Sycamore. Can you Suckamore?

Sometimes you stumble upon a place due to friend's recommendation, advertising, desperation, or in this case.... I saw it on Groupon. If I had taken advantage of the Groupon this review might be more positive. But here goes.

During a week of non stop rain in mid August I found myself in need of new places to nosh at and ended up at Sycamore with my dining companion KrustyBlini. Sycamore is located in Lansdowne, PA. KrustyBlini has an opinion of Lansdowne that is loathsome at best. His opinion was further punctuated by us being seated at the front window with a view of Lansdowne Ave. However he's a cranky pants and I personally enjoyed the seating placement. The seating space, however, was cramped. This is definition of "tiny BYOB". The interior is stylish. Decorated with leaves, tree themed light fixtures and dark chocolate brown walls. The interior decorations are honestly very lovely visually. Which is good. Because for a portion of the evening this was the view out of the window:



Clearly this is not Sycamore's fault. However mood-killa.

However the following things were Sycamore's fault. We waited a fairly long time to be greeted by our waitress. We had some quick questions about the menu which were answered efficiently. I say efficiently because both times we asked how something on the menu was she answered with "amazing" as her stock and trade answer. She later revealed, when we asked why there were no sweetbreads on the menu that night despite their presence on the website, that their menu changes daily. Makes me think that perhaps she had not actually tried the dishes we asked about. Which is fine, but cop to it. Explain them dishes, how they're prepared, etc. After our server first came to our table she quickly returned with an amuse-bouche.



Scallop mousse with a slice of carrot that smelled like it was pickled. I honestly forgot the description due to what happened next. What you can't see in the photo but I discovered when I lifted the amuse-bouche to smell was a hair attached to the mousse. Not off to a great start. Worse was that it took nearly thirty minutes for the waitress to come back to the table for me to tell her this. At one point she stopped off at the tables to the right and the left of us, the only three tables in that room, and skipped over us. She was apologetic and the hairy bouche was removed and quickly replaced by another however, perhaps flustered the complaint, she failed to explain the new amuse-bouche. Judging by the taste I assume it was the same.



It was a delicious little bite. It had a slice of some vegetable, turnip perhaps, that had a tang to it. Reminded me of a bite of a seafood chowder with sherry. That was the first step towards redemption. We ordered the Farmer's Plate $19. We had our selection of three cheese options and three charcuterie options with all of the accouterments offered with cheese and charcuterie plates.


Left to right, top to bottom:

Porcini dusted truffle steak, Prosciutto Di Parma, Chorizo, bread and croutes, sweet mustard, cornichon, olives, grain mustard, cipollini onions, Boucheron cheese, Idiazabal cheese, mostarda, and drunken raisins.

This was a delightful plate. I'm a known hater of pickles but the cornichon was excellent. I'd sit down to a small bowl of them. The meats were both excellent. The Prosciutto was on point for what I expected. The Procini dusted truffle steak was less than stellar on the first time I tried it but it was outstanding on my second try. The restaurant is BYOB and I recommend you take advantage of that because we found that our wine was an excellent pallet cleanser. The combination of the Boucheron cheese with the mostarda or the drunken raisins was fantastic although the combination of goat cheese with a sweet fruit component isn't something new. However it still works and all of the elements offered in the Farmer's Plate worked both alone and coupled in their various pairings. As fantastic as this was the fact of the matter is that this offering isn't a great culinary jump. It's good, high quality meats and cheeses with varying accouterments put together to enjoy. Anyone can do that.

On to the entrees.



KrustyBlini's Roasted Duck Breasts $24. Creamed Escarole, Garlic Confit, aged Pedro Ximenez Sherry Vinegar.

The duck was excellently prepared. Soft, tender, flavorful, and lean. The accouterments (its the word of the day) were under impressive. I'm not a huge fan of escarole so that might be my fault. However I felt with that they took away from the near perfect execution of the duck breast.

On to my meal. The Green Meadows Farm Pork Chop $26




Garlic, Sircha & Orange Brined, Coconut Lemongrass Jasmine Rice with Baby Local Swuat & Sweet Chinese Sausage, Basil Mecerated Plums.


I really enjoyed my entree. The porkchop itself was very large. However the pork-to-rice pilaf was off. I think that sliced pork tenderloin would have been a better medium for this dish. However it was all delicious and very well prepared. I made a point to get an element off all of the flavors (plums, chop, sausage, and rice) as my last bite for the entree portion of the meal. This marks one of the few times I had a dish that I thought out shined one of KrustyBlini's choices.

We saved room for dessert. To the elderly dinner across the way from me: Thanks for taking the last Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme. Damnit.

We decided on the Rum Butterscotch Budino and the Local Honey & Hazlenut Pie with macerated fresh peaches. Both $7.



I'll start with the bad: The Hazlenut pie was a flop in my opinion. KrustyBlini enjoyed it after giving it a second chance. My first bite was way too thick, too heavy, and got stuck in every corner of my mouth. My take is that this is just a matter of personal opinion. To me this needed more peaches and less thick pastey cap. We did both agree that the Rum Butterscotch Budino was far and away the best dessert. This was a nice combination of salty, sweet, smooth, creamy, crunchy, and all pulled together near perfectly. My only suggestion would be to include crispy bacon bits in the Budino aka "pudding" for flavor/texture compare/contrast.


