Day 849 : Sel et Gras

Sel et Gras translating to Salt & Fat is a month old French joint on Seventh Avenue South and West 10th street. A small corner space meant to turn French cuisine in NYC on its head -- no frills, just in your face fabulous French flavors. Sel et Gras is street art chic meets French pop / punk rock meets Napoleon's Versailles in a casual atmosphere - no jacket and tie needed here!

A view of the marble bar and some of the interior graffiti.

So what did we have?

On such a steamy summer eve, glasses of rose were just the ticket! With our rose, we ordered their version of a Pissaladiere. A Southern French flatbread pizza topped with caramelized onions, olives, garlic, anchovies, and in this case herbs and tomatoes. Rare to find done right in the US, Sel et Gras' Pissaladiere was aromatic, briny, herbaceous and fabulous! 

Along with that we had a classic Southern French black olive tapenade served with olive oil toasted crostini and a drizzle of lemon. Flavorful and dynamic, much more about the olive oil utilized to coat the tapenade and the olives themselves than about adding in too many ingredients.

And of course we had three of their cheeses -- St Maure (an ash ripened goat's milk cheese), Reblochon  (a washed rind cow's milk stinker), and a lovely Tomme (barnyardy and farmy with sheep-y, buttery round notes.) All three fabulous French cheeses!

Overall a great new addition to the West Village dining scene and a new take on French food. 

Sel et Gras

131 Seventh Avenue South

Day 725 : This week's cheese crush..Black Sheep's Tin Willow Tomme

While down in Gramercy earlier today, I thought I'd pay a visit to one of my favorite cheese shops that I've written about -- Beecher's. I always like to see what they have in their cases to see if there's anything new that I might not know about and today I discovered Black Sheep Creamery's Tin Willow Tomme hailing from Chehalis, Washington. This firm aged sheep's milk tomme was just calling my name, I had to try it.

Crafted actually with the milk from Tin Willow Farm in Lexington, Oregon as Black Sheep has expanded more rapidly than they have had the milk and the capacity to keep up with utilizing the milk of their own flock, this is an excellent example of creameries working together over the shared love of cheese and cheese production. The result is a fabulously grassy, somewhat herbaceous and earthy, crisp citrusy dry firm tomme. A brilliant window into the region's terroir, this cheese is full of delicate nuances, It is a cheese to savor with a nice glass of Washington State Syrah.

Definitely glad I tried it and will be hopefully exploring Black Sheep's other cheeses as well in the near future!