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Comfort food makes a comeback | In the news | My Website
Comfort food makes a comeback
03/10/08 20:33 Filed in: In the news
Medford Mail Tribune
by Sarah Lemon
Comfort food, or so industry buzz suggests, makes a comeback during rough economic times. If that's the latest trend, 38 Central already has a jump on increasingly stiff competition.
Instead of bringing California wine country's Frenchified cuisine to Medford, new owners Michael Wolf and David Graham transplanted "straight-forward American" cooking from the Napa Valley. The new menu marries sophisticated preparation with approachable ingredients and more affordable prices.
Its motto "The Fine Art of Casual Dining," 38 Central still capitalizes on the gallery-like space that the former owners created in 2006. The Cuthbert Building's original brick walls and hardwood flooring expertly contrast with modern, metal chairs and colorful, abstract canvases.
The main dining room remains a tad cavernous for quiet, intimate affairs. But for a night out with friends or a boisterous business lunch, it's just the ticket. Expansive tables provide plenty of room for notebooks next to plates, and butcher-paper coverings could even accommodate impromptu brainstorming.
While dinner entrees are priced between $11.95 for a half-pound burger to $25.95 for seared scallops, the abbreviated lunch menu keeps most options in the $10-to-$12 range, including a daily soup, sandwich and dessert special.
Our crowd sampled a wide array of dishes from vegetarian angel-hair pasta ($14.95) to buttermilk fried chicken ($15.95). The roasted red bell pepper and portobello mushroom sandwich ($11.95) pleased two in the group while I doubled up on the summer watermelon salad ($9.95) and duck quesadilla ($9.95). An appetizer of crispy-fried calamari ($10.95) served the table.
Calamari has become somewhat of a staple on local restaurants' appetizer menus, but 38 Central puts a new spin on the dish with accents of fried green beans and paper-thin lemon slices. Fried lemons are ambitious for Medford, but a welcome experiment.
The watermelon salad was similarly light and imaginative, allowing the sweet flavors of fruit and shaved fennel to shine under a subtle and spare Champagne vinaigrette.
I was a bit disappointed to find the Deux Chats bread a bit off with sticky pockets of crumb. Wolf said that the restaurant does finish some loaves that arrive par-baked and may have misjudged the necessary oven time.
The Ashland bakery's focaccia, however, was a perfect match for the portobello sandwiches, which included springy, mixed-green salads. Not quite so colorful, the duck quesadilla did come arranged almost like an artist's palette, with slashes of plum-flavored barbecue sauce on one side.
The only item remaining from the former (see correction note below) owners' tenure, the quesadilla was reinvented with the duck's carnitas-style preparation. Yet the meat's texture too closely mimicked the fontina cheese, I thought, despite both components' delivery of spicy, smoky flavor.
Although it was the most expensive of the bunch, my co-worker's fried chicken platter seemed the best value. Sauteed spinach, mashed potatoes and a hefty square of cornbread accompanied the bird's thigh and leg. The meat was moist enough, but the gravy tasted more of white wine and sage than poultry.
Had we not been so tempted by appetizers, soups and salads, the chocolate-pistachio brownie with toasted-pistachio gelato ($7) or the bruleed banana split ($7.50) would have brought a sweet close to the meal. I plotted an after-work happy hour as soon as I spied the s'mores for two ($11.95), cooked table-side on a mini brazier and served with Deux Chats' homemade graham crackers and peanut-butter ganache.
A commendable list of dessert wines, including three sherries and eight ports and port-style vintages adds a worldly air to 38 Central's comfort-food aspirations. Downplaying the eatery's former reputation as a wine bar, Wolf and Graham have reduced the number of bottles in stock from approximately 300 to roughly 100, about a quarter of those local labels. A dozen wines are available by the glass.
— Sarah Lemon
by Sarah Lemon
Comfort food, or so industry buzz suggests, makes a comeback during rough economic times. If that's the latest trend, 38 Central already has a jump on increasingly stiff competition.
Instead of bringing California wine country's Frenchified cuisine to Medford, new owners Michael Wolf and David Graham transplanted "straight-forward American" cooking from the Napa Valley. The new menu marries sophisticated preparation with approachable ingredients and more affordable prices.
Its motto "The Fine Art of Casual Dining," 38 Central still capitalizes on the gallery-like space that the former owners created in 2006. The Cuthbert Building's original brick walls and hardwood flooring expertly contrast with modern, metal chairs and colorful, abstract canvases.
The main dining room remains a tad cavernous for quiet, intimate affairs. But for a night out with friends or a boisterous business lunch, it's just the ticket. Expansive tables provide plenty of room for notebooks next to plates, and butcher-paper coverings could even accommodate impromptu brainstorming.
While dinner entrees are priced between $11.95 for a half-pound burger to $25.95 for seared scallops, the abbreviated lunch menu keeps most options in the $10-to-$12 range, including a daily soup, sandwich and dessert special.
Our crowd sampled a wide array of dishes from vegetarian angel-hair pasta ($14.95) to buttermilk fried chicken ($15.95). The roasted red bell pepper and portobello mushroom sandwich ($11.95) pleased two in the group while I doubled up on the summer watermelon salad ($9.95) and duck quesadilla ($9.95). An appetizer of crispy-fried calamari ($10.95) served the table.
Calamari has become somewhat of a staple on local restaurants' appetizer menus, but 38 Central puts a new spin on the dish with accents of fried green beans and paper-thin lemon slices. Fried lemons are ambitious for Medford, but a welcome experiment.
The watermelon salad was similarly light and imaginative, allowing the sweet flavors of fruit and shaved fennel to shine under a subtle and spare Champagne vinaigrette.
I was a bit disappointed to find the Deux Chats bread a bit off with sticky pockets of crumb. Wolf said that the restaurant does finish some loaves that arrive par-baked and may have misjudged the necessary oven time.
The Ashland bakery's focaccia, however, was a perfect match for the portobello sandwiches, which included springy, mixed-green salads. Not quite so colorful, the duck quesadilla did come arranged almost like an artist's palette, with slashes of plum-flavored barbecue sauce on one side.
The only item remaining from the former (see correction note below) owners' tenure, the quesadilla was reinvented with the duck's carnitas-style preparation. Yet the meat's texture too closely mimicked the fontina cheese, I thought, despite both components' delivery of spicy, smoky flavor.
Although it was the most expensive of the bunch, my co-worker's fried chicken platter seemed the best value. Sauteed spinach, mashed potatoes and a hefty square of cornbread accompanied the bird's thigh and leg. The meat was moist enough, but the gravy tasted more of white wine and sage than poultry.
Had we not been so tempted by appetizers, soups and salads, the chocolate-pistachio brownie with toasted-pistachio gelato ($7) or the bruleed banana split ($7.50) would have brought a sweet close to the meal. I plotted an after-work happy hour as soon as I spied the s'mores for two ($11.95), cooked table-side on a mini brazier and served with Deux Chats' homemade graham crackers and peanut-butter ganache.
A commendable list of dessert wines, including three sherries and eight ports and port-style vintages adds a worldly air to 38 Central's comfort-food aspirations. Downplaying the eatery's former reputation as a wine bar, Wolf and Graham have reduced the number of bottles in stock from approximately 300 to roughly 100, about a quarter of those local labels. A dozen wines are available by the glass.
— Sarah Lemon