Blue Hill @ Stone Barns

April 19, 2009: The best restaurant I have been so far. Anyway I woke up a little late and took the taxi to the midtown rental place but Gene was a little late. We started off and were soon driving up the West Side Highway, didn't realize that the drive by the river was so beautiful. In those parts even The Bronx looked charming. We reached Tarrytown within 40 mins, drove into the farm but we were really early for our tours so we went for a spin around the town. It is quaint but we exhausted all that there was to see in ten minutes, took a detour and found Sleepy Hollow but there's nothing there really. We came back to the farm and the animal husbandry tour began. More after the fold. Basically the farm is a non-profit and a part of the Rockefeller legacy, and Blue Hill is a for profit restaurant which is a tenant of the farm and consumes about 75% of their products.

We saw sheep, chickens, ducks, geese and pigs as well as the newly born ones. The don't keep any cows which are kept by the next farm. After the first tour which lasted from 12 to 1pm, we had lunch at the cafe. My impression was that the cafe was separate from Blue Hill the restaurant, but I could be wrong, the food there was very refreshing, I had lamb with broccoli raab, a salad with carrot and parsnips, cauliflower soup and a macaroon.

After that we went on the vegetable tour to see the different kinds of vegetables they grow both in permanent and portable greenhouses.

By 4:30 the others had arrived and we retired to the lounge, their cocktails looked interesting, but I didn't try any. Almost on the dot at 6 pm they sat us at dinner. Flash photography is prohibited so photographs came out rather dark. So here's a picture of the ceiling of the barn.


I couldn't take too many pictures of the food since I was really enjoying the meal. So here's a link which shows a very similar dinner. The dinner was excellent, the best I have had. The choreography of the servers was also beautiful. We were at a circular table, three would get behind three seats and on cue simultaneously plate the dishes. Was fun to watch. Also they were extremely helpful with advice and information.

There is no menu at Blue Hill, basically you can choose a 5 course for $95 or an 8 course for $125. Of course the 8 course won the vote and we are really lucky to have made the absolutely right decision. After Del Posto, I was suspicious of pork chops, so I asked them to leave it out of my main course. Here's what we were served. (courtesy Jeff's memory)

• Potato chips - served upright 2 ways between a needle holder, faro chip was thin and rectangular, gold potato chip was lightly sea salted
• Baby carrots on stem, cauliflower - cauliflower was vinegared
• Beet burgers - 1" buns
• Sea trout tempura lollipops - served on bamboo skewer
• Parsnip soup shot
• Charcuterie (copa, speck, beef salami, fennel sausage) - beef salami was the standout
• Potato onion bread (w/ butter, ricotta, beet salt, arugula salt) - salts were genius, BEST BUTTER I've ever had, they get their dairy straight from Dan's grandmother's farm Blue Hill @ the Berkshires!
• Bone marrow (w/ caviar)

After this the server mentioned that the first course would arrive soon!! These were only the amusements! In fact Renee asked for bread at the beginning and was advised that to wait for it, it was indeed excellent advice as you can see.

1. Spanish Mackrel sashimi (w/ lettuce and dandelion vinaig.) - not briny at all, 3 chunks
2. Beets (w/ mache, yogurt, pine nut butter, maple gelee) - yogurt was genius
3. Rhode Island farm fresh daily egg (in speck, ramp marmalade w/ pine nuts) - they say the smaller eggs are from the 1st lay and taste better, pine nut flavor was bursting in this!
4. Goose egg pasta (w/ black trumpet shrooms, shaved embryonic egg) - yolky, they physically go into and take the embryonic egg from a recently retired (slaughtered) chicken and cure it, it's pricked onto a needle holder then shaved upside down over your pasta
5. Berkshire pork belly (w/ chickpeas, rappini) - small sliver but damn tasty. After Del Posto I was suspicious of pork chops, so I had asked for something else, mistake!! Blue Hill is not Del Posto, anything here is good. I got sticky chicken wings, tasty but probably the pork belly was better. Next time!
6. Lamb neck (w/ swiss chard, parsnip puree, scallion stick) - the star of the show
7. Passionfruit gelee on meyer lemon rind, yogurt sorbet and foam, choco bits) [palate cleanser] - takes 48hrs for the lemon rind to be edible
8. Beet w/ chocolate cake, espresso sorbet - half of the table had this
   [Pineapple cake w/ formage blanc ice cream and heirloom greens - half of the table had this, i tried this]
   
9. Gin (sorbet) and tonic (gelee) w/ buddha's hand - buddha's hand tastes like orange zest
10. Espresso stick, bourbon chocolate, marshmallow [petit fours] - aka a deconstructed s'more

After this awesome dinner we were given a tour of the facilities and the kitchen and the herb garden and the barn and the banquet rooms. This was a fantastic day and can't wait to go there back again.

Might have to try the bar area if I can't get a reservation which is like 2 months in advance. Also they do Sunday brunch, same problem, two months even during recession.