Russet - A Secret Sunday Supper Club
One of A's coworkers recently got engaged, and of course we seized upon the occasion as an excuse to take them out to dinner to somewhere that's been on our hit list for a while. Russet is one of those restaurants that we've walked past a million times and each time said something on the variation of "why haven't we tried this place yet?" Tucked in the middle of residential brownstones on Spruce St, it's easy to walk past without noticing.
Walking inside, the dining room is cozy and romantically lit. However, they leave plenty of room between tables, which gets them bonus points. One of my restaurant pet peeves is having the tables so close together that it feels like I'm on an unintentional blind date with another couple.
Russet is a BYOB serving self described "New American" cuisine, which seems code for "we also have no idea what type of cuisine this really is." Although given their abundance of pastas on the menu, it seems the heaviest influence leans Italian. On Sundays, they offer a coursed menu option called "Sunday Supper," which includes 3 courses and dessert for $38. Given that the waiter told us they encourage everyone to order both an appetizer and a main and most of their mains are already priced around $25-30, the Sunday Supper seems like a great option. Also, all of the Sunday Supper's courses sounded delicious, so I was pretty sold on the idea. Four courses is a lot of food though, so we compromised and I got the Sunday Supper and A only ordered a duck breast main with the understanding he'd eat some of my meal.
After we put in our order, they came around with a complimentary bread service (forgot to take a photo). Complimentary bread service is my weakness, but I tried to be good since I had so much food coming my way later on.
The first course was the Neck Pumpkin Soup (double smoked bacon, sage, parmigiano reggiano). This soup was very thick, more of what I think of as a stew or curry than a soup. The flavors were very autumn, with the pumpkin coming through strong. My favorite part of the soup were the chunks of double cooked bacon. These weren't your average bacon bit toppings -- thick cut off a slab of pork belly with a 1:1 ratio of fat and meat, they were supremely satisfying to eat.
The next course was the Hand Pressed Linguine (cockles clams, tomatoes, hot peppers, chives). Definitely my favorite course of the night. The pasta was cooked to a perfect al dente and the serving of cockles with the appetizer course was generous. I'm generally not a fan of seafood broths with tomato bases, but it worked really well in this dish, creating a sauce that was acidic, tart, and savory with a hint of spice from the hot peppers. After all the cockles and pasta were gone, I made sure to drink all the broth left at the bottom.
The main for the Sunday Supper was Milk-Braised Pork Shoulder (savoy cabbage, celeriac, yukon potatoes, grainy mustard). This was probably my least favorite dish of the night. I loved the sauce that everything was smothered in, but cut of pork they used had no fat and was on the dry side as a result. I picked through and ate all of the savoy cabbage and celeriac, which was deliciously soft and soaked in the sauce, but fed most of the pork to A.
A ordered the Green Meadow Farm Duck Breast (brussels sprouts, beans, shallow confit) which came out a nice medium rare. I stole a few bites of the duck and while tasty, were a little chewy.
Overall a solid dish, and wouldn't be mad if I ordered it, but nothing too memorable.
For the dessert course, the Sunday Supper had a Port-Poached Pear Tart (birchun blue cheese cream, honeyed hickory nuts, black pepper syrup) lined up. The first thing I noticed when taking a bite was the blue cheese flavor. They definitely do not try and hide it in this tart. Even though I'm generally not a huge blue cheese fan, I have to say it really worked in this dessert. The cheese flavor mixed with the sweet poached pears and the crumbly tart crust was super addicting. I love unique takes on classic dishes, so this was something I really enjoyed.
In general, it seems like their regular menu is meant to be on the safer side and Sunday Supper is really where they push their creative bounds a little. Not sure how inclined I would be to come back on a regular day, but their Sunday Supper is something I'd love to do again.
TL;DR - Delicious food in a lovely ambiance. Cute BYOB for a romantic occasion.
