Arrows

Every once in a while you have an experience you know you’ll remember forever. Even when you’re in the midst of it, you know it’s one of those life moments and memories you’ll always cherish.

And so it was that we visited Arrows: the flagship restaurant of award winning chefs, Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier, and named 14th in "America's Top 50 Restaurants 2006" by Gourmet Magazine. Their garden and organic farm is cultivated by three full time gardeners and provides up to 90% of the produce the restaurant needs. Their prosciuttos and charcuterie are created on premise, fish of all types are prepared in the onsite smoke house, and breads and pastries are created by a master pastry chef. Cheeses are taken from curd to finished product in the kitchen, and mushrooms, cranberries and fiddle heads are foraged from the surrounding woodlands. Located in a humble country home in the woods near Olgunquit, Maine, this small restaurant changed forever my dining barometer and raised the experience from enjoyable to surreal. Where to begin?

Possibly with the moment we stepped out of the car? We glanced towards the entrance where a chef in full dress whites stood near an open fire, holding a tray of tiny beignets filled with a pumpkin seed aioli. She smiled as we approached, greeted us, and offered us a bite. Naturally, we accepted. As we continued towards the door, the pastry literally melted in our mouths, sparking even higher expectations. This was a reservation made months beforehand and a trip planned for over a year. But however high our expectations rose, they couldn’t reach the lofty experience that had already begun to unfold.

Inside, smartly garbed servers greeted us with such warmth we felt like prodigal children returning to hearth and home. Our coats were lifted away, and we were guided towards a table next to a window where we looked out to see a virtual autumn fairyland. There were windows around the entire restaurant with views of artfully placed pumpkins and gourds of all sizes in a decorative display, which glowed in the white lights draped through the trees that served as their backdrop. The wait staff gently pushed in our chairs for us, draped our napkins on our laps and handed us menus that were poetry to read. All I could think at this point was “I’m not worthy.”

We had arranged to meet two friends for the experience. Both are true foodies with whom we’ve forged enough restaurant experiences to have negotiated complete consensus decision-making on ordering, with blanket expectations that everything would always be shared. The scene was set. We began perusing the menus with nothing short of anticipated lust. But wait…here is a server to offer us tiny, thin breadsticks while we wait. Mmmm. Tasty and fun. Back to the menus…the starters look amazing. We begin the negotiation and settle on four gorgeously described dishes. But wait…here is another server to offer us small pieces of rosemary focaccia and sourdough bread. And our choice of several plates of house-churned butter. We choose the duo of salted and unsalted butters and lovingly adorn our bread selections. The sourdough is soft, chewy and satisfying. The focaccia is airy and delicious with a salty burst that pairs brilliantly with the butter. We chew happily as we continue to consider the entrees. Torn badly between six selections, we can only seem to eliminate one - so we agree that it’s not too over-the-top for four people to order five entrees. Is it? Decisions made.

The servers appear as if they knew it was exactly the right moment. We place our order as they nod approvingly and refill our drinks. The setting is intimate, quiet, but a buzz of excitement extends beyond our table. This is theatre. This is the way we imagined life as a Hollywood star or international spy. We have arrived beyond our wildest expectations. And we’ve yet to taste our first appetizer. But that is about to change.

Imagine a parsnip “crème brûlée” with garden greens, cider vinegar, pumpkin seed oil and toasted five-seed bread. Unlikely, unprecedented and the favorite starter at our table, it delivered on taste, texture and beautiful presentation. The savory brûlée was delicate but bold at the same time. Our next appetizer was grilled banana leaf wrapped halibut with a candied lemon dipping sauce; chilled calamari salad with garden shiso; and a prawn with Thai green curry and preserved rhubarb. The platter was complex, the flavors running the gamut, with each bite waking up taste buds that had been sleeping for years. The prawn was extraordinary, and we agreed that we could have eaten dozens.

Our Maine shrimp parfait with mango, avocado, garden radish in a lime-vanilla bean vinaigrette was presented in a tall champagne flute and looked amazing. The vanilla was a tasty and provocative foil for the salad. The only complaint we had was that it was somewhat difficult to access all of the layered components in the dish in order to share it equitably. Our final starter was seared foie gras with puff pastry, fresh mango, pomegranate and a rich stock sauce with garden “golden frills” salad. Forget what I said about the crème brûlée; much as we enjoyed that, THIS was our favorite appetizer. The decadent fois gras, the buttery pastry, the combination of fruit and stock as sauce was literally a fantastic mouthful. Ever. We couldn’t stop exclaiming about it.

