Wes Anderson Dinner at Elizabeth

Last week was filled with Wes Anderson-themed activities. We went to see Isle of Dogs. We drank wine and re-watched The Darjeeling Limited. And we attended a special Wes-inspired tasting dinner at Elizabeth. 

I had been itching to go to Elizabeth for quite some time. I think Iliana Regan is a genius, and everything she touches typically yields something I want to put in my mouth. Elizabeth was as much about art and entertainment as it was about food. 

Our meal included nine courses, each inspired by one of Mr. Anderson’s films. On more than a few occasions, the course was more aesthetically pleasing than it was delicious... but that didn’t strip away any of the glee we felt as each plate arrived at our table. 

Courses one and two leaned on Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox, respectively, for inspiration.

“Sam and Suzy’s Forage,” a salmon roe and berry tart, with triple cream Brie and wild ginger was the obvious eye candy, and “Bunce’s Doughnut,” a brioche donut hole stuffed with maitake mushroom patè and a blueberry gastrique was the obvious mouth candy. We polished these babies off in about forty five seconds, flat. 

Next up was Grand Budapest Hotel’s “Zubrowka Soup,” a take on borscht. Which, if you’re familiar with the soup, can vary greatly by region and recipe. And by vary, I mean some versions I have tasted are absolutely vile poison, and some are mouth-wateringly delicious. Lucky for us, this version was the latter.  It was the most umami-salty-savory-meaty-tasting-yet-vegetarian-somehow two ounces of anything I have ever consumed. 

And it was served in little gold baby teacups! If you couldn’t already tell by the name of this blog, precious teeny serving ware is kind of my thing. 

Course four was interesting. I’m still not sure how I feel about it. The Life Aquatic themed, “Jaguar Shark” was squid crudo, which while in theory sounds like something right up my alley, in practice was more like something I would have come across in an A.P. biology lab final. The texture was all at once firm, then soft, flavorful, yet bitter. It felt like it was alive and actively fighting against me eating it. I didn’t hate it. But I didn’t like it. 

The fifth course, another F. M. Fox-themed one, was the bread course, “Bean’s Apple.” For me, someone who is not really much of a carbs gal, the bread course is usually a bit of a let down during a tasting menu. Just because it’s like, scallops! Wagyu! Truffles! ...Bread. (Fart noise).

But not this bread. This bread was a gift born of the gods. Not surprising because Chef Regan’s specialty is baking. This was a flaky pain au lait biscuit, served with an “apple” that was actually a troika of cultured butter, apple jam, and foie gras. NAME THREE THINGS YOU WOULD RATHER SMEAR ON A FRESHLY BAKED BISCUIT.

I’LL WAIT. 

The red coating on the apple was made of beets. I don’t know how. And it was covered in edible gold leaf. I don’t know why. I’m not here to ask questions.  

Course six got an A+ for beauty, and a C- for taste. As another take on The Life Aquatic, it was a picture-perfect diorama of underwater sea creatures. But as something to eat, it was just a plate of underwater sea creatures covered in shoestring potatoes. Pass. 

The next “course” was actually three in one, and it was the most on the nose in terms of its movie reference. (Owen Wilson orders lamb, chicken, and fish for his annoyed younger brothers aboard the Darjeeling Limited.) God damn. Not a bad bite in the bunch. We loved all three. 

But I’ll be damned if I couldn’t get a single decent looking photo of any of them. Maybe it’s because braised lamb neck isn’t the most photogenic of proteins. Maybe it’s because I’m new to this camera and still have no idea what I am doing with it. Or maybe it’s because I was five wine pairing pours in at this point. Alcohol, am I right.

The jump from all this nom-ness into the dud that was the next course was a real let-down. Pate a choux aka fried puff pastry dough is pretty to look at, but boring to eat. Each of these had a fun flavor, like beets or pea flower, but at the end of it all, I just wished I could have asked for another cup of borscht as my dessert. 

But, important to note that this Grand Budapest course was titled, “In Honor of M. Gustave,” and the Mendl’s box was a really adorable touch, so this still gets a point in my book. 

The next dessert was my favorite of the three, because it was the most inventive of the bunch. And it was Royal Tenenbaums themed. “111 Archer Ave.” combined chocolate malt crepes with a strawberry filling, topped with powdered beets. Was this a Wes Anderson themed dinner, or a beet themed dinner? Looking back on it now, I can’t be sure. 

Let’s be clear about one thing, though. Cutting this in half to split it with Chris was catastrophic. It was like deflating an accordion.  

If we had ended things right here, I would have been quite content.  

But then someone wheeled out a big honkin’ marrow bone stuffed with chocolate and peanut butter gelato and what were we supposed to say? No? 

This one was titled, “Spot’s Treat,” which we later learned paid homage to a heroic pup in Isle of Dogs. Side note, we loved the movie. If you like dogs or movies, in general, you will like it.

Additional side note, my family dog growing up used to have a rubber Kong chew toy that you could spoon peanut butter into that was supposedly designed to keep the dog playing with it for hours. It took our dog less than a minute to get everything out of it. #fat

So, yeah. We ate gelato out of a bone and felt no remorse. 

And we would do it again, too.  

Overall, the dinner was a grand (Budapest) old time, and the food was quite tasty. But there were a few courses that I could have done without.

The Forkling says: 7.0 forks out of 10.0  

We plan on returning to Elizabeth again to try one of their field trip dinners. Apparently the next one is in a junk yard. Fine dining in a dump? Count on us being there.

Until next time, friends.