After a brief hiatus, we’re back! We come with another tale of over-the-top indulgence, of fancy platings and full stomachs. Let us regale you with the tale of the trip we took last month to a restaurant we’ve been meaning to visit ever since it opened: Poulet Bleu in Lawrenceville.
This charming little American bistro is located in the space once inhabited by another one of our old favorites, Tamari (site of the Great Churro Disaster of 2014).
For us, the challenge of visiting a place like Poulet Bleu is that every single thing on the menu sounds amazing and we know it’s impossible to try everything.
But after a satisfying round of cocktails — a Sidecar for myself, a Vieux Carré for Fox — we were ready to damn well try.
We ordered a whole slew of plates to share and tasked our server to course them out however made sense. Here, see the kitchen preparing for war.
First out the gate was the “Chips and Dip” — which is indeed chips and french onion dip…but smothered in a little under an ounce of freaking salmon roe! The saltiness of the roe cut into the creamy dip, bringing balance in the most decadent way possible. What a start!
Hot on the heels of our first dish came our fresh baguette appetizer, with a soft, cultured sea-salt-and-chive butter.
It couldn’t have given Fox more joy.
Shortly after we finished our bread course, our bubbling-hot French onion soup arrived.
It was a messy, saucy, cheesy delight.
We then made a token gesture at preserving our health by enjoying a fresh, tangy, gem lettuce and radish salad. The greens were crisp and appropriately dressed in red wine vinaigrette; it was a good way to declare half-time during a night of rich indulgence.
We quickly got back into rich indulgence mode, though, with our next course: the aligot potatoes, which were basically equal portions of potatoes, butter, and cheese. That is: they were freaking perfect.
Alongside our whipped potatoes, we had the “chef’s cut” of the night, which was a tender hanger steak in a succulent bordelaise sauce. It paired beautifully with a bold Bordeaux blend.
If that sounds like the perfect way to end a meal…try it out and let us know how it goes, because we didn’t stop there.
We followed all that up with an order of the mushroom vol-au-vent, which is a puff pastry stuffed to the gills with sautéed mushrooms, croutons, and fried walnuts. You must try it.
We wrapped up dinner with yet more potatoes — namely, an order of the pommes frites, about which we’d heard nothing but raves (and for good reason!). Here they are. Not pictured? The moment, minutes later, when I dipped these fries into the remaining aligot potatoes and had as close to a religious experience as I’ve had in my adult life.
Some things are just too special to put in a picture.
As the last courses came out, we were pretty sure we’d been fully satisfied…until we saw the young ladies at the table next to us order this majestic thing: the chocolate souffle for two. Served with banana ice cream, cherry compote, pineapple, chocolate sauce, and crème Anglaise, this dessert was just too beautiful to ignore. So we got one ourselves and Went. To. Town.
All this, and we never even touched the entreés section of the menu! We will be back…after a few months of fasting.