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Winston-Salem
Journal
Marisol conjures up some fabulous
food
True
Magic!
Greensboro-Marisol:
The name conjures images of sea and sun; of the south of
France, perhaps. Marisol the restaurant may not be sun-washed
or sea-drenched, but it comes pretty close to serving the best
food around these parts. Some of the food is
French-in-influence, but the cuisine of Chef Stephen Schneider
traverses continents, and the offerings at his restaurant are
deliciously impossible to pigeonhole.
This restaurant cuts no corners
on preparation: Sauces-of-ten made with deep stock
reductions are top notch and menu selections are superb.
Before you even look at the menu though, you’re presented with
a little amuse-bouche or “mouth amusement”. Recently, it
was a tiny calamari salad with a garlicky lemon-wasabi
vinaigrette, a little burst of flavor to set the taste buds
tingling.
The printed menu included
these recent appetizers: carpaccio of beef with lemon-truffle
vinaigrette, flash-fried calamari with lemon grass slaw, or
Russian sevruga caviar.
Among the
entrees were Asian-influence pan roasted salmon with a sweet
soy glazed, lemon-wasabi vinaigrette and cucumber-basil salad;
pan-roasted halibut with smoked morels and seared prawns in a
red-wine, veal-stock reduction; and a grilled veal chop with
shiitake mushrooms in a Madeira and thyme
broth.
These were just a few of the
choices and don’t even include the breathtaking selection of
16 evening specials that included appetizers, soups and
entrees. (The specials are recited, from memory, don’t even an
utterly competent wait staff: It’s an impressive performance,
but not an easy task for diners who want to relax and not have
to memorize them themselves.)
And
despite the attractive printed seasonal menu, the specials are
where many of the most exciting choices lie. Recently,
an evening’s soup was a chicken stock floating with
wonton-wrapped potatoes and truffles, garnished with foie
gras. Special appetizers include grilled asparagus with
a charred, nearly meaty flavor served with a little mound of
wild mushrooms in a tart and sweet balsamic-vinegar
sauce.
Surely the best appetizer I’ve
had in months was the grilled homemade chicken sausage-given
texture and flavor by spinach and mango-with a dark duck broth
zinged with lemon grass all topped by fresh black truffles
shaved at the table. This is seriously good
food.
There were flash-fried veal
sweetbreads served on greens with prosciutto and a caramelized
balsamic vinaigrette, but we went for a specially recommended
South African lobster tail served with a creamy morel Maderia
sauce, finished with truffle oil. The rich sauce was
magnificent, but the lobster itself was disappointingly short
on flavor.
The evening’s entrees were so
tempting that we ordered straight from the recited list, and
we were delighted. Sturgeon is sometimes better-know for
its roe than for its flesh, which is delicious. Here,
the high fat yet delicate fish was topped with fresh crabmeat
and a jalapeno tarragon broth.
A
four-chop rack of lamb with a roasted-garlic rosemary broth
was superb, and a 6 ounce New York strip steak au poivre was
short on peppercorns but full of deep grilled flavor.
All our entrees were served with lovely little bundles of
vegetable: Buttery sugar snaps, tiny haricot verts, sweet
cubes of beets and diced squash.
Located
in a tiny shopping center, Marisol’s prosaic exterior opens to
reveal a very attractive dining room with stucco fireplaces
and the feel of somewhat south -Southwest United Stated-the
South of France?
Crisp white
tablecloths, tiny oil lamps soft jazz in the background and
the soft bubble from a copper fountain work together to make
the small, understanding dining room sleek and warm. Little
clay dishes of salt sit on the table next to soften triangles
of butter, just right for spreading on delicious foccacia
topped with rosemary and crusty shards if
onion.
As the evening proceeds and the
restaurant fills up, a feeling of warmth and contentment moves
in, and not just from the bottle of wine you might be
drinking. (We enjoyed a bottle of Sancerre, a bone dry $27
white wine from a list high on quality, high on prices, but
surprisingly low on French wines.)
Part
of the comfort comes from the friendly, very professional
staff, dressed in crisp white colorless shirts and black
pants; part from the lovely surroundings; and part form the
earnest and hard-working chef and staff in the semi-open
kitchen
Ah, but the food, back to the
food. Dessert ($8) are terrific. Lemon pound cake
reaches its apotheosis here, warm and toasty, with a crusty
edge spooned with dice pineapple, raspberries and a big
scoop of vanilla ice cream. Raspberry sorbet is bracing
and fresh, served with an assortment of homemade cookie.
A liquid-center chocolate cake is decadent, and if the creme
brulee needed more depth of flavor, it was still very, very
easy to spoon down.
If these prices
intimidate you, you might consider lunch, with a nice variety
of sandwiches and salads under $10, and a few light entrees.
Make no mistakes: Marisol is a superb restaurant with a
obviously committed chef and staff, high quality ingredients
and plenty of know-how. But if you’re not a person of
means, you’ll need to have cracked open the piggy
bank.
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