The Farmers’ Cabinet Identity Crisis
g says: m and n invited us and two other couples to try out the new and fairly well-received gastropub in center city, The Farmers’ Cabinet. I hadn’t heard much about it, but my impression was that this place has interesting, old-fashioned drinks and supposedly great food. The menu looked promising for a rainy Sunday evening dinner, so off we went (umbrellas in hand).
8/2011, Sunday 7pm, party of 8: The atmosphere in this place is actually pretty cool, albeit a little disorienting. There are two bars, and a separate dining area with one super long table bisecting the space, benches on each side. I wondered how servers dealt with this, as they could not reach diners on the opposite side of the table unless they walked to the end of the long table — which is essentially walking all the way to the other side of the room.
Our server, while friendly, was a bit odd. As he explained the drink menu to us, his mind seemed to wander to the point where he forgot what he was saying midway through. This happened 2-3 times before he finished going through the menu with us.
Now, to be clear, the drink menu is overwhelmingly extensive. No wonder our server got lost in it. Cocktails can be prepared with the alcohol of your choosing, which I found a little unappealing. (How good could the drink be if it wasn’t meticulously paired with the rest of its ingredients? People look at menus to choose something someone else has already done the research on — if we wanted to choose what goes into our drinks, we would order it that way.) Also, all of the cocktails sounded very similar to one another, which makes me feel like they need to diversify their offerings (citrus or lemon, sugar, bitters, etc.). They have beers from all over the world, and a decent number of them. While this is nice, our fellow diners had a difficult time choosing from the over-assortment, and ended up asking the server for a recommendation anyway.
In my opinion, a menu should be a curated show of the best assortment that the restaurant has to offer — something to accommodate varying tastes, all while staying true to the concept of the restaurant. The Famers’ Cabinet has trouble in this area, and could definitely benefit from a lesson in the art of the edit, as this is what makes a place unique.
We ordered our drinks — most everyone found an interesting beer to suit them, while n and I ordered punch and a cocktail, respectively. The beer came out a good 10-15 minutes before our drinks hit the table, which I chalked up to a service kink to be worked out in such a new place.
On to the food! Our table ordered a nice variety of dishes from pork belly bbq sandwiches to mushroom crepes. The general consensus: mushroom crepes were the best thing on the table. t didn’t get a picture of it because someone else at the table had ordered it and he didn’t want to be so forward as to snap a pic while she was actively eating. Here’s the rest with the goods, bads, and uglies.
– pretzels: pretty good, but not great – not particularly soft on the inside.
t's pork belly sandwich
– pork belly: way too much bread, which actually overpowered the pork (t interjects: of course, they could have just had more pork – you can barely see it through the slaw!)
g's and n's burger with bacon jam
– burger: the meat was dry, the bacon jam a gross consistency (and just not pretty), too much bread, not enough cheese
m's blurry chicken
– chicken: chicken was good, but creamed spinach too mushy
t's beef tongue charcuterie
– beef tongue: surprisingly lacking in big beefy flavor like you’d expect from tongue, but good texture
– cheese fondue (not pictured): tasted like cheez whiz (that’s a bad thing)
individually wrapped chocolates
– complimentary chocolates at the end: truly delicious — great job there (t stole other people’s chocolates … he’s like a 4-year-old)
The chocolates arrived at our table in a cigar box, which also housed our check. This would have been clever if the box were smaller to more appropriately fit its contents… and if it had ANYTHING to do with whatever this restaurant’s concept is.
Another note of randomness: everything is served on a slab of slate — but why? They didn’t serve a purpose, and plates without edges are generally difficult to serve, eat from, and clear. It just didn’t make sense from any perspective I could see. So frustrating.
Maybe m said it best …
m chimes in: it’s like they took all the trends in food right now and tried to incorporate them all into one place. (baking own breads, tons of beers, farm-to-table/organic, prohibition era drinks)
g says: Although most of the people I ate with tonight were doctors, you didn’t need to be one to diagnose this place’s multiple personality disorder. It needs someone to go in there and make some creative decisions — they can’t be everything for everyone, and they shouldn’t be. If TFC focused on fewer personalities, the food and drinks they do offer might be better.
t says: I think it’s now named “dissociative identity disorder” – but tomato, tomato, potato, potato. I would offer my services as a creative consultant if they paid me in those individually wrapped chocolates … I don’t know if I’d do a good job, but what’d they expect? They paid me in chocolates!
Pumpkin: “Good but not Great”
t says: We journeyed to Pumpkin last week with kp and another dinnermate. Weirdly, even though it’s close to where we live, we hadn’t quite been able to get to it despite trying to visit for years (it was always our second option). But not this time – this time we were going to go, damnit! (Actually, I had originally wanted to revisit a.kitchen with kp, but alas, they’re still too busy).