Our servers presented each dish with a flourish and detailed description of the elements and, in many cases, where the ingredients originated. Often, the ingredients came from the Arrows gardens or bee hives. By this point in the meal we began assuming that they designed their own plates and smelted the silverware. Did I mention the silverware? Each course, each dish, came with the perfect accompanying tools. Four beautiful silver sets of chopsticks were carefully set up at each of our places so we could enjoy the Thai halibut and prawn dish.
Because our five entrees could not fit on our table, the staff suggested that they split one and serve it first, with the intention of bringing the remaining four afterwards. Sounded wonderful to us. We were already dazed and euphoric and would have agreed to anything as long as they continued to feed us.
The first entrée that arrived was the Duo of chicken. The plate included a pan roasted breast with caramelized butternut squash and agnolotti with crab apple brown butter. It also contained a smoked crepinette with apple mustard and wild rice broth with parsnip, potato, carrot, celery, leeks and puffed rice. Presented in four brûlée dishes, the air-dried, organic chicken (from Jersey our servers explained) was so tender and tasty it bore little resemblance to what we call chicken today. The wild rice broth with tiny vegetables was so flavorful I literally raised my dish to slurp up every single drop. The little pasta agnolotti with crab apple butter added the perfect sweet/savory addition. Each mouthful was better than the last.

Next we enjoyed several complex platters. If I say we had duck, beef, scallops and lobster, it is an injustice to the artists who conceptualized, prepared and designed each of the brilliant platters. The beef platter included grilled tenderloin with a clove-hollandaise sauce. Savory, tender, and full of flavor, the tenderloin was remarkable. The braised beef short ribs with black pepper, cinnamon, ginger and red wine sauce was deep, glazed and rich. A veal meatball tartlet with gnocchi and a sweet custard was a tiny world unto itself. The pastry was flaky, the meatball light but savory, and the gnocchi a tiny soft dumpling with the slightly sweet custard. It all came together to create a complex mouthful that pleased on every level.

The “whole quack” platter also had three preparations. A confit leg was meltingly tender and tasty, the cedar wood-charred breast with dragon well tea and fermented black beans had a deep, smoky flavor which surprised the palate. As I ate each bite, the flavors came in quick succession – the sweetness of the duck, the dusky cedar taste, the fermented black beans. The smoked breast was another of our growing list of favorite dishes. The platter also included seared fois gras with garden radish and an orange chili vinaigrette. While we enjoyed it, the starter fois gras remained our preference.

Our two seafood dishes were lobster and scallops. The lobster was served with an anise-olive oil emulsion and Jewish fennel (grown in their garden of course!). The roasted tail came with sweet breads, soy beans, and spaetzle. It was all lovely and delicious but didn’t stun us the way the other dishes had. We agreed that anything done with lobster beyond steaming was gilding the lily and probably unnecessary.

Our final dish was seared scallops with crispy foie gras potatoes, red and yellow beet salad, crispy pancetta, King oyster mushroom tempura and a chervil vinaigrette. The tiny cubed beet salad was the perfect counterpoint to the rich elements of the dish – all of which were thoroughly enjoyable. The star of the platter was the foie gras potatoes, savory cups designed to hold the scallops that stood up and announced themselves as a custardy confection deserving of attention and applause all on their own. I can’t compare them to anything because I’ve never tasted anything like it before. As with so many various dishes…they defied description, and quite frankly were unparalleled.

Dessert was created by Chef Karina Gowing, and she has every reason to be proud. We chose the Heirloom Apple strudel (with apples and pears, poached cranberries and pecan cake, star anise ice cream and hot mulled cider). Our server explained to us how to pour the small decanter of cider over the other elements. One of our group who is a strudel lover couldn’t stop exclaiming over how much he was enjoying it. I’m not a strudel person, but I figured since he had agreed to order the chocolate fondue to indulge my craving, I’d support his strudel habit. The fondue, by the way, was a deep pool of dark chocolate with exquisite tiny bits of fruit and pastry for dipping. I particularly enjoyed the Madeline’s and tea cakes, but the raspberries, slices of Asian apples, and blackberries were also spectacular. I could have dipped all night.

We also ordered a blackberry tart and chocolate honey bento box. The tart was fresh blackberries on a goat cheese crust with a merlot drop. It was fresh and lovely, but the winner on that platter was the accompanying lemon basil ice cream. The new trend towards savory and unexpected ice cream flavors often results in heavy handed intensity that hits you over the head. Not so with Arrows. The lemon and basil flavors were gentle, fragrant, mild and refreshing. It was the star of the dessert table as far as I’m concerned. Our final dessert was the bento box. Presented as a layered series of boxes that fit together, the staff explained that it contained three separate offerings. First a bittersweet chocolate and honey terrine (their own family apiary of course!), a golden pyramid with orange mint and pomegranate seeds, and a honey buttermilk panna cotta on a chocolate snap cookie. I was preoccupied with bathing everything that wasn’t nailed down in the chocolate fondue but took a brief break to taste the chocolate pyramid with the pomegranate seeds. The snap and burst of the seeds along with the chocolate was like fireworks – it worked so beautifully I plan to pair the two whenever humanly possible.

I can’t adequately describe how we felt when exiting. Escorted to the door, coats draped around our shoulders, we were offered a final peanut buttery chocolate confection as we exited. With that final flavor melting on our tongues, we walked outside into the autumn fairyland and stood grinning at each other, drinking in the moment. Thank you, Arrows, thank you Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier. From the bottom of my heart. I will never, ever forget that night.