restaurantweek@pigalle

so if you go to pigalle.com, it's a porn site. pigalle is also a restaurant in boston, and according to a summer issue of Food & Wine magazine, Marc Orfaly, its chef, is the best new chef in the country (or something like that). this is what happened when i went looking for the address of pigalle, where holly, v + i had a dinner reservation this past evening. i thought it was 75 charles street, and just ignored the "south" on the end of the address. silly me - 75 charles street is not in the south theater district, nor is it pigalle. it's apartments. anyway, we found this out, and took a taxi for a quick ride to the actual restaurant, which is a 10-15 minute walk from the park street T station.

this week was restaurant week; i wonder how many restaurants were in pigalle's situation: that is, where they actually extended their restaurant week special due to high demand. our reservation is for saturday at 7:30, an excellent time for dinner, and the restaurant fills during the evening.

the awning of the restaurant is green, and has a small en plein air, or outdoor area. i might be biased, but it looks like it belongs somewhere that's not the usa. walking into the front room yields some potted mums that look like they're in transit to somewhere else. upon entering the actual dining room, we see a conventional layout: bar at the door for waiting guests, tables arranged along the windowed wall, and scattered throughout the rest of the (small) room. i would say that the restaurant seats about 40-50 people. the walls and ceilings are done in dark, muted colors, which feel comfortable. the lighting is perfect, as is the temperature - cool, but not with an air-conditioned feel.

after waiting for about five minutes, we're presented with menus and a query: bottled water or tap water? we choose tap water; later i notice that the bottled water is still voss water. i wonder if anyone is gauche enough to ask for the bottle. the resturant week menu is posted on one side, and i've put it in my webspace. the appetizers were really what attracted me; the main courses were really the staple main courses. v chose the eggplant terrine, the mushroom risotto, and the peach tarte tatin; holly chose the tomato soup, mushroom risotto, and peach tarte tatin; and i chose the duck livers, steak frites, and milk chocolate panna cotta. i also got a glass of wine to go with my meal - a cotes du rhone at the recommendation of our waiter.

the meal was really marked by really good service, and really good pacing. our waiter was great - not pretentious, and very sincere. it was the type of service where you know it's coming, but it's done in such a way that you don't really notice. dunno how they accomplish that; it was quite a feat in my book. rarely do you get both good food and good service at the same time.

the appetizers were quite good. i think the eggplant terrine was pretty good, but the red pepper layer dominated too much. holly's soup was absolutely adorable, with the miniature grilled cheese in the bottom of the plate with the soup poured over it, like they do in really fancy restaurants (ie, bring out the tureen and ladle it into the empty bowl). the duck liver and risotto was fantastic, though - the livers weren't tough, the risotto was possibly the best thing i could have started dinner with. restaurant risotto always seems to be more liquidy than i like it, but it wasn't a problem this evening because it tasted so good.

a pause between the appetizers and the main course was filled by another roll. shortly after we were finished, our main courses came out of the kitchen. the mushroom risotto was green with brown mushrooms around the edges of the bowl, and the steak frites was sliced, peppercorned, and presented with a huge mound of parmesan-dusted frites and a small copper pot of creamed spinach (by small, i mean ~1 cup). The risotto was fabulous, like the one i'd had with my appetizer...i have no idea why it was green. the steak - which i ordered "somewhere between medium rare and rare" - was fabulous, though it was a bit too peppercorn-y. the wine went surprisingly well with the steak; i think i thought that all of those people who tout the red meat and red wine pairing were just hyping it up. the creamed spinach had a good balance of cream and spinach, with another unidentifiable flavor that i thought was nutmeg, and that v thought was some sort of nuts.

the main course was followed by another pause, then dessert. the pause - i don't know how they know these things - was just right; not too long, not too short. the peach tarte tatin was great, though a bit sweet. after some thought, i've decided that i liked the basil in the tart. it definitely gave it a more vegetal flavor; a bit too much, possibly, but it had the same effect as mint would have - it contrasted the peach taste - which is warm - with the cooler flavor. the panna cotta was fabulous; i think the fruit and the fruit sorbet were unnecessary, but since they were there i ate some of them. i've never seen such gorgeous blackberries; i don't even like them but i ate them because they looked so good. the panna cotta, in texture, resembled what i read about blancmange in "little women" - it slipped down my throat. in taste, it was quite good - very chocolaty, and perfectly milk chocolaty.

anyway, another high point of the evening was that i never felt that we were rushed; we could have stayed there all night. i also felt that we were surrounded by lots of waitstaff, at the appropriate times, even though there probably weren't that many waitstaff throughout the entire restaurant. i would say that this is probably the best restaurant i've ever been to in boston.