Artisanal Fromagerie & Bistro

It seems like so long ago, but really, it was only 3 weeks ago… I began reading this lovely blog called Sexy Girls Eat.  Astonishingly quickly, the brains behind the blog, became email buddies and discovered we have a lot of things in common aside from food.  (This is astonishing because I don’t have many female friends, and don’t get along with most females — actually, this isn’t true anymore, but I often forget that fact, which is why I say it’s astonishing.  Even though it’s not.  Then again, I find myself being really picky with what females I wish to befriend, so when I find one that falls into the category, it’s amazing.  Which is why my friendship with DT is already amazing.) 

A few excited email flurries back and forth, and we discovered that Rochelle and I had some mutual free time coming up while she was in NYC.  Obviously dinner plans were to be made… and we wound up at Artisanal.  Her opinion and lovely photos can be found here.

Strangely enough, halfway through dinner – right before our main course, the fondue, arrived – my camera freakin’ died on me.  In its defense, I’d been using it extensively and hadn’t been able to give it a proper rest to charge it, so it really was actually my fault.  So… I don’t have many pictures.  Seriously, go read her review.  This is going to be an abbreviated review because, okay, I admit it.  I’m near burnt out.  I’m tired of eating out and I’m exhausted from my life happening all around me and just I need to stop whining, sorry. 

Rochelle, it was a lovely dinner, and I’m sorry I’m copping out for this post, but it seems fitting that my camera died on this post.  Here are my notes:

$70/person (two appetizers, fondue for 2, a dessert, shared, plus 1 glass of wine each)
(fondue) fontina – garlic confit, herbs (tarragon, rosemary, chives)
garlic more present as it cooled down – rosemary faint (ed’s note: I don’t like rosemary so this was a good thing)
gnocchi – super mushy; where’s the pork belly?
tuna carpaccio very mediocre
fondue good

I enjoyed the fondue very much, and found the act of eating it pretty sensual – if we’d been on a date, I’d probably have tried to feed her.  Our appetizers, as you can see, while promising in their descriptions with lovely ingredients, fell way flat.  Our fondue was great, with our dipper choices of the crudite, kielbasa (which did taste much like a good hot dog, though I prefer my hot dogs a bit saltier and snappier), and fingerling potatoes proving to be spot-on with the cheese. 

Dessert was yummy – oh! my wine was great, and our waitress was extremely helpful in our choices, asking us questions to get us to what we wanted.  And that’s what we got – mine was perfectly balanced between not too dry and not cloyingly sweet.  Ro seemed happy with hers.

Our dessert was aiite, I’m not too big on dessert, I enjoyed it but it doesn’t stick out.  Just the fondue does.  OH AND THE GOUGERES.  They didn’t have an option of the bacon ones on the menu, but these were so fraggin’ good.  It’s a testament of how much I like Rochelle that I didn’t devour all of them on the spot, and instead managed to evenly (I think!) share them with her.  Hehe. 

Oh my gosh, I forgot the best (and the worst) part of the night.  You decide which is which:

As we were leaving, I decided I would use the restroom before we left, so as to avoid any potential discomfort on my 30 minute train ride home.  We walked over to the bathroom area and headed straight back.  I only saw one door with no real identifying mark on it, so I pushed it open and went right in, with Rochelle following close behind me.  As I entered, a glass partition facing me said suspiciously “MONSIEURS” so I gasped and spun around, crashing into Rochelle, and blurted out, “Oh my god, we’re in the men’s room!” and pushed her out the door towards another door we’d passed without notice.  We went into there and I was giggly from the wine, as was she (I think?) and we both hissed at each other “I can’t believe we went into the men’s room” “I can’t believe you led us in” “I can’t believe you didn’t notice!” and other assorted hysterical giggly wine-drinking girly phrases.  As I went into a stall, I suddenly realized that we were not alone, and that… umm… there was an older woman in one of the stalls who looked at us oddly before quickly washing her hands and then fleeing.  Hmph.

Obviously that was the best part of the night 😉

After taking care of business, we went out to peer at the various cheeses in the Fromagerie area.  Glorious to be-smell, I decided to ask about the Fiscalini Bandaged Cheddar that my boyfriend had liked so much at that class, to see if I could pick some up for him (yes, I’m nice like that).  But oddly enough, the fromagerier (word?) didn’t know what I was talking about, didn’t seem to speak English, and then told me that they didn’t carry American cheddar.  HMPH.  Excuse me?!  Then why did the guy at my class say Artisanal is the only place that carries it?!?!  Annoying…

So you decide which is the best and which is the worst part of the night…

Yvo says: I can see why this place is an institution.  The fondue was delicious, and as I watched the restaurant fill up while we ate, I could see a lot of other dishes that look really yummy that I wouldn’t mind trying.  I would go back – I didn’t find the place excessively priced (had we skipped the wine, we could have easily gone for $40ish a piece), and many of the other items were reasonably priced as well. 
recommended – definitely get the fondue