Dovetail

Hailed as one of the best new joints on the UWS, we scored a res. at Dovetail about a month before we were able to get in. It's easily missable, behind a glass door with the name artfully etched in beside routine apartment building entrances on 77th, caddy corner to the Natural History Museum. Decor was dark, sleek, clean and service was very attentive. We started off with a glass of wine (I got a Long Island sauvignon blanc that was OK, Alisa a Spanish white that was better) and they soon brought two individual loaves of white cheddar cornbread along with a trio of amuse bouche. The hot cornbread was yummy, although somehow the neandrathal American in me wanted it to be cheesier, looser inside, but still a nice starter. The amuse bouche were all good -- a radish on a toothpick with some grated cheese that tasted like parm, a teeny shrimp quesadilla on a fork and, the best of all, house-smoked salmon on a green, tofu-y cube. We started with chilled cauliflower soup with oysters in the middle, perched atop a little island of chopped apples, onions and pine nuts. Let me say here that I almost opted against the soup, in favor of some scallops with lime and caviar, but Alisa wanted the soup and, I have to say, I'm glad we got it. No cream or chunkiness, it was like a gazpacho, but more soothing and flavorful in the heat of summer and without the intense spice of its Spanish cousin. It would be one of the best things we ate there -- a statement that's not at all a dig at the joint, the soup was just really that good. Next we got gnocchi with blueberries, goat cheese and white truffle shavings. I think Alisa liked this one a bit more than me. While interesting, all the flavors never really came together for me. For our entrees, Alisa got a snapper with fava beans and a sea urchin broth. I got a cod with bacon, itty-bitty clams that were delish, polenta croutons and some leeks. Both of our fish were expertly cooked -- flaking apart into slices with just a bit of pressure from your fork. The problem was that while our sauces were tasty (as were the bacon bits and clams), the fish itself had nothing distinctive or particularly flavorful about them. They were just nicely cooked, quality pieces of fish...which just isn't enough. Dessert brought us back to the glory of the soup. We opted for a peanut butter tart with beer ice cream and pretzels. It was tasty, but not the highlight. Instead, that honor was reserved for one-third of our other dessert: an ice cream trio of lemon verbena, cinnamon and croissant. You guessed it: the croissant was mind-blowingly good -- like a sweet butter bomb in miniature scoop form. It was accented by what we first thought were bran flakes and then realized were croissant flakes (we think) at the bottom of the bowl. In all, a fine meal and a place we'll definitely return to, but perhaps in the fall or winter, when there's a whole new menu to try (a Bruni review from last winter suggested a totally different offering). But in short: cauliflower soup and croissant ice cream alone were worth the trip...the rest was fine, but not memorable.