New York's DB Bistro Moderne: Daniel Boulud's Ode To The Classic French Bistro
Chef Daniel Boulud is one of America's most renowned French chefs, and DB Bistro Moderne, which has been going strong near Times Square since 2001, is one of his most enduring and accessible restaurants. It's his spin on a classic French bistro that spawned additional locations in Singapore and Miami (the Miami one is currently being revamped into a Boulud Sud), and a recent meal there was enjoyable from start to finish thanks to the work of executive chef Chris Stam and executive pastry chef Daniel Kleinhandler.
Even though it might be a bistro, it doesn't exactly look like one; It's sleek and trendy, and received a full renovation in 2013. It's divided into three spaces: a front bar room, a more formal rear dining room, and a wide hallway separating them with a few booths and a wine wall. Dark woods, mirrors, and some artistic street-scene photos punctuate the space, and even though the back dining room is a bit more snug than you might expect, it comes across as cozy instead of cramped. Service is also spot-on, with friendly and knowledgeable servers more than happy to walk you through the menu.
We started with a traditional Alsatian tarte flambée, a flatbread that had a thin and crackerlike (but still pliable) crust topped with fromage blanc, deeply caramelized onions, and an ample dose of thin bacon strips. It's a simple dish but it's also one of my favorite traditional French specialties, and this one was expertly done, with a perfect ratio of all ingredients.
The restaurant is perhaps best known for its burger, which was the first high-end burger on the scene with it debuted with the restaurant almost 17 years ago; in fact, it's widely credited with helping to launch the upscale burger trend that's still going strong. It's a $36 creation of ground sirloin stuffed with a heaping spoonful of braised short rib and a thick slice of foie gras.
Even though I was tempted to order it to see what the fuss has been about all these years I told myself that I'd wait to see if any specials jumped out at me. The game-time decision paid off: a special of boeuf bourguignon was spectacular, with fall-apart chunks of braised beef in a rich, well-developed sauce with tender carrots, red pearl onions, and baby turnips.
We also sampled the coq au vin (another bistro classic), and the dark meat chicken was quite tender and flavorful, in a rich sauce and studded with mushrooms, pearl onions, and bits of bacon. It wasn't pretty, but it sure was tasty. We sampled quite possibly the two most traditional bistro items on the menu, and they were upscale and refined interpretations of traditionally rustic classics. The fries are also some of the city's best, so make sure you get an order of those. For dessert, a traditional tarte tatin piled a mound of deeply caramelized sliced apples on a think crisp shell, playing up the dessert's best attribute. A basket of a dozen or so fresh-baked two-bite-size madeleines, lemony and dusted with powdered sugar, was also astounding.
Other menu standouts include guinea hen and pear pate, monkfish a la barigoule, traditional steak frites, escargot fricassee, steak tartare, Dover sole meuniere, pork chop, and organic chicken with gnocchi Parisienne and king oyster mushrooms (Many of these items also appear on its popular $50 three-course pre-theatre prix-fixe). It's a fairly straight-ahead menu of bistro fare, but every dish is given a modern twist that can be expected from a chef like Boulud (and from a restaurant literally named "Modern Bistro." You'll also want to spend some time browsing the wine list; nearly every bottle is sourced from France and there are some surprisingly affordable discoveries, like a $70 2013 Château de Melin from Burgundy's Côte de Beaune.