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Restored
Firehouse Ablaze With New Looks, Tastes
By Mike
Dunne When
venture capitalist Lloyd Harvego bought the Firehouse a year ago, he vowed
not only to restore its old glory but to upgrade it into one of One evening
last week, cars were four deep at the valet stand, the bar was bustling, and
the dining room and four banquet rooms were packed. Servers could have used a brass pole to get
from one floor to the next. And not all
of Harvego's touches are yet in place. This week, handsome new china and flatware
arrive. New stemware is on order. An additional pastry chef is to be hired
next month. What
Harvego has accomplished so far is restyling the entire front of the building
to create the sort of unified and imposing presence the structure's history
warrants; installing new wainscoting, wall covering, paint and massive gilded
mirrors to enliven the principal dining room without distracting from its
period ambience; and bringing aboard a host of new personnel, including Irie Gengler as chef. Since 1960,
when Newton Cope opened the Firehouse as a rococo throwback to the days of
railroad barons and mining tycoons, its menu has been associated with the
kind of overstated continental cuisine favored by those corpulent good ol' boys. The
image has stuck, despite repeated efforts by a battalion of chefs over the
decades to modernize the food. Gengler
rushes to the rescue with an impressive resume, including brief stints at
such celebrated restaurants as Spago in Gengler is
doing the most radical makeover yet of the menu. If it were to be called
"continental" today, you'd first have to qualify the
continent. There are European dishes
such as porcini soup and seared foie gras, North American dishes like
Dungeness crab cakes and dry-aged ribeye, and Asian
dishes like ahi sashimi and Hawaiian opah crusted with macadamia nuts.
But for all
the European and North American staples and techniques, Gengler clearly is
smitten with the zippy flavors of Gengler's plates are busy and artful, and he's a member in good
standing of the fraternity of young chefs who like to stack their
compositions into tottering towers.
His, however, tend to be more stable than many. His
"tower of portobello and eggplant" ($19)
not only looked impressive -- an especially nice touch was the mortar of chickpea
puree -- but it showed he doesn't cut corners when playing to the appetites
of vegetarians. As he did with most
other dishes, he chose ingredients carefully and assembled them
intelligently. Deep
pockets always have been helpful for dining at the Firehouse, but the place
has never been more expensive. Dishes
have never been more detailed, however, nor have ingredients been more
precious. Several thick slices of
fresh black truffle, topped with snappy caviar, were scattered like fall
leaves over a timbale of tender lobster ($15). Pools of porcini oil glistened atop a
dense, earthy porcini soup with one perfectly seared sea scallop floating in
the middle ($8). And seared " Seafood is
scattered throughout the menu and was at its most impressive in a thick,
moist, garlic-scented "potato patch Alaskan halibut" ($26), covered
with a crunchy potato crust and attended by an exquisite verjus
laced with fennel and leek. The dark
meats still are well-represented, including a juicy, tender ribeye steak topped with caramelized shallots and a
balsamic glaze ($32), and slabs of dense, rich venison accompanied by
molasses-infused sweet potatoes, a pecan-apple
chutney and a pomegranate sauce ($28). Conceptualization
almost invariably was intelligent, though a daring take on the old
surf-and-turf combo -- in this case seared ahi with
foie gras -- failed to excite and charm for reasons that had more to do with
the lackluster parsnip puree and tropical-fruit sauce than the quality or
handling of the principal components ($30). The soft
spot to dinner at the Firehouse is dessert.
The tiramisu was fresh and creamy but lacked intensity ($5). Vanilla creme brulee was even more disappointing, with a watery, frothy
texture and a topping not at all brittle and dark, but more like dried,
curdled milk ($5). Vanilla-bean gelato
was coarse and icy, not smooth, and compact, though the assorted kinds of
berries with it were finely flavored ($6.95).
The best bets were a dark chocolate mousse with a dense, smooth feel
and rich flavor ($5), and a custardy passion-fruit
cheesecake with toasted coconut coating, which isn't made on the premises
($5). Longtime
wine steward Mario Ortiz has converted the wine list to a wine book, with
page after page of new labels, many of them adventurous. It's largely Californian, and is especially
enthralling in its range of Cabernet Sauvignon, with such polished producers as
Bryant Family, Mayacamas, Forman and Dunn
well-represented. One attractive
aspect of the wine service is that when you order a wine by the glass, the
entire bottle is brought to the table and poured in front of you. Another is the $10 corkage fee, admirably
restrained for a place ambitiously expanding its cellar. Service personnel were knowledgeable, well-paced and eager to accommodate. |