Last Night of Quartier Pop-up with Gary Menes

 

A couple of weeks ago, I attend Gary Menes’ Quartier pop-up for a Celebration of Vegetables. Chef Gary’s partner Francois hinted I should come back the following weekend, the last weekend, for pig trotter. Initially, I wasn’t planning on it but the Universe was in favor of me getting more pork and I arrived on the last night of this four weekend run pop-up.

 

We started with Chef Gary’s signature faux Bluefin toro ceviche as soon on this post. The watermelon is a great way to begin a meal as always. Next we had the corn veloute. Once again, I’m amazed by Chef Gary’s deft soups. They are so evocative of what he’s doing with food. Good ingredients, good food.

I was happy to see the asparagus and egg reappear on this week’s menu. Sometimes menus for pop-ups are so fleeting that’s it’s welcome to have a favorite dish reappear.

Next we had the Diver scallop. I was happy to see the tomato variation from the previous week’s Early Summer Squash dish reappear. That little daub of pure tomato really tied everything together in the dish.

 

Ah, the long-awaited pig trotter! Chef Gary explained he deboned the trotter and put it back together with butter rather than just pork fat. This made the pied de conchon purer in taste.

Since I had been so focused on the pork, I didn’t even think about the rest of the menu until this little baby popped in front of me. The tri-tip was cooked perfectly but what was the most exciting part was the bone marrow balanced on the thinnest crouton. It just melted over the meat. And that sauce was as lovely as ever.

After two heavier dishes, it was perfectly fine to get the stone fruit dessert. I briefly dreamed of the meringue mushroom from the previous week but was delighted by the summer tangy apricot sorbet and grilled halved apricot. The little jellies were good as well.

I look forward to hearing what Chef Gary and Francois do next.

 

 

Quartier

Gary Menes and Francois Renaud, owners

QuartierRestaurant@gmail.com