Brace yourself - there may not be enough superlatives to describe my love affair with this restaurant. No matter where else I go, I always wonder at the end of the meal, “Should I have gone to Chez Albert instead - and why do I ever eat anywhere else?”
The experience always begins with Emmanuel greeting us with his smile and French accent and directing us to a small, humble table in a small, humble restaurant. Menus are simple pieces of paper with minimal descriptions and a chalkboard with daily specials. The water is lukewarm, sometimes the restaurant is noisy enough to make conversation between more than two people difficult, the air conditioner kind of works, and the wait for food can feel like forever - and sometimes actually is.
So why do I love it so? Because the fresh, creative, superb plates of food are like a gift that makes me want to sob “I’m not worthy.” Menus change with each season, and specials are like a siren song you really shouldn’t resist. Paul Hathaway, Chez Albert’s remarkable chef and owner, has a genius for combining foods that harmonize wonderfully on a plate. The whole is greater than the parts, though each of the parts are darn good too! I’m known for obsessively arranging each forkful, making sure that each element on the plate is represented. Each time the mélange hits my mouth I sigh with contentment and pleasure.
Do I love every single dish? No. Of course not. But if I don’t enjoy a dish, it’s because it’s not to my taste for some reason – and despite that, I can always appreciate the freshness, beauty and innovation. Let me make this absolutely clear – Chef is not about altering his recipes for change’s sake. He’s mastered a particular combination of innovation and classics. Nothing is silly, pretentious or staged - it’s about wonderful ingredients prepared well. His sauces are so exciting I find myself running my fingers over the plate to lick up every bit. I could eat anything if it had his brown butter sauce on it. Last summer, he made a fish dish with a zucchini blossom sauce that completely blew my mind.
Tonight we chose from the new summer menu and treated ourselves to three appetizers and two entrees. The starters were a cold lobster corn chowder, a smoked salmon spring roll, and a roasted piece of pork belly with caramelized peaches. My wife enjoyed the creamy chowder, but I thought it lacked the corn flavor I had anticipated and was a bit peppery for my taste. The spring roll was a work of art, paper thin cucumbers showing through the wrapper like edible stained glass. But the winning appetizer was the pork belly with a caramelized peach. I think I actually swooned for a few moments there – time seemed to slow down and, for the first time, I experienced living in the Buddhist moment. The unctuous, crispy, salty, tender mouthful was an experience I won’t forget soon. Paired with the peach or stand alone, it was one of the best bites of food I’ve ever had. We ended up chatting with the diners at the table next to us throughout the meal (one of the lovely side benefits of the restaurant is that we often seem to meet equally reverent and grateful visitors and exclaim together about our various dishes). They seemed as stunned as we were by the intensely rich and flavorful pork.
Our entrees were cod and trout. Sounds pedestrian? Oh no, my cynical friend – anything but! The cod was pan seared, with just a bit of creamy, citrusy, lemon velouté sauce. The fish was cooked perfectly, tender and moist and delectable. It was served with a pea and lardon risotto and flavorful cooked kale. The fresh sweet peas and bacon combined well with the creamy rice.
Our second entrée was sautéed trout with creamed corn on a bed of kale and a fresh wild mushroom salad. I feel confident saying that you have never, ever tasted creamed corn like they made tonight. Erase any image of that canned stuff - this was more like a buttery, rich compote exploding with sweet corn flavor. The combination of each of the elements was some kind of universal harmonic perfection.
Paul isn’t into making desserts, although they always have a rich chocolate mousse and creamy crème brulee, as well as a few other changing options. According to Emmanuel, Chef has only made a couple of desserts himself since opening several years ago. But tonight he made a crepe filled with lemon custard topped with a fresh blueberry sauce that was the best possible ending to our remarkable meal. Yes, we also enjoyed the cheesecake with sautéed fresh peaches, and yes, it’s always a treat to enjoy their designer teas and full-bodied coffees, but the combination of the soft crepe, tangy lemon curd and intense blueberry sauce full of juicy big blueberries was light, soothing, and just sweet and tart enough to have us (and the table next to us) exclaiming and sighing in dreamy, gastronomical bliss. I warned you about all of the superlatives, didn’t I?
During a visit about a year ago, we were seated next to a couple who were apparently there for the first time. They had allowed themselves an hour for dinner and had planned to attend some sort of show immediately afterwards. Silly couple – an hour at a French restaurant? What were they thinking? They became increasingly irritated by the wait for their entrees, and began complaining to each other loudly enough for anyone close by to hear them. Our main courses were presented moments before theirs, and they raised their voices and yelled at Manuel, “WE were here before THEM. This is ridiculous!” My wife and I looked at each other and gasped (I think she actually flinched). Manuel immediately said, “Your dishes are coming in just a moment,” and sure enough, even as he finished the sentence, another server placed their dinner on the table.
It stands out in my mind because we always feel honored to be presented with their food. If it takes a long time, that’s a small price to pay. Do you really have anything better to do with two hours? If the air conditioner is not working too well, we suck it up and forbear. If the ice water is - well - tepid, so what? Those who are lucky enough to receive Chef’s culinary masterpieces need to receive it with humility and gratitude. Later that night, we commiserated with Emmanuel and shared our shock at their graceless behavior. And that’s yet another lovely dimension of our experience at Chez Albert – after a few visits you begin to reach “insider” status and are treated like a valued old friend. I hope it is a friendship that lasts a long, long, long time.
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