The truffled porcini butter on top doesn't meld with the sweetness of glazed shallots the flavors fight and nobody wins. The meat is delicious and the fries look perfect and crisp, but they are actually limp. I could also quibble about the steak frite ($18). It's good, but pales in comparison to the other dishes. He produces a respectable roast chicken, arranged on a bed of mashed potatoes mixed with goat cheese and a pool of peas and carrots glistening in a Madeira sauce heavy with thyme. Practically every restaurant serves salmon ($16), but Ferri makes his version special with roast asparagus, artichokes and spring onions, all mildly flavored with a tomato vinaigrette with a hint of anchovy. It's served on mashed potatoes brightened with chives and a knob of watercress, all ringed by a drizzle of balsamic reduction. The main courses include a wonderful skate that's dusted with porcini powder for an earthy flavor ($15). It looked as thick as wallpaper paste, but was light on the palate, and a crouton in the middle was smeared with a pesto that added a fresh dimension to the blend. The taste was so refreshing, we didn't care.Įven what I thought would be a boring spring onion and potato soup ($6) offered a surprise. The only appetizer that seems out of context is the Thai seafood salad ($9) with squid, scallops and prawns playing against the flavors of lemongrass, onion and lime.
#COBALT RESTAURANT HOURS SKIN#
What looks like a long-cooked tomato sauce turns out to be flavored like a bouillabaisse.Ĭonfit of duck ($9) is one of the best I've tasted it has a cracker-crisp skin and a creamy, almost gooey interior and is set on a bed of braised lentils, accented with a rhubarb compote. The dish looks deceptively heavy, but all the elements have fresh sparks of flavor. Ferri arranges a thick spinach agnolotti stuffed with shrimp ($8) over a dense red sauce. There's a creamy-textured salmon tartar ($8), topped with slices of citrus-cured gravlax on a ring of cucumber slices enhanced with ginger and chiles. I can't think of a clinker among the appetizers. Around the edges of the plate are three more piles of the fragrant vegetables, all flavored with meat juice redolent of rosemary.įerri has kept the menu short, with only seven appetizers and main courses, but each brings something exciting to the table. He uses a mushroom risotto cake as a pedestal and crosshatches rosy slices of meat on top, with a mound of vanilla-scented peas and corn. Instead of a blue-plate-special approach to leg of lamb ($17), the chef goes the way of New York's Gotham and other stack-'em-up advocates. This is one of the most difficult pastas to produce because without the right balance it can taste too earthy or fishy, but Ferri's talent saves the day. He offers only one pasta, but if there can be only one, it might as well be the extraordinary squid-ink tagliatelle ($15) with pieces of calamari, toasted garlic, basil and just a hint of hot pepper to stimulates the palate. In fact, on our first visit his combinations seemed almost too stylized for the surroundings, and it took a while to adjust to the French-influenced, seafood-heavy menu.
Still, chef Ferri, who knows bar food from his stint at the Bell Tower, honored its memory in the way only a talented chef can: He improved the food greatly. They decided to change the name so diners wouldn't expect to find the same Cal-Ital cuisine that defined the Washbag. The Ferris painted the walls brown, added new blue carpet and a few bright blue light fixtures, along with cobalt blue glasses, but they left the mahogany bar, which has developed a rich patina over the years. Cobalt retains some of the coveted electricity that made the place so popular. Because they loved the tavern atmosphere of the "Washbag," and they didn't have buckets of money to spend anyway, they left the interior pretty much alone.
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