Jay About Pistou

Before you all (both of you) accuse me of Middlebury favoritism... f*** you!  Ok, back to the issue at hand... Pistou!  We had the in laws in town so we decided to head into Burlington for a drink and dinner.  We quickly stopped for a drink at the new bar space on the second floor at Leunigs.  They are shooting for a French Brasserie feel as far as I can tell.  Whether or not that is successful I am not sure but it is a nice scene. There is a small but ok bar and several tables for 2 6 people.  They have a really nice and reasonably priced drink menu and plenty of excellent small plate options.  The place was very crowded at 7:30pm which is always a good sign.  We got prompt service, a nice drink (I went for the French 75 stand bye) and I would certainly go back assuming they did not get dooshy like the downstairs bar.

Next stop, Pistou.  It is a little off the run location wise and I am a little afraid it will hurt them.  They have already faded on the breakfast and lunch options they once had. It was busy but not packed and the bar needs to be bigger to make real moo-lah.  Our service started a little slow.  It took a long time to get a drink order in and when we finally got our wine the waitress poured it all over the table.  Away from that the menu looked solid but we went w/ the chef's choice tasting menu.  They ask you if you have any dietary requirements and then you get what comes out over 4 courses.  We started w/ a creamy chicken croquette.  It was a very nice amuse bouche.  A tasty little bite.  I wish we had the wine poured to go w/ it.  Next up, pork belly and smoked mmackerel w/ a rice vinegar pickled shitake mushroom in a little asian broth.  Shit, it was great.  The portion was perfect and the pork was crispy and not too fatty.  The fish was delicious and a great bite w/ the mushroom.  Hell yeah I mopped up the broth w/ the table bread!  Next, sea scallop on squid ink risotto.  Squid ink seems to be the fancy food accompaniment du jour.  Well, in this instance it worked.  The scallop was perfectly cooked and was very fresh tasting.  The risotto was slightly al dente and the squid ink gave it a slightly salty briny flavor.  That was a big winner.  Onto the meat course, slow cooked lamb w/ savory oats.  My lamb was a little fatty but the portion was manageable and the flavor of the lamb and the oats were outstanding.  Lastly we shared a couple deserts which were out of this world.  The sweet creamy polenta w/ blackberry compote and peanut butter ice cream sounded off putting but was really quite nice and came together well.  The show stopper?  Toffee bread pudding w/ cream cheese semifredo and candied walnuts.  I could have eaten just that.  The flavor, the texture, everything worked and was a great finish to an excellent meal.  An added bonus, often after a meal like that I wake up feeling it or have terrible heartburn.  This time I had none of that, possibly in part due to the nice smallish portions?  This was a winner and I really hope they get traction. You can't go there every night but it should be on the short list w/ Kitchen Table and Hen of the Wood for special dinners out.

Go Midd!!!!