Gwynnett St (May 2013) - Now Lachlan Gastropub

Ah, Gwynnett St. The restaurant that I decided to visit on a whim based on a couple of good reports, only to discover my favourite restaurant in the United States in 2012. So much so that whenever anyone asked on Twitter for recommendations for New York I would always pass on Gwynnett St as a must-visit place. With New York on the horizon, booking another visit to Gwynnett St was top of my priorities.

In the interim, however, there had been some upheaval. Chef Justin Hilbert left in April 2013 to strike out on his own. Sous chef Owen Clark who had been integral to the restaurant from the beginning was promoted to head chef and the plan was to keep the philosophy of the place intact. Rather than being a trip down memory lane, this became an opportunity to assess whether the restaurant had kept its standards even though it was only a short time since the change in personnel. I arrived at the restaurant early (first one in the room again) but it filled up quickly and had a good buzz going all evening. The music mix was suitably all over the place with highlights including Fleetwood Mac, Kings of Leon, The Jam’s A Town Called Malice and, oddest of all, Golden Brown by The Stranglers.

The only way to properly assess consistency was to go for the tasting menu again – at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. This seemed to be a popular option on many tables. The tasting menu is based on the dishes on the à la carte listing so the restaurant is happy to accommodate any dish requests you might want to try. I also decided to go with the wine pairing although I have little specifics on what came with each course.

The quality of Gwynnett St’s whiskey bread has been highlighted in a number of reviews. This time it was sent out to accompany the tasting menu and it really is a glorious thing. The bread is quite heavy but it has a lovely flavour and an enticing sweet crust. It is incredibly moreish and the more you eat the more you want to have. It was served with cultured butter, smoked ricotta cheese and a fresh crunchy radish. I hadn’t immediately realised that there was another spread under the radish but combined with the bread the honeyed lardo was worth a trip to Brooklyn by itself. The pork flavour was delightful by itself but it got even better in combination with the additional sweetness.

The first taster was the stinging nettle soup with clams, kombu and parsley. This tasted like a walk in the woods when wild garlic is blooming. The clam and konbu added welcome body and there was a nice hit of lemon in the broth. My biggest issue was that the broth was quite salty and that reduced it to a merely okay dish. This was paired with a glass of cava.

Next dish was the watercress salad with cured yolk, black bread, cheddar and pickled mustard seed.  This was a dish I’d asked to be included. For a salad this was a blend of quite forceful but complimentary flavours with the sharp watercress playing nicely with the rich strip of egg and strong cheese. This was paired with a glass of chardonnay.

Things stepped up a gear with the chicken liver mousse accompanied by chestnut mousse, pickled enoki mushrooms, crispy mushrooms and apple. The smooth chicken liver mousse was incredibly light with a very rich flavour needing the balancing freshness of the apple discs and the acidity of the pickled mushrooms. The chestnut mousse was equally good and no less rich. This was an excellent dish benefitting from its pairing with a Mosel riesling.

Next up was another of my requested dishes, the lamb’s tongue with smoked feta, English peas, fava (broad) beans and pea shoots. This was another good dish full of wonderful spring flavours. The lamb tongue was wonderfully tender and its gentle bouquet of lamb paired very effectively with the peas. The surprise star of the dish was the fava and smoked feta purée, almost like a thick pea soup, that underpinned the whole affair. This was paired with a glass of Villa des Anges rosé.

I was not prepared for the next dish, the utterly wonderful cashew tofu with grilled cauliflower, pickled turmeric and cauliflower purée. The tofu was made from cashew milk and was a lightly nutty but comfortingly flavoured centrepiece for the dish. Every other element was equally delightful with the black garlic cashews providing a robust garnish for the other mellow participants. I would never have ordered this but this illustrates the joy of the cooking at Gwynnett St. The brief descriptions of dishes can give you little idea of what to expect so the tasting menu becomes a journey of delightful surprises.

The salmon with black lentils, fiddlehead ferns and grilled scallions was another request. The salmon was hot-smoked so it so it had a very subtle smoked flavour and was incredibly tender. The pairing of the salmon and small pickled onion halves was a delight. The lentils had an almost liquorice-like flavour and the black lentil purée was another strong part of the dish. The acidity of the red verjus vinaigrette helped cut through the richness of the fish. The dish was paired with Inception pinot noir from California.

The final main course was new on the night and was not listed on the main menu. The teres major steak is a shoulder cut of meat that is seldom used but was a great tender centrepiece here. It was served with roast broccoli, broccoli purée and pickled ramps and accompanied by a Cabernet blend. The broccoli purée was excellent particularly when combined with the rich jus. The discs of pickled ramps added good crunch and a piquant sharpness that worked really well with everything else. Quite simply, this was a bloody lovely way to finish things before moving on to desserts.

With the first dessert, simply entitled coconut, it was another chance for me to test my aversion to black olives. It combined coconut foam, rhubarb granite, black olive syrup and a black olive biscuit and was paired with a 2010 sauternes. The coconut foam looked solid but turned out to be light and yielding with a wonderful flavour. The rhubarb was fresh, spiky awesomeness. The black olive flavour in the biscuit was quite subdued so it worked perfectly for me with the other elements. I was less keen on the black olive syrup. Aside from the syrup, this was superb.

The carrot dessert was paired with cardamaro (cardamom flavoured amaro) that linked nicely with the cardamom elements of the dish. The dessert itself consisted of carrot cake, cardamom caramel, honey brittle and milk and honey ice cream. The cake was a light sponge with a gentle taste. The strips of shaved carrot were more intense. The milky carrot jelly was my favourite part of the dish and the cardamom caramel the least convincing. The chunks of honey brittle added a welcome crunch and together with the ice cream were predictably solid strong parts of the dish. This was an interesting dessert and quite palatable. However, I’m not a huge fan of the vogue for desserts that are based on vegetables, even though there are always some elements that I enjoy.

This was a meal with some utterly fabulous dishes bookended by an unexciting amuse bouche and a final dessert that was didn’t provide the crescendo the meal deserved. The overriding question of whether Gwynnett St has maintained standards was answered with an emphatic yes, although the desserts did not match last year’s presentations.

For most travellers, Gwynnett St is way off being a destination restaurant that the likes of Per Se, Eleven Madison Park, WD-50, Boulud, Le Bernardin, Balthazar or Jean-Georges are seen to be. Despite the restaurant’s casual air, the imagination and flair shown in the kitchen shows that it deserves to be much better known, particularly when the tasting menu is so reasonably priced. It’s a given that the focal point of each dish is treated with the utmost care but it’s the thought that goes into the choice of supporting flavours that makes some dishes truly special. If they can sustainably deliver this kind of food then their reputation will deservedly prosper.

Overall, I really enjoyed my return visit to Gwynnett St and it will still be my first choice to visit any time I go to New York City.  The restaurant continues to have a great buzz, the service was friendly and as I rumbled back to New York on the L-train after this meal I was a very contented man.


Overall Rating - 4.5/5