SIMMERING WITH PROMISE
Marconi falls short of the hype
It was your typical Saturday night in Montreal and I was headed to one of the city’s mosttalked-about new restaurants, Marconi. What fun!
Since opening last December, Marconi had received nothing but raves, with kudos raining heavily upon owners Mehdi Brunet-Benkritly and partner Molly Superfine-Rivera. Good to hear, I thought, while immediately planning a visit.
Yet there’s nothing worse for a restaurant than the old one-twothree review pileup. So before becoming No. 4, I held back. And anyway, I didn’t have much choice. With all the accolades, nabbing a table at this 42-seat resto has become a bit of a challenge. Not Noma Mexico challenging (insider foodies will get that), but trying just the same. Happily, a friend visiting from out of town managed to garner a second-seating table (yah!), so there I was with three other keeners swinging open Marconi’s door, eager to partake in it all.
Having arrived right on time, we found ourselves stuck in the entranceway. Our table wasn’t ready, so it was suggested that we might enjoy a cocktail while waiting. Good idea, especially as Superfine-Rivera is touted for her mixology skills. We perused the drinks menu while the waitress brought a wine-drinking friend a fine white burgundy with a bit of age on it. We then played a game where we tried to guess where we thought we might be had we landed in this room without knowing it was in Montreal. Brooklyn was mentioned. Paris, too. But when we suggested Boston, a friend familiar with Boston said: “No, this crowd is too welldressed for Boston.” We laughed, shared a taste of the burgundy and headed to our table, a curved banquette beside the kitchen — no doubt, the best seat in the house. I loved Marconi already!
As for the decor, talk about cool. This former dépanneur (abandoned for about 45 years) was renovated with the help of designer Zebulon Perron, maintaining several of the original features including the patterned tin ceiling, the white-washed wall tiles and an old wooden fridge given a new lease on life as the wine cellar. There’s a crowded bar, an open kitchen and all sorts of charming details — from potted ferns to antique light fixtures. Noise levels are buzzy, with the sound of background tunes and the never-ending rattle of Superfine-Rivera’s cocktail shaker making them even more so, resulting in quite the electric ambience.
While we scanned the menu, sommelier Émilie Courtois arrived with our cocktails. One called “La Flota” — made with tequila, orange and coffee — tasted like Tia Maria, while the other — “Old Cuban” — was well-balanced and delicious, but not cold enough and soon replaced. As for the menu, we were informed the plates are designed for sharing, so ordering copiously is the way to go. We played along with four of the smaller plates and three of the large ones. As for the wine list, it’s a food-friendly selection dominated by whites and filled with smartly-chosen bottles sold at a wide range of prices. There’s even a Champagne at less than $100. Sweet.
Now might be a good time to offer a bit of background on chef Brunet-Benkritly. I first heard of “Mehdi” (as he is known in the chef milieu) back when he worked in the kitchen at the original Toqué!. Post-Toqué! Brunet-Benkritly worked at Réservoir and Au Pied de Cochon before leaving for New York where he headed up kitchens in two Greenwich Village restaurants: Chez Sardine and Fedora. So with all this experience, I expected a solid technique with a good dose of creativity. Alas, I got neither. With a riesling from Niagara winery Pearl Morissette, we began with four plates: marinated Arctic char, Brussels sprouts salad, sautéed mushrooms on toast and a dish of sweetbreads. The marinated Arctic char was flavoured with dashi and enhanced with puffed rice. Two bites into this snap-cracklemush and I couldn’t manage a third. Squishy textures and fishy flavours aren’t ideal, but this dish cried out for an acidic or spicy element to add pizzazz. As for the Brussels sprouts salad, my first thought was where the heck do you get Brussels sprouts this time of year? Talk about out of season. Mixing them with basil, crisped kimchee and buffalo mozzarella sounded like a fine idea yet the mozzarella presence amounted to four small pieces, which makes the $14 price tag on this dish pretty absurd. As for the Brussels sprouts themselves, half were velvety and delectable, but the other half were crunchy, which left me wondering whether that texture mix was deliberate? Not sure.
The mushroom toast was luscious and deeply flavoured thanks no doubt to the addition of soya and brown butter. But mushroom toast topped with a slow-cooked egg is getting to be as popular as avocado toast. With a chef of this pedigree, I was expecting something more novel than your typical wine-bar fare. I did enjoy the sweetbreads though. It came served in three pieces (but as we were four at the table, the sharing suggestion for such small portions is a definite stretch).
The golden nuggets of offal were set atop a creamy lemon purée and scattered with cipollini onion petals, bacon and chopped tarragon. Biting down on a soft slice of sweetbreads along with a bracing hit of lemon zest, I thought, OK, it’s a little bitter but really, how nice.
No such luck, though, with the next three dishes, starting with the pork shoulder. Served on a bed of sauerkraut with a purée of smoked apricots and a sprinkling of guajillo chili, the pork was medium-rare — and undercooked pork just doesn’t taste of much. As for the sauerkraut, perfect for winter, but again, why such unseasonal fare?
Next came a dish of gnocchi mixed with spiced broccoli, dill and lemon. The bowl arrived at the table blanketed in so much micro-planed pecorino that it hung right over the sides of the dish. As for the flavour mix, with so much dill, they might as well have called it Gnocchi Kiev. I enjoy a serious hit of dill and I liked the gnocchi themselves, but the presentation was awful — the food equivalent of the Addams Family’s Cousin Itt. But — again — what this dish really lacked was contrasting textures.
And the salmon dish continued this celebration of the soft. Paired with charred endive leaves and a spoonful of hummus, the fish was cooked sous-vide, resulting in an off-putting mushy texture culminating in a sort of salmon puddle in the middle of the plate. Désastre! As for the accompaniments, the bitter endives and earthy hummus did little to brighten up the situation.
Service provided by the bubbly and professional Courtois made up for a lot, and I still held out hope that dessert could turn things around. No such luck. There are three on offer, two or which are cream-based — one made with squash (how very Thanksgiving!), the other with sea buckthorn — and both covered in poorly made crumbles. The third, a dense chocolate ganache, was flavoured with olive oil and sea salt and surrounded
by bits of broken sponge toffee. Good, but we’re far from any sort of skill on display with these sweets. As one of my dining companions noted while digging into the squash cream: “This tastes like something you’d eat at summer camp.” So true.
I entered Marconi full of hope and left downcast. Blame the choice of ingredients, the quality of ingredients, the plate presentations or the flavour combinations — or how about all of the above? Brunet-Benkritly has been described as “the prodigy” and the “prodigal son” by the Montreal food press since he opened his restaurant. Five months into this new role, I prefer to describe him as “the possibility,” a chef who has the experience but who obviously has some catching up to do. criticsnotebook@gmail.com twitter.com/LesleyChestrman You can hear Lesley Chesterman on ICI Radio-Canada Première’s (95.1 FM) Médium Large Tuesdays at 10 a.m., and on CHOM (97.7 FM) Wednesdays at 7:10 a.m.
As for the Brussels sprouts salad, my first thought was where the heck do you get Brussels sprouts this time of year?