Named after Cyrus Alexander, the first pioneer in Alexander Valley of Sonoma County, Cyrus Restaurant has shot to prominence with the likes of Aqua and Michael Mina in its first few years of opening. With the leadership of Chef Douglas Keane (Rising Star Chef SF Chronicle 2002) and Maitre d’ Nick Peyton (“the god father of white tablecloth dining” SF Chronicle 5/2/2003), Cyrus' accolades come as no surprise. For our first wedding anniversary, Jen and I celebrated by testing the best the restaurant had to offer choosing to go with the full 7-course Chef's Tasting Menu with the Wine Pairings for Jen while I opted for the luscious libations of Scott Beattie.
Before any of those mundane decisions were made, we were seated by a courteous in front of the cheese cart. Jen remarked how we were "going to be in trouble" immediately upon noticing this as we love cheese. Upon situating ourselves, a flurry of waiters swirled around us, and in a span of a couple minutes, we were offered a choice between filtered tap or bottled water, selections from their renowned Champaign & Caviar Cart, a glass from their world-class wines assembled by Sommelier Jim Rollston, Canapés, and a lengthy description of the standard yet sumptuous dinner menu and chef's tasting menu options. At the time, I do remember we felt slightly rushed as the number of faces, motions, and decisions mounted before we could just have a drink. One other note of remark was the extent in which the menu was explained to us. The lengthy oratory explaining how one can mix and match dishes to make 3, 4, or 5-course meals as the waiter towered over us was wholly unnecessary. I witnessed another table straining to look up to the height of the waiter, and the image stayed with me as I caught myself doing the same thing. Jen's perspective on the matter was that the location of the restaurant, located in a hotel in an agricultural area, may bring more clientèle who are not familiar with fine dining. In either case, the expediency in which we closed our menus prompted our waiter on our decision to go with tasting menu.
What a menu it was... None of the dishes we had were from the regular selections. For those unfamiliar with what this means is that the chef must, one, be innovative and create an entire new menu different from his standard affair, and two, he must prep the kitchen in terms of ordering ingredients, plating design, and manpower, as some components take hours to prep, to accommodate all the different items required for his creations. You can view a copy of our menu below.
The most memorable highlights include the "Steak & Eggs", the rabbit, the fois gras, the veal, and the cheeses. (Ok... there are a lot of highlights. We liked the place a lot.)
- Our first course were the "Steak & Eggs" which consisted of a fried quail egg over a bed of microgreens covered by a slice of Wagyu Beef beside three fried slices of bone marrow and adjacent to a section of bone filled with Wagyu Beef and lobster tartare topped with Caviar, all with a horseradish crème fraîche. My immediate impressions was that it was extremely bold and creative for a western chef to put out a bone and use bone marrow in a dish. The flavors of the tartare atop the fried marrow slices created a deep, rich satiation of the basic human culinary desires of salty and fatty goodness. The use of the bone section required a new long and narrow tool called the marrow spoon to scoop out the tartare. This utensil was an interesting point in itself, but I would have plated the dish differently avoiding the marrow spoon and bone altogether, or at least, repositioning the components to suggest they should be eaten together with each bite. Other diners would likely make my mistake of eating the tartare apart from the marrow and separately from the quail egg which loses some of the magic and flavor of the dish.
- Our third course was rabbit loin with spring onions, mirepoix, and manila clams. Served slightly rare, the rabbit was absolutely delightful in its tender texture and amazing flavor. The dish also featured a green garlic puree and a bacon-wrapped stuff artichoke. Both of which were tastes fit for royalty.
- Next, we had foie gras with braised dock cannelloni. Arguably, my favorite dish of the night as the rich sweetness of foie gras torchon melted in my mouth was highlighted by the beautiful counterpoint texture and flavor of the duck-filled cannelloni.
- Our fifth course, probably Jen's favorite, was a tiny, ceramic skillet of mushroom flan with cheese crust beside a veal piece with morel mushrooms, white asparagus, and crispy sweetbreads. The deep, potent taste of the morels combined with the richness of the sweetbread and freshness of the asparagus highlighted and added new dimensions to the already succulent veal. For those who do not know, sweetbreads are the thymus gland or pancreas of a young lamb or calf less than one year old. The flan exemplified the whimsical accents of the menu also seen in the amuse bouche and the palette cleanser.
- Oh, and then the cheese. This course consisted of 6 cheeses, 2 cow, 2 sheep, and 2 goat, developed locally and abroad along with a selection of breads and fruits. Standouts were the Andante Minuet (goat), the Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk (cow), and the Roquefort (sheep) that went well with a date.
All in all, we had an amazing time. Cyrus did break our record of what we have paid for a single meal, but for the joy it brought Jen, it was well worth it. Its praises are well deserved. We hope our fellow culinary adventurers will each have an opportunity to experience this luxury and share their experience with us.
Culinary Word of the Day: Wagyu
Also known as American "Kobe"-style Beef. Wagyu is a breed of cattle that is genetically predisposed to intense marbling, and produces a higher percentage of oleaginous, unsaturated fat than any other breed of cattle known in the world. Source:
Bay Gourmet
