Pop Up Perfection...

Aldine Pop-Up at Cheu Noodle Bar

George Sabatino is the type of chef that develops a cult following pretty much everywhere he cooks. I never had a chance to experience his food at any of the places he worked at while making a name for himself; Barbuzzo, Stateside, Morgan's Pier just to name a few. I jumped at the chance to see what he was going to do at his first solo venture. He did a one night pop up at Cheu Noodle Bar with some help from Ben Puchowitz and his wife Jennifer womanning the bar.

The menu was very short and to the point, with just enough description to entice you to want to find out more. Everything sounded delicious, and we were pretty stoked to grab two seats right on the bar top at Cheu, and spent a lot of time during the evening talking to Jennifer Sabatino about the drinks and the food. She explained how she came up with one of the cocktails, an absolutely delicious concoction of fennel, orange and cucumber juices mixed with gin, because she juices all the time and she thought that one of the juices she made would really taste great with some gin in it. She was right, because it was one of the freshest and tastiest drinks I have had in quite some time.

The menu was prefixe and consisted of 6 different courses and a serving of bread and housemade butter. The bread and butter was fantastic. It was almost like a little toasted bun with a butter schmear on the plate that had the perfect texture. It spread incredibly well.The first course to us was the green garlic custard with green vegetables and trout roe. It was quite tasty. The texture was extremely smooth, and the custard had some nice bite to it from the garlic. I loved the small pops of chomping into the trout roe that exploded with a delicious salty flavor. 

Next up was the rabbit rillette with rhubarb, turnip and preserved lemon. Wow, this dish was a complete stunner, and one of my favorites of the evening. Rilletes are a French preparation technique of meat similar to pâté. They are very commonly made with pork where the meat is cubed or chopped, salted heavily and cooked slowly in fat until it is tender enough to be easily shredded. The rillette is then cooled with enough of the fat to form a paste. They are normally used as spread on bread or toast and served at room temperature. This particular rillette was cooked slightly just to give it a crisp on one side, but it still had that creamy and slow cooked feel to it. The textural differences were spectacular. The acidic accompaniments of the rhubarb and meyer lemon were perfect contrasts to the rich rillette. 

The next course was a very interesting one. It was a lightly smoked mackerel, that was kissed with the blow torch before being inserted into the dashi broth with mushrooms and hearts of palm. It was a good dish, but not great. I loved the broth. It screamed umami as all great dashi broths should. It had intense flavor. The mackerel was a little plain, but I guess it had to be to match up with the flavor of the broth. It had just a hint of smoke to it. I just wish the mushrooms had been cooked. They were pretty much raw, and I didn’t enjoy them in that form.

The next course was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. It was a of lamb loin that looked as if it had been sous vide, and then crisped gently in a screaming hot pan. It was served over a bed of green chickpeas and grains of some kind, and served with a chenna dumpling, that definitely had a Ben Puchowitz feel to it. The flavor of the lamb was intense and extremely satisfying. It almost tasted as if it was a mixture of sausage and lamb together because of the richness and deep flavor of it. Whatever it was, it was fantastic. The dumpling was great too. The texture of the dough couldn’t have been any better and it was sauced and filled perfectly with delicious cheesiness.

The little bite in between the final savory course and the dessrt was a plate of little bite size carrot meringues. They were a very interesting touch. They were like little puffs of flavor that almost disappeared as soon as you put them on you tongue. I didn’t think they had a ton of carrot flavor to them, but they certainly were airy and interesting. 

Last course was another stunner. IT was a brown butter panna cotta with spring berries and almond crumble. I don’t know if I considered it a panna cotta or not because of the texture, but I don’t care if it was or not because it was phenomenally delicious. The flavor of the brown butter shone brightest, and gave the entire dish a rich flavoring. I loved the acidic pop of the berries and the nutty crunch of the almonds. It was a standout best dessert in recent memory.

This was a really fun event to check out, and a great way to preview a yet unopened restaurant. Some of the best dishes I had all year were at this meal. I wont rate the pop up, but keep an eye out for my review of Aldine as it is now open and I have been there as well! Cheers!