COLUMN Taste & Tell
Experience
fine French country dining at 98
By N.L.
ENGLISH
enlarge Gregory Rec / Staff Photographer
98
HOW IT RATES
98
RATING:
**** 1/2
HOURS:
Open at
CREDIT CARDS: Mastercard, Visa, American Express
VEGETARIAN DISHES: Yes
KIDS: No Kids Menu
RESERVATIONS: Recommended
BAR:
Full
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes
BOTTOM LINE: Precise seasoning, fine ingredients, and exceptional quality
intersect in dinners that are both impressive to the eye and gratifying to the
belly. Ratings based on a 5-star scale
OGUNQUIT —
Consistency is the hobgoblin of restaurateurs. Chefs must cook expensive cuts
of meat and delicate seafood exactly right time after time, year after year.
But that's what has been
done each time I have dined at 98
"Even dishes that
we've been serving for two months, we'll try to improve on," said Pierre
Gignac, chef and co-owner. "I've got a great team in the kitchen this
year, so that really helps."
98
Gazpacho made with yellow
tomatoes was both sharp and rich. Foie gras sat in a peppery aspic, and
cumin revved up Moroccan couscous beside a perfectly braised lamb shank.
There's nothing precisely
snobbish about
The staff is in full gear
as soon as the door opens. It's charged up and carefully attentive, even in the
small room where you first enter, with a fireplace, wood floors and a short
bar. To the right is a large dining room with exposed
beams.
Johanne Haseltine (sister
of the chef), Gignac and wife, Lisa Stratton, are the restaurant's owners.
Haseltine runs the dining room and welcomes dinner guests. "I'm all the front," she said.
A Campari
with soda ($8) was bitter and sweet, just right in the heat as an aperitif.
Next, from the good wine list, we tried the 2006 Louis Jadot
Pouilly Fuisse ($48), a
shining and clean white wine with a fine acidity. Another wine later in the
meal, a fabulous Four Vines Biker Zinfandel ($39), seemed to show off just a
touch of salt in the midst of its glossy berries and dark smooth tannin.
A bowl of yellow gazpacho,
as smooth as silk, was centered on a more voluptuous puree of avocado and cream
that alternated enjoyably with the sharp zinging flavors of the gazpacho. This
was the first of three courses from the $39 prix fixe
bistro menu I had chosen.
Another offered on the
night of my visit began with tuna tartar, went on to lemon sole with seafood
fricassee, and ended with a goat-cheese cake. Anything on the fixed-price menus
may be ordered individually.
Three different
fixed-price menus are offered every night, ranging in price from as low as $29
up to $45.
My friend pried out chunks
of foie gras terrine ($14,
from the a la carte menu)) from a little ramekin, and applied them in generous
slabs to thin, crunchy toasted slices of baguette. The precarious layer of the
jiggling peppery aspic on top became in the mouth a cool, hot pleasure next to
the smooth goose liver. Shredded red beets, sweet and slightly sour, mixed in
another refreshing taste.
Bibb lettuce salad ($9)
was gorgeous, the plate piled with most or all of a small head of lettuce, the
biggest leaf on the bottom and the rest piled up in a graduated mound of tender
green. Each leaf was dressed perfectly with a light mustard and herb dressing;
the mustard was restrained enough to keep from overwhelming other flavors,
making its sharp self heard.
Flavorful tuna was set in
two small cutlets on a fine ratatouille with capers and Nicoise
olives, with orange tomato coulis and an edge of arugula oil.
The tender tuna had been
marinated with summer savory, Gignac said, before it was grilled.
Tender lamb shank was
served on Moroccan couscous with dried apricots, currants, cumin, lemon zest, pinenuts and Merguez sausage (a
Moroccan sausage made with harissa paste, lamb and
garlic from D'Artagnan). Grilled, unctuous eggplant
and a thick slice of good red tomato completed this appetizing plate of food.
The shank is marinated in
fresh mint, dried mustard and tarragon overnight, then
braised for six to seven hours, Gignac said as he was making a batch of chilled
olive soup with vichyssoise and a Portuguese extra virgin oil.
Even in the chilly rainy
weather, his chilled soups are selling well. Venison, roasted monkfish and
mussels are more things you might encounter on the wide-ranging menu.
When I read the dessert
menu, I asked myself, "What is nougat glace?" It's frozen, sweetened
whipped cream with candied, crunchy nuts, accompanied by a slaw of thin-sliced
apple, blueberries and blackberries.
And it's wonderful.
The berry cobbler, with
cooked-down blackberries and raspberries intense under the melting vanilla ice
cream, was capped by browned biscuits that might have been more
tender.
But the strong,
smooth-bodied coffee that finished the meal was everything it could be.
N.L. English is a