Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Blue Ribbon Brooklyn

I know that this is not the first blog about Blue Ribbon nor will it be the last, but DAMN!  Blue Ribbon is good.  

Me, Mr. BF (my boyfriend), and another friend walked in at 11:15 pm last night (after just missing the Philharmonic AND the fireworks at Prospect Park) and were seated immediately.  The room is great-- wood, dark, red, everything you want late night.  Super hip and comfortable.  After one of the most awkward special-ings I have ever witnessed, we started drooling over the large menu.  Big bummer:  no sauteed calamari.  And no whole fish.  But the menu is large and we finally agreed on what to get.

Side note:  The BF and I are both kind of dorky about food and wine.  I have an unfortunately tiny appetite.  We tend to collaborate on the order.  We share until I nearly pop and then he gets the rest.  This way I get as much as I want of two apps and two entrees.  It is a system that works.

The final order goes a little like this:  Bone Marrow with Oxtail Jelly, Grilled Sardines, and friend-o got a nice Caesar salad (that he graciously shared even though he isn't privvy to the usual stylings of our dinners out) to start.  I got Sweet and Spicy Catfish with mashed potatoes and collared greens and BF got the special-- Flank Steak marinated in something spicy and tequila with corn fritters and some kind of cole slaw.  BF ordered a bottle of red (after some serious wine dork conversation about the pros and cons of white vs. red with the entrees).  A Rhone.  Cotes du.... something or another.  French and since I didn't look at the list I have no recollection of anything past Cotes du...  Delicious.

If you haven't had Blue Ribbon's bone marrow... go.  NOW!  I was transported to another place with the first bite.  The world stopped existing outside of my mouth.  You scoop the fatty goo out of the giant bone with a wooden stick.  BR gives you some sea salt to season the marrow.  The most perfect bite that I experienced was the toast point topped with a smear of the oxtail jelly with a giant glob of marrow sprinkled generously with sea salt.  Sweet, meaty, fatty, so salty... my mouth is watering thinking about it.  Everything was good, but the marrow truly overshadowed the entire meal.  

P.S.  The profiteroles were uninteresting, but, in fairness, we were the last table to order dessert and I'm sure the kitchen hated us more than they hate kitten killers.  No love was put into the profiteroles.