Summer at Café Boulud feels like a true treat for locals and visitors during the island’s slower season. In addition to festive community celebrations (think: Fourth of July and Bastille Day), Café Boulud spotlights seasonal goodness in prix fixe lunch and dinner menus, weekly specials, Golden Hour happy hour, its Picnic Basket Experience, monthly wine dinners, and afternoon tea service.
Here is a glimpse into two of our recent experiences at Café Boulud.
Wine Dinners Galore
A glowing dining room, excited summer chatter, and the unmistakable sound of popping corks beckoned at Café Boulud’s recent wine dinner on June 11. Two days ahead of National Rosé Day, diners enjoyed a sumptuous five-course experience that showcased the talents of executive chef Christopher Zabita, executive pastry chef Rosana Quintero, and head sommelier David Sauer.
The evening began with a buttermilk oyster bite paired with Nominé-Renard Brut Rosé Champagne from the Marne Valley. Here, yeasty effervescence did the fried oyster tremendous justice, while enhancing the spicy-sweet chili-maple gastrique.
The delightful surprise of the dinner followed in the second course: lemon and dill cured salmon served with baba ghanoush, pickled cherries, pomegranate, and watercress, paired with an Ixsir Grande Reserve rosé from Lebanon. Diners experienced the distance that a truly perfect wine pairing can take the flavor of the dish it marries, with the rosé’s earthy, funky, and grassy minerality crescendoing with the brine of the salmon, savoriness of the baba ghanoush, and tart sweetness of the fruit.
If Sauer had to pick favorites, course three would get his vote. Marinated seared shrimp with muhammara, gnocchi, and whipped goat cheese was a wonderful match for a La Raimbauderie Sancerre rosé. The grapes of this rosé are grown in soil rich in Kimmeridgian-era limestone. This nourishment lends an acidity and minerality to the wine that coaxes out waves of umami from the tomato muhammara and highlights the dish’s overall savoriness.
Sips of an exceptional Pierres-Yves Colin-Morey rosé from the dynastic grower’s 55-year-old vines ushered diners into the next course: a citrus and oregano grilled swordfish with marinated tomatoes, anchovy emulsion, and black olive powder. As the main event, neither the wine nor the dish yielded to the other, creating a complementary fortress of flavor.
For a sweet finish, Quintero prepared an herbaceous, light-as-air Thai basil strawberry shortcake, which Sauer paired with a playful House of Brown rosé crafted from Zinfandel. The sweeter fruit enhanced the pillowy lusciousness of the cake, while rounding out the sweetness of the summer-perfect strawberry.
The next wine dinner is slated for July 9, featuring the world’s finest sparkling wines. Zabita, Quintero, Sauer, and guest host Elissa Haire of Winebow Fine Wine & Spirits will partner to craft five courses paired with a sparkling sip from vineyards that dot Europe, the Mediterranean, and California. The evening begins with a 6:45 p.m. seated reception, followed by dinner at 7 p.m. The experience is $195 per person, excluding tax and gratuity.
To reserve, visit cafeboulud.com/palmbeach/our-menu/sparkling-wine-dinner.
Afternoon Tea
For a daytime feast for the senses, Café Boulud’s tea service is a mid-afternoon opportunity to delight in good company, perfect cups, and impossibly beautiful creations with flavors that stun.
The restaurant’s Palais de Thés menu unfolds as a journey from rich black teas to delicate infusions, with a selection to suit all tastes. For the table, we savored the Thé des Lords, a strong Earl Grey with bergamot; the spiced organic Masala chai; the Paris for Her, an aromatic green tea with rose, raspberry, lychee, and peppermint; and the Verveine, a soothing infusion of verbena and chamomile.
Much to our delight, each distinctly different tea complemented and prepared our palates for the tower of treats to come. Quintero and the pastry team have crafted a thing of beauty: three tiers of freshly baked scones with Devonshire cream and preserves; sculptural sweets, like the pistachio and Amarena cherry macaron and chocolate and buckwheat choux puff; and savory bites, such as a gruyere and asparagus quiche and a mini brioche with smoked salmon and dill cream cheese.
If celebration is in order, bubbles by the glass take the indulgent experience to another level.
Tea service is available daily, from 3 to 4 p.m. The experience is $68 per person. To reserve, visit cafeboulud.com/palmbeach/our-menu/tea-service/.
Facebook Comments