality shrimp which hadn't been languishing in an ice bath for hours or days. I thought this sauce, as well, suffered a little from lack of seasoning, but all in all, a great snack. The shrimp were served with a side of almost pickled-tasting grilled zucchini, which was terrific. So much better than the usual blah vegetable side:
Bread service consisted of good, soft rolls with compound butter - roasted red pepper on this day. Having worked in a restaurant where the servers had to prepare compound butter on a daily basis, I can respect the use of fun butter. Too bad I'm kind of off butter at the moment, but I did sneak one bite, and it was very tasty.
Lastly, we ordered one item from the entree list, the vegetable napoleon. This was the only dish I was a little disappointed with. Essentially just a piece of roasted eggplant topped with a piece of zucchini, topped with a block of goat cheese, it paled in comparison to the other things I knew the chef could do with vegetables, especially considering we're in the height of vegetable season - you could really make a vegetarian dish which even a meat-loving carnivore such as myself could appreciate. The Napoleon was served on a good tomato sauce (maybe this one should be served with the calamari) and good, homestyle mashed potatoes topped with some pickled onions, which I liked - the pretty little pink onion slivers were a nice foil to the mashed potatoes, which tasted lighter than some cheese and cream laden versions I've had in town. There were also a few sun dried tomato raviolis along for the ride, which were pretty and tasty, but a little confusing when there were potatoes. Maybe it was the potatoes which were confusing, but they were so tasty I could forgive their out-of-placedness. I'm usually out of place, so we'll let it slide:
I have to return if for no other reason than the Ohio sweet corn creme brulee, which sounds really good. Husband flat-out refused to eat even one bite of dessert, and I was pretty full anyway, but I'll have to try that before sweet corn season ends. Other desserts included a ginger-soaked pound cake and a brown sugar cheesecake, all of which sounded pretty tasty to me. Must revisit with some sweets-loving girl friend, as Husband pretty much declines all sweets with the exception of Jeni's Ice Cream.
All in all, Black Creek Bistro is a reasonably priced winner. have a feeling I need to return for some meat eating. I have a feeling the chef is probably a whiz with pork, for some reason. Something about the mashed potatoes and pickled onions makes me think there could be some good pork to be had, it must be the German in me. They aren't reinventing anything, there's nothing ground-breaking - except perhaps their sustainable principles. But the food is really good and reasonably priced - our dinner included the happy hour beer and cocktail, 2 happy hour appetizers, one small plate, one entree, and two glasses of wine for $65. Service was prompt and funny, there was good-natured witty banter and trash talking about various football teams.
I hope Black Creek finds success. I love their philosophy and their hard work. The space is charming (pictured at the top of the post) and simple, just old wood and white table clothes, and many of the seats are made from pews - a holdover from Elemental, if I remember correctly. Husband and I were commenting on the simplicity of the decor, plates and flatware. There's no flash or pomp, just a good, solid, Midwestern appeal - the server's station in the bar is a giant hutch with pictures of the farm, wine, and various funny gourds. The bouquets on the table are the sort of field-edging wildflowers I might have picked for my mother as a child - just the sight of the foxtail grass made me nostalgic:
Artwork is provided (commission-free) from the Chop Chop gallery. They also get props for being open on Mondays and for having a relatively up-to-date menu on their website.
Info: Black Creek Bistro, 51 Parson Ave (just south of Broad) 614.246.9662
