Rue Dumaine Insane!

This past Saturday I had the privilege of dining at Rue Dumaine in Centerville. Chef Anne Kearney does a wonderful job in the kitchen. Her pedigree includes a best new chef in the country from Food & Wine magazine circa 1998. I am partial to the restaurant because they always make a fuss over me when I go there as one of my students works there. There were five in our party and after waiting around fifteen minutes for our reserved table we were seated.
Skinny Rick, the student, sent our table an amuse bouche of chicken pate on toast with cornichons, country mustard, and a berry compote. I was weary of the berry compote with liver but it really worked and I have to say that the pate is hands down the best use of chicken liver I have ever ran across. The texture is not grainy or coarse like liver can be if over cooked. There is a light, airy, whipped texture to the pate and the taste has a smoked bacon quality to it but with the richness of butter. Amazing. The first course post amuse bouche was a scallop sausage, again courtesy of Skinny Rick. This dish is essentially scallop mousse packed into a hog casing and pan-fried. It was paired with a simple salad and was, as with all of Rue Dumaine’s charcuterie, very tasty. The nice thing about this sausage was that it was not too dense as shellfish sometimes has a tendency to do when over processed. Next up was rillette of duck crepes finished in a red wine and shallot gastrique. These were succulent. The duck that is scrap from the confit entrée on the menu is taken and whipped with citrus, mustard, and crème fraiche and wrapped up into tender little pancakes and finished with a tart and sweet red wine sauce as a means of balancing the richness of the duck. When entrees were served I ordered the braised lamb short ribs, which were served with a reduction of the braising liquid, battonet of carrots and sweet potato gnocchi. The lamb was great it was tender and full of flavor but the gnocchi were less than impressive. They were dense, under seasoned, and lacking sweet potato flavor. Dessert was ordered, we chose the sorbet trio apple/tarragon, raspberry, and mango. The stand out here is the apple tarragon. It subtly cleanses the palate while providing a touch of much needed sweetness after such a rich meal. We also received the chocolate hazelnut torte as well as a traditional crème brulee. The cake was passable but nothing to right home about. The crème brulee was under cooked and runny. The crust on top was nicely browned but a little thin for my taste. The real problem was the under cooked custard. Crème brulee needs be dense rich and fully set in order to be great this was more like a vanilla pudding. In addition to these two desserts we ordered the cheese course which I always excellent at Rue Dumaine. Chef Kearney selects handcrafted cheeses from around the country and always has a great variety. This time the cheese course featured Mt. Tam a creamy, buttery, brie like cheese with a hint of earthiness, Pepato an Italian style farmer’s cheese with peppercorns, Pond Hopper yeasty goat’s milk cheese, and Point Reyes Blue a Jersey cow’s milk blue cheese that is creamy and pungent.
Lastly, let’s talk service. Our server was a little “flexed” as I would say. He seemed to be put off by the lack of wine ordered at our table. Then it was all down hill from there. He seemed to be a little timid, confused, and lacked confidence in himself and the menu. But let’s remember that he is a server so he is a lower form of life, like one of those fish from the bottom of the ocean where the eyes move independent of the head. I would have preferred better service but both Skinny Rick and Chef Anne made an appearance at our table to make sure we enjoyed the food so that made up for the uneven service form our waiter. All in all I would recommend Rue Dumaine to anyone looking for an authentic French Bistro experience with Contemporary American flare. It’s pretty damned good for Dayton Ohio! 7.5 out of 10