(See December 27th, 2010 Review here).
Logan Cox’s (and sous chef Erik Morgan’s) Cauliflower Soup was off the menu last night at New Heights, so they introduced a new one: Sweet Potato Soup ($10) with crispy petit-fours sized squares of duck confit, brazil nuts, and a tamarind scrape. A hearty, winter soup, the tamarind was almost (almost) unnecessary – the sweet potato base was so good on its own that it barely needed the confit, although I wasn’t complaining. In general, if I may levy a small criticism about Logan’s platings, it’s that the scrapes can sometimes dry out, and end up being more for cosmetic purposes, especially around the rim of the bowl (you have to see it to understand what I mean).
A few days ago I wrote that I was surprised that Frank Ruta served his calves liver in cylinders, wrapped in pancetta. Sure enough, Logan is doing a similar presentation with his fantastic Pennsylvania Rabbit Loin ($28), four cylinders of fresh rabbit that came with one of the most intriguing accompaniments I’ve seen in ages: salted apples, cut into cylinders, as well as a big strip of speck, sweet potato juice (tying this in with my soup), and a small pool of barley cream. Logan Cox is an evil genius.
And congratulations to new pastry chef Donald Smith, who recently came from Eola (and whose dessert was featured on the cover of this year’s Washingtonian 100 Best Restaurants issue) – give him time to settle in (but don’t miss his rosemary scones which now come with the bread basket).