Liking Luxe All Over Again

Brian Okin has been running the kitchen at Luxe since June. The husband and I were on hand for tasting last week of his new fall menu organized for staff and few friends of the house. After making my way through samples of fourteen sides, salads, small plates, pizzas and entrees it's quite clear to me that this skilled chef has settled in and hit his stride. He's putting his mark on this restaurant, which has been around since 2008, and diners have reason to rejoice.

 Okin likes to promote himself as a serious carnivore cook, with a special interest in a certain unconventional protein, and the braised pork shank osso bucco (with cheesy polenta) leaves no doubt that he knows how to handle a piece of meat to bring out its finest qualities. Pork belly and garlic sausage are used to good effect in place of duck in a riff on cassoulet. Earthy porcini spaetzle, made with a powdered from of the mushroom, are dotted with what Okin calls "his best friend," bacon. And the prosciutto and fresh mozzarella stuffed chicken breast is pure poultry comfort food. But what really grabbed my attention was his ability to add real va-va-voom to veggies.

I went crazy over the salads. Really, no exaggeration. The wedge features small baby head lettuces and a fantastic smoked blue cheese dressing made with creme fraiche and a malt vinegar aioli they prep in house. Another is a combination of roasted cauliflower, butter lettuce, chickpeas, and pickled red onion, all set off by a raisin-sherry vinaigrette. But my personal favorite, as well as the entire table's pick for best, was the winter squash. Slices are coated in panko and toasted in clarified butter, paired with arugula, and drizzled with truffle oil and a wonderful Gorgonzola fondue.

A cauliflower gratin in gruyere crema was rich and satisfying. Squash with risotto and raclette cheese finished with brown butter and sage was an autumn on the plate feast. And then there were the fried brussels sprouts tossed in a lemon rosemary vinaigrette with capers and toasted almonds. Simply and yet perfect. Possibly the best version of these little cabbage cousins I've ever had.

One feature of the menu I really like is the family meal option (minimum of two people): $28 per person gets the table a  customized, three-course selection of dishes for sharing. Another noteworthy aspect is the array of options for vegetarians and vegans. 

Luxe has been around long enough to be a Gordon Square neighborhood fixture. But there are all kinds of new reasons to check it out now thanks to chef Brian Okin.

Christmas on Carnegie

Christmas came early for me this year and a few select others. We were invited to holiday party preview at Verve and though the calendar said autumn, the interior of the downtown Cleveland restaurant was decked out in ornaments, sleigh bells, baskets of poinsettias that looked remarkably real, and stacks of beautifully wrapped gifts. And I was told on good authority that Santa had left the building just moments before I arrived.

The prompt for all this December style cheer was Chef/owner Brian Okin’s new partnership with experienced event and food professional Nancy Yetman and their recent launch of Verve’s Art of Catering operation. They’ll gladly prep the buffet and bring it to you but with the restaurant now open only for breakfast and lunch, it can accommodate private shindigs at night. It’s a great place for a special gathering and the pair decided to demo the concept, showing the kind of spread- and creative presentation- they can produce for festive occasions.

Irresistible house made sweet and savory “cracker jacks” were heaped in the center of paper-topped tables. A line-up of really delicious hors d’oeuvres that were cleverly named and conceived was prettily arrayed on the bar. Okin’s version of Pigs in a Blanket consisted of trotter croquettes with apple mostarda. Quackers was a tart made with duck confit and cherry onion relish. For his Cape Cod Shooters, he served a bite of pasta in clam sauce in a shell. Tastebuds was a combination of sweet potatoes, figs, goat cheese and pistachios. The Turkey Napoleans featured layers of bread pudding, bird, and cranberry raspberry compote. There were velvety squash soup shooters garnished with candied nuts, endive leaves filled with crab salad, and ratatouille inside crisply fried wonton skins. Servers passed miniature ice cream cones filled salmon mousseline or beef tartar.

It was an impressive performance and the team gets my endorsement. And it’s straight up cool to have a whole restaurant just for you and your guests. Those with holiday entertaining responsibilities would be wise to contact Nancy immediately (216-577-3663, nancyatverve@gmail.com) and get your date on her calendar. Tell her Laura sent you.

Be Bizarre

I just read an article about culinary adventurers who search their city’s restaurants for the weirdest, wildest, most off-putting fare imaginable: seafood that’s still wriggling when it goes in the mouth, pig brains, bugs and duck embryos. In New York City they’ve formed a club, calling themselves Gastronauts, and their quest for unlikely foods takes them way beyond the organ meats and animal parts that scare off most ordinary diners.

I have no doubt that Cleveland chefs would have a hard time finding an audience for foods that exist at the extreme edges of edibility. But some are determined to get us to push our boundaries at least a little.

Brian Okin is one of them. At Verve, his restaurant on Carnegie Avenue, the reigning idea is to reinvent American comfort food, updating it with contemporary style and international flavors. He knows that our grandmothers used every anatomical bit a critter offered from gizzards to feet and it inspires him. I recently had dinner there and sampled two dishes rooted in this tradition.

For his cleverly named “Pigs in a Blanket” appetizer Okin makes fried croquettes from slow cooked trotter meat pulled from the bony foot and ankle that he coats in panko breading. The meat was moist but not fatty like the pork belly that’s showing up on menus everywhere, and some mostarda and pecorina chief set it off nicely. In “Liver and Onions” he plays with this old fashioned workingman’s staple by pairing slices of veal liver, which had the rich butteryness of fois, with scallions and rosemary mustard vinaigrette. I liked them both very much.

Next time I go, I’m planning on trying the Offal and Eggs: veal sweetbreads with a mushroom and sweet potato frittata. Or if it’s lunchtime I’ll go with the Offal burger, which stacks those same sweetbreads on a bun with speck, talleggio, and a smear of cinnamon aioli.

None of these would get those NYC Gastronauts excited — they hunger for much stranger stuff. But for a dining public that favors steaks and chops, a meal at Verve can be a deliciously dangerous walk on the wild side.