Grace’s executive chef, Blaine Staniford, started practicing his “TexAsian” cuisine several years ago at Dallas’ Fuse restaurant, home of the grilled Kobe beef “sushi” roll. The Culinary Institute of America-trained wunderkind is either crazy or a real genius. You’d have to be to sushify Mexican food. Or vice versa.
I held off visiting Grace due to mixed reviews. Some professional critics have loved all over the fancy downtown spot. Others, mainly regular Joes and Janes in the blogosphere, have posited otherwise. I figured that the locally owned restaurant might need a little extra time to work the kinks out. For luck, I took along two friends who
had a wonderful experience there not long ago.
The impressive, Modernist space looks like a New York art gallery: all sleek, austere lines and angles. However, the odd synth music piped in did little to help the atmosphere — it was loud and jarring rather than cool and groovy.
What did help was the friendly bartender. The two of us who were drinking aren’t adventurous. I default to merlot, and he usually goes for Shiner Bock. Both of us were offered a small sample of something new, in my case an Argentinian malbec that I really liked. In his case, it was the locally brewed Rahr selection on tap. He stuck with Shiner Bock, but I liked that the staff encourages diners to experiment.
Our server, Stephen, was unpretentious and cheerful without being too chummy. His recommendations were not necessarily targeted to more expensive items, and he was knowledgeable about the “seasonally” changing menu.
We started with the artisan-cured meat and American cheese appetizer. It’s a staggering presentation of meats (including a house-cured duck prosciutto) and cheeses (including a house-made mozzarella and an extremely ripe brie) along with house-made pickles. The antipasti is presented on a giant salt slab. Impressive, but it didn’t help the flavor or texture of the bacon, which was distressingly limp, or the brie — I prefer it a little less fragrant. However, the prosciutto and American cheeses were delicious. Another winner was the corn chowder. Puréed into a smooth, delicate, creamy mixture, the fresh corn had a slight hint of curry and included dainty pieces of potato.
For dinner, one of my dining partners picked jumbo shrimp ravioli: four exquisite homemade pasta rectangles stuffed with sweet shrimp and served in a shellfish broth. Tiny English peas and a hint of nutmeg in the sauce made the dish an absolute success.
Not so successful was my other dining companion’s prime strip-steak. Although cooked as ordered, the piece was full of fat — not marbling, fat — and gristle. I’ve forgotten what to do in a nice restaurant when I get a mouthful of yuck. Even a genius chef can’t save a bad cut of meat.
We chose sides of creamed corn and “Spätzle ‘n cheese,” a German take on classic mac and cheese. The creamed corn was light and delicious, served with cubes of smoked ham in a sweet, milky sauce that could have been conjured only from pressed corn. The Spätzle, on the other hand, was a disaster. Over-caramelized tobacco onions on top overwhelmed the delicate taste of the noodle dumplings and fontina cheese.
One of the consistent comments has been that Grace’s prices are out of line with the state of the economy. Maybe the owners were listening, because Monday through Thursday, Grace offers a “Wine Me, Dine Me” option that includes four courses paired with wine for a relatively reasonable $49. I picked the house-cured Scottish salmon on delicate potato blini and was again impressed by Staniford’s charcuterie skills. A tidy, tasty panzanella salad featured purple heirloom tomatoes, more of that house-made mozzarella, and croutons, everything covered in a fantastically tasty vinaigrette dressing that this “dressing on the side” gal loved. The tenderloin meatloaf, wrapped in bacon and served atop comforting mashed potatoes and the ham-enriched Southern staple “red-eye gravy,” was also a winner. There was a variety of string and lima beans atop the savory meatloaf. Usually, lima beans stay on my plate. But I ate them to get at more of Staniford’s upscale down-home gravy.
Both desserts were satisfyingly luscious. The molten chocolate pudding cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream was simple, gooey excellence. The carrot cake was a confection of sweet cream-cheese filling, a carrot-ginger emulsion sauce, slightly over-stewed raisins, and tasty strips of fried carrot. A carrot-cake bonus: no nuts. Staniford is definitely a genius.
Our experience at Grace was frustratingly mixed. The service was good. The atmosphere is highly sophisticated — you feel like you have to make sure you keep your elbows off the tables. But it doesn’t feel warm or comfortable, despite the fact that all the staff members are friendly. Some of the food was excellent. But when it was bad, it was really bad. Maybe that’s the difficulty with genius.
Grace