All and all I'll revisit Sycamore but only if they up their service game and revamp their menu a bit to cater their clientele.

Back with a bang ...and a bust - Part One: Bibou - What the french?

After a very long hiatus I return with two reviews for local eateries. The first is the highly hyped Bibou in the Italian Market district of Philadelphia. Bibou is a teeny tiny french BYOB operated by Pierre and Charlotte Calmels that is currently getting more foodie press time than a blonde heiress in a supermarket tabloid.

A year or two back I received a Zagat's guide as a gift. They have a list of the top 40 most popular restaurants in the front of the book and I've made it my personal goal to eat at at least the top five. As of right now my remaining two are Capital Grille and Le Be Fin. However since GQ rated Bibou on of the top 10 new restaurants in the country and Pierre's background as the former Executive Chef at Le Bec Fin I'm using Bibou as my proxy to scratch Le Bec Fin off my list. In all honesty I hope that by the time the next Zagat's guide comes out that LBF has been replaced by Bibou.


As a surprise treat for my sweetie, Antonio Braisederas, I made reservations for the Sunday night prix fixe menu. Four courses for $45, free parking next door, and no corkage fee, and the ability to taste several dishes at one price? That my friends is one bitchin' deal. Despite all of the acclaim that Bibou has received I was still antsy to see how the evening would go. Antonio Braisederas has a background working in very nice restaurants and is a bit of a snob because of it. I figured worst case scenario if he hated dinner I'd take him a few block down to the Neon Wasteland at the corner of Pat's/Geno's and get him a cheesesteak.

When we arrived at 7:30 the restaurant was packed. This isn't a great accomplishment because the dining room is, as I said, teeny tiny. However watching the waiters artfully dance between the tables without knocking into themselves or the patrons is quite impressive. We were seated by Charlotte Calmels who is exceedingly pleasant and quickly brought our menus by our waiter who would prove to be very attentive, polite, and efficient in his service. We easily made our selections and were brought out our first course of soup.



Creamy cauliflower soup, lamb merguez and saffron cauliflower florets

It was divine. Antonio Braisederas kept quiet until he'd had his first two spoonfuls before announcing he hated cauliflower, but this dish had changed his mind on the vegetable. This is far to rich to sit down to a bowl of on a cold day, but this just right portion was perfect for a chilly March evening. It seems like a small touch but the pinch of chives on the top of the soup were so fresh and bright they cut the richness of the soup perfectly. I'm not ashamed to say I used the fresh bread to sop the last bits of the soup out from the bottom.



Fresh bread with imported french butter. This was a very nice touch and far beyond your run of the mill butter-in-foil experience.

For my first course I chose Escargots.


From the webiste: Snail ragout, Fava beans and mushrooms, flavored with tarragon

I'll admit it: I chose this dish because of continuously seeing its image on the website and other blogs reviewing Bibou. The presentation is just so gosh darn CUTE. The firmness of the beans contrasted beautifully with the squishy (yes, squishy) juicy tenderness of the escargot. To give credit to this dish: I hate tarragon. HATE. I don't like the word, the smell, the taste, anything. I see tarragon and avoid it like an Al Qaeda meeting. However the other flavors and textures made me forget all about my arch nemesis tarragon and enjoy.


For my main dish I chose the braised lamb shank.



From the website: Braised lamb shank, quinoa and root vegetables, natural jus.

Oh holy mother. I started by peeling back a layer of crisp skin to the sound of my dining companion asking me, on the verge of screeching, "If you're not going to eat the skin give it to meeeee!". The waiter accidentally set down a steak knife in front of me at first before realizing it was Antonio Braisederas who had ordered the hanger steak. Pah. I needed no knife! All I needed was a fork to make the meat gleefully part from the bone. Antonio Braisederas and I lamented that these must have been the Terminator of Lambs. The shank was bloody huge. The quinoa was nutty and firm. The veges were just as lovely as the meat and I enjoyed every bit. I attempted to make every bite the right mixture of protein/quinoa/veges.

This is where our waiter comes into play. Because I have a small stomach capacity I was only able to eat a small bit of my main course and still maintain enough space for dessert. Our waiter took note of this and repeatedly asked if everything was okay, if I really liked the dish, and if I didn't he would happily bring me something else. I've only experienced this level of thoughtfulness a few times and sincerely appreciate it. Far too often the attitude is "You don't like it? Too bad." once you have ordered. This was not the case at Bibou and it made me very happy to see this level of attention paid to me by our server (and obviously this was backed by the chef). While waiting for dessert Chef Pierre Calmels came out to speak with each table and ask if we we had enjoyed our meal. Again, a small personal touch that goes far in my book.


Finally I went for the ultimate indulgence: Chocolate Mousse. Properly known as "Mousse Au Chocolat"





omg. No. Really. OMG. This was so dark, so rich, yet light and airy. It was beautiful. I loved every single bite. It was well worth getting raspberry seeds in my teeth. This was an excellent end to a wonderful meal. My final thoughts:

Bibou BYOB: You bring the booze, they'll bring the yum.