Actually, though the vistas from the penthouse restaurant atop West Palm's Phillips Point East Tower are both gorgeous and expansive, they don't quite afford a view of New England, the wine country -- or the Big Easy.
My buddy Jan Norris and I checked out the Nantucket menu last
week: three courses, broken down into choice of three apps, four entrees
and two desserts, for $39.50 per person, which is a pretty good deal
given that entrées alone off the à la carte menu regularly top $40.
only was the food true to the region and quite good -- thoughtfully
conceived and well-prepared with quality ingredients -- but it marked an
auspicious beginning for chef Brian Schuyler, who's been running ToP's
kitchen for only a few weeks.
So what did we eat?
Some
remarkably sweet Ipswich steamer clams in a buttery scallion-dill broth
good enough to wear as perfume, plus a day-boat cod and corn chowder
thick enough to stand a spoon up in and hearty enough to eat like a
steak. More of that mild, fresh-tasting cod arrived on a bed of wilted
spinach with a Meyer lemon meunière. What lifted the dish from nice to
wow was a single, plump, peeled smoked tomato whose sweet-smoky essence
gave delicate cod, earthy spinach, and tangy butter sauce both oomph and
focus.
Fillets of sole-like fluke got an achingly rich tomato
beurre blanc studded with lots of big chunks of lobster, while tiny bay
scallops were sauced with a lush corn veloute and accompanied by ricotta
gnocchi that had spent a little too much time over high heat in the sauté pan.
Desserts: flash-roasted stone fruits with creamy
plum gelato and strawberry-rhubarb pavlova with Marcona almond ice
cream -- were a light yet homey end to a hearty meal. If you want to see
the complete schedule of Road Trip dinners, plus the menu for next
week's Hudson Valley dinner, go here.
Who knows? If you look really hard, maybe you will see Russia.
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