August 2011, Thursday 8pm, Party of 4. We walked in to a pretty tiny place – maybe a smidge bigger than Bibou. They do it old school (BYO and cash-only) at Pumpkin, so we came prepared with some pinot noir and riesling. We were seated promptly and introduced to our menus. A lot sounded tasty, so we initially had some personal crises (e.g. duck or pig – duck or pig?!) When the dust settled, this is what came out:
Escargots and Chicken Wings
kp and I ventured the escargots and chicken. It was accompanied with cucumber and sauced with something green that I actually cannot remember what it was. While the escargots were cooked appropriately (soft, not chewy), I found them to be a little lacking in flavor. Whereas Bibou’s tend to hit you in the mouth with a big “HEY – I’M A SNAIL” flavor, Pumpkin’s were much more subdued. The chicken wing was the same – cooked beautifully, but underwhelming flavor (although this was more likely due to underseasoning). I was a little sad because I couldn’t quite look past these two issues to concentrate on whether the accompanying flavors were a good combo or not.
Selection of "Summer Vegetables"
g and our friend had the summer vegetables, which featured some raw, some cooked, and some pickled. Additionally, it was served with an egg yolk, some kind of grain, and a broth poured on at the last second. I don’t know what they thought – maybe g’ll chime in sometime.
Double-duck!
This was my main – confit leg and ?roasted? breast, with some sort of jus (brown sauce), figs, and a crunchy-coffee-flavored pile (crumbs in the upper right corner), and a disk of what I believe was cherry. The duck cookery was right-on for the leg, but the breast was actually a little tough, requiring a bit of force with my knife, which I view as a bad sign. As for the other components, they just didn’t quite come together for me – it was like 5 separate components that I had to manually mix together, myself. To be honest, I think this dish could have gone further (the coffee+cherry+fig+duck sounded good) had the components been combined in a more cohesive manner – but the pretty presentation left them strewn around on the plate, leading to disjointed flavors/textures.
At our table was also the pig entree. We have no pictures of it, but our friend’s exact words were, “good but not great”. This was going to be the theme of the evening …
Cod
The cod was a pretty impressive hunk of fish accompanied corn, potato, and a vermouth sauce. kp really enjoyed the sauce (really REALLY enjoyed the sauce) but found that the fish could have been given a better sear, because the texture was monotonous throughout. There was also a lack of razor clams on the dish, which would have added some other kind of flavor to play with the cod.
Polenta
The polenta was a side-of-the-day. But to be honest, it was kind of a snooze-fest. Yea, it was polenta. And I guess the purpose is to increase the carbs of the other dishes. But please, do something to it!
All in all, it’s not that any of the food we had at Pumpkin was bad – I believe we all finished our plates! But, it didn’t leave with that “gee, I gotta come back here tomorrow” feeling. Perhaps I just had it built up too much because we had heard too many good things about it but felt that they didn’t deliver (e.g. like with Audrey Claire). We wish them a little better luck in the future.
The Best Review I’ve Ever Read
t says: Hi … lar … i … ous.
Even the web address is funny!
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/food/Serafina-Center-City-Is-Horrible.html
We pigged out on Amada’s pig.
What the what?
t says: Yea, that’s right. We did it. Five manly male friends and I came, saw, and conquered the suckling pig at Amada. What you see above is half of a pig and the head (apparently the head is optional – who the crap wouldn’t want the head?) By the way, it’s a little creepy that the pig seems like it might be stalking that poor defenseless baby on the left.
August 2011, 5:45pm Sunday, Party of 6. Forty bucks a person, reserved at lest three days in advance – just show up and eat some pig and four side dishes. Forget more words, let’s roll the pictures …
Meet Wilbur ... yea ... we named it.
Wilbur's got no backbone ... cuz the dude carving our pig removed it (in the foreground) from the rest of the pig (in the background) ...
Just in case you tried to avoid seeing Wilbur's head above - here it is again ...
Pig ... with potato, garbanzo beans, white beans, scallions ... and more pig ...
Yea … we demolished a LOT of pig. And we had enough for two small piggie-bags (for g and v) to go. The best part was that it was frickin’ delicious. Seriously. I was expecting the feast to be kind of gimicky, but believe you me – it’s probably the best straight-up pork I’ve ever had – no fancy sauces or seasoning – just good ‘ol Wilbur. Pork-for-pork, perhaps Fond’s pork belly is the only pig I’ve ever had better. Also – I must say that it was quite an educational experience to be able to taste the different cuts of pig and see how they differed from one another despite being cooked in an identical manner; my favorite was the cheek – so lucious and sweet and salty. A lot of the members of the party preferred a cut of muscle that attaches the head to the back (?neck muscle?). a and kp took it upon themselves to go for some brain (I refuse to eat brain), too. Their impression: it’s mushy, and doesn’t have a good taste or aftertaste to justify eating it – especially when so many other good pieces of pig are present.
a flexed his wine muscle by providing us with a 2001 Rioja Gran Reserva for the occasion – a fairly bold wine for summer night but it did a superb job matching the intensity of the pig. Great job!
