Bar Tartine Rocked Our World with a Totally House-Made Meal, from the Butter to the Cheese
Last night, Nick Balla and Cortney Burns cooked us dinner. It wasn't just any old dinner—the co-chefs of Bar Tartine in San Francisco were helping us celebrate the last BA Night Kitchen we'll ever have at 4 Times Square. The party will continue once we move to 1 World Trade Center, and we're all looking forward to our new digs.
But last night was all about being in the moment, and Balla and Burns were the perfect people to set the scene for it. With a hyper-awareness of seasonality and local goods, the energetic duo also makes just about everything in-house. From a creamy butter to salty, sharp bricks of aged feta to their own onion powder (more on the powders here!), they don't cut corners—and the food sings as a result.
The evening started with a cocktail hour featuring a smoked, fried potato tossed in black garlic vinaigrette ("like an umami bomb," one guest gushed) and a piece of the house-made rye bread slathered with yogurt (house-made), sunflower seed butter (house-made) and studded with popped amaranth, onion powder, and a crunchy seed mix which were all, well…you can probably guess. Here are the rest of the evening's delicious details.
Alex Lau1/17We're still dreaming of this appetizer: sprouted Rene's rye bread, yogurt, a rich sunflower seed butter, blanched and vibrantly-green kale, and, for some crunch, popped amaranth grains. If this is the future of bruschetta, we like where things are going.
Alex Lau2/17Bon Appétit executive editor Christine Muhlke 'grams the goods.
Alex Lau5/17We've had croquettes before, but we've never had croquettes like these: made from sprouted lentils, and layered with good-for-you kefir and bracing leaves of watercress with tender herbs.
Alex Lau6/17The first course of the evening was a perennial crowd-pleaser that Bar Tartine elevates to cult-worthy worship: beef tartare on toast…with bottarga!
Alex Lau8/17This fisherman's stew was made with green chile and collard greens, according to the menu (and "one whole chicken, two carp and sturgeon scraps,") according to Balla. Hearty bread is a must for a soup like this, and luckily, Bar Tartine had brought a loaf of their oat porridge.
Alex Lau11/17The New Yorker's Nick Paumgarten and Bon Appétit deputy editor Scott DeSimon chatted it up over smoked potatoes. BA and The New Yorker have been neighbors for years, but Paumgarten admitted he'd never known that BA Night Kitchen existed. "I thought this was the women's bathroom!" he laughed.
Alex Lau12/17Underneath that healthy shower of feta? Slices of ripe avocado (so sweet!), pickled fennel (wonderfully crunchy), sweet potato (super creamy) and pickled green walnuts (life-changing).
Alex Lau14/17Is anyone so meticulously organized and effortlessly cool under pressure as Burns? We think not.
Alex Lau15/17What's a fancy dinner without a cheese course? The next cheese plate we meet will have big shoes to fill: We fell hard for this farmer's cheese dumpling with whey caramel: From the simple to the sublime.
Alex Lau16/17What a way to say good night: a steamed parsnip cake (Like carrot cake? You'd go nuts for this.) with cider vinegar and bee pollen. Just-sweet-enough, and a creamy-crunchy textural playground.
Chad Robertson17/17Pistachio Dip
Want to recreate the flavors of Bar Tartine at home? Balla and Burns graciously shared this recipe for pistachio dip from their new cookbook, Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes. This savory mixture lands somewhere between dip and spread but it's dead on delicious. Like a holiday cheeseball...minus the cheese.
