[nuxvomica]

the pig's ear salad and pork toasts are from Resto. it's too bad your toasts were mushy - when done right, they are fantastic

[g.johnson]

The menu looks good but I don't think I'd call a $55 chicken or $120 ribeye "well priced" (I know they're for two or three but still).

[Daniel]

Thats due to my poor typing skills.. I rushed through it but, with the exception of those two items, the menu looked well priced.

[Sneakeater]

I found the "new" Irving Mill under Ryan Skeen slightly disappointing -- but still good.

I think mainly I was disappointed because I enjoyed Resto so much under Skeen's leadership. I was hoping that this would be a place where Skeen could really cut loose, without the limitations imposed by even a loosely interpreted "Belgian" menu concept. But this menu seemed to me to be surprisingly truncated. Maybe I misread it, but I found it hard to put together a meal from what seemed to be very limited choices.

So I did an inappropriate all-lamb special.

I started with a lamb and olive sausage. It wasn't great: mushier than I'd have hoped, and not as flavorful.

Things got much better with my main course: a lamb "cassoulet". True to its scare quotes, this didn't really look like a cassoulet, except with nothing but lamb in it. Rather, it consisted of several sets of pieces of different cuts and preparations of lamb (including a sausage much better than the one I had as an appetizer), carefully lined up over some beans with a gravy so lightly applied that it might better be called a dressing.

This was actually a pretty good dish. The lamb, like most American lamb, wasn't lamby enough -- but that's really my only criticism. The lamb belly, for example, was probably the best iteration of that somewhat fashionable cut that I've had over the last couple of years. It was moist and fatty without being rank. All the lamb was like that (good sourcing) -- I just wish that (except for the lamb belly, where I don't want this) it tasted stronger. But that's an endemic criticism, not one of Irving Mill.

Also, in sharp contrast to the real cassoulet they serve at Benoit, this was a portion you could finish without feeling stuffed (or even particularly full). I guess that's how they keep prices moderate.

Unexciting wine list. Boring and poorly balanced restaurant cocktails.

I like Skeen's style of cooking, but I don't feel this place calling me back.

[Wilfrid1]

At the risk of telling people what they already know, lamb is a perfectly orthodox component of cassoulet in France, but usually alongside pork-ish things.

[Sneakeater]

And goose-ish things as well.

[Sneakeater]

What I meant, and should have said, was, "except with nothing but lamb in it."

Which, after I go up and edit, will become what I did say.

[Wilfrid1]

You realize that if you go back and edit, it will mean that the pedants have won.

[Sneakeater]

In my world, the pedants would always win.

[Suzanne F]

So does this mean I'm finally relieved of the guilt of never having gotten around to doing my best/worst RG imitation? That's great; I've got plenty else to feel guilty about.

[nuxvomica]

I found the "new" Irving Mill under Ryan Skeen slightly disappointing -- but still good.

I like Skeen's style of cooking, but I don't feel this place calling me back.

too bad... i heard a writer from Food & Wine RAVE about it and, based on my meals at Resto, was very excited

[Sneakeater]

Don't not go on MY account.

You may feel differently. I may have ordered wrong. It was only ONE meal.

Also, I didn't actively dislike it. I just didn't like it as much I as I thought/hoped I would.

I think my biggest turn-off was that there wasn't enough stuff on the menu. Maybe he can borrow some from Secession.

[Orik]

Orik: "Hey, this glass appears oddly small... waiter, is this a pint?"

Waiter: "Well, no, it's about 13oz, just leave a tiny bit of room if you fill it with a 12oz bottle"

Orik, amazed: "So you serve all your draft beer in 13oz glasses?" (ones that have an extra 3oz of glass at the bottom to make them feel like you're holding a pint, mind you)

Waiter (while quickly running away): "Yes"

At the end of the meal, hostess approaches:

Orik: "So when you go out around here, do you usually get draft beer in glasses like this?"

Hostess (assuming a tourist due to the accent): "Sure, it's common"

Orik: "Really? where do they do this?"

Hostess, blushing: "Well, at DBA and there's this beer at Trestle"

Orik: "So you're telling me that serving some specialty beer in its glass and writing on the chalkboard that it's a 40cc glass is the same as this?"

Hostess, obviously trying to remember her prep: "Well, but we price them accordingly"

Orik: "$8 for 13 oz of dogfish?"

Hostess, still trying: "We don't advertise them as pints"

Orik: "So if I ordered a bottle of wine I'd get half a bottle? you don't advertise them as being 750ml"

Hostess: "Well if you didn't like it you didn't like it, I've comped your burger because you didn't eat it", rushes off.

[Daniel]

Why didn't you eat your burger?

[Orik]

It smelled.