What was the worst part of the evening? I think it was when we realized that they had removed the platform-table that used to be able to hold a party of like 10 but elevated one step up from the restaurant and with these curtains you can draw to add an element of mystery/seclusion to the party. We did it once for g’s birthday a few years ago and it was the best restaurant-birthday I’ve ever been to. Alas – it is no more.
Everyone’s gotta try this at least once (if not more than once). Next time, we’ll bring the chicks women.
g’s happy dance
g says: Today, I jumped out of my chair and did my happy dance.
Why, you ask? Because I CALLED IT.
t and I dined at Talula’s Garden on Sunday evening, rumored to be their first weekend since the announced departure of former executive chef Michael Santoro. As we sat in the garden, I sipped my beekeeper cocktail (t stared longingly at it, sad that he could not partake in its bubbly goodness), and we discussed possible next moves for The Garden. I said that I hoped Matt Moon would come since he just left Talula’s Table – since his food is the closest thing to having Bryan Sikora’s (back when it was sprinkled with magic) and because Bryan doesn’t seem to be cooking in a super-creative manner at a.kitchen, Matt and Talula’s Garden could really bring something special from the ‘burbs back here.
t claimed that this would never happen. Unfortunately for his ego (but very fortunately for his stomach), my wish has come true.
Boo-yah.
t says: I wonder what the new menu will look like …
Mexicali … because a burrito needs to be more filling.
t says: Last week, also at the recommendation the Flake-loving friend, I visited Mexicali in West Philly. Mexicali has some sort of complicated history with a food truck that was or was not open for a certain amount of time – I have no idea. The story was told to me, but I wasn’t paying attention because I was too busy ingesting this:
This, my friends, is a chicken burrito. It looks like every other burrito at first glance (i.e. a mish-mash of stuff shoved in a tortilla). However, you’ll notice that towards the left-hand side of the burrito, there’s a lot of “golden brown” – it looks like extra tortilla folds or something. But it’s not. It’s french fries. That’s right:
“Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any more filling … you go and do something like this …”
So Mexicali shoves fries into their ?San Diego? burritos – and they’re pretty damn good fries, too – nice and crispy, not soft and soggy like at Greek Lady. The meat and veggies were tasty, but really, it’s the addition of fries that totally steal the show. I consumed the entirety of the burrito, and soon felt the after-effects as I nearly fell alseep standing up while at work. These things are dangerous. My recommendation: don’t operate heavy machinery after eating this burrito.
PS That bottle that says “Fred” is a bottle of water. I have no idea why it’s named Fred, but it’s pretty funny, right?
Cadbury “Flake” … a good idea with a dumb name.
t says: Over the past few weeks, I have become acquainted with another who has some food obsessions similar to my own. For instance, he is a very big fan of Girl Scout Samoas. Actually, he one-ups even my obsession with these cookies by routinely stockpiling/freezing Samoas each Girl Scout cookie season. Interestingly, he may be the only person I’ve met who could also out-chocolate me, as his fondness for Cadbury products far surpasses my dedication to any particular food, pig products included! Eager to learn from a master, I was befuddled when one of his favorite commercially available desserts was one that I had not even heard of – probably because I am not as well-traveled as he (knowing him, he probably traveled the globe solely in search of delightful chocolate confections). So the next day, he gave me one (I swear, his fridge/freezer must be full of chocolate).
"Flake"? What kind of name is "Flake"?
This chocolate bar is more easily procured overseas, as the Hershey’s owned Cadbury of the US is apparently nowhere as near as awesome (or as delicious) as the UK’s (kp has shared a similar view). Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of the unwrapped bar, itself – mostly because it wasn’t attractive, but also because it was so delicious that I forgot to. In essence, a Flake bar is a thin ribbon of chocolate drizzled slowly onto itself so that there’s a lot of air trapped between these infinitesimally thin layers of chocolate. The result is a texture is very different than a solid bar of chocolate because Flake ends up being very crumbly. While I normally hate crumbly chocolate (my dexterity-of-a-six-year-old means that I make a mess of it – it gets on my tie, my face, my fingers), this was one instance where crumbly was good. Flake has a very unique texture in the mouth – it was creamier, lighter, fluffier. And while the chocolate was far sweeter than I normally enjoy (I like some bitterness in there), I was a little addicted to the texture, which is kind of like a whipped nougat, but not sticky.
Next time I’m passing through the UK (as if I’d ever be “passing through the UK” so nonchalantly), I’ll be sure to check it out again. I’ve read that they have other flavors, too!
UPDATE: I just had a Hershey’s “Air Delight” bar, which has tiny little bubbles of air throughout (I guess that’d be another way to accomplish a similar thing to Flake), but it wasn’t as good. Actually, it also tastes different than a normal Hershey’s bar, which I realize is not a “good” chocolate, but it’s those childhood memories that I miss. So the chocolate doesn’t taste good and the mouthfeel is not as good as Flake … yea, the “Air Delight” is a total pass. Oh – and “Air Delight” – that might be a worst name than “Flake”.
after dinner sneeze 