Courses on fine dining
Pairing of two culinary talents has resulted in Bistro 2.0 in Troy.
Quang ’s Vietnamese Bistro, opposite a Dunkin' Donuts on Third Street in downtown Troy, is an unlikely fine-dining destination. Not that it isn’t wildly popular. New in 2019, it started as a hidden gem in the back of an Asian market, where chefowner Quang Tran, in trademark white glasses, is familiar to most from his days as a server at the former Peck’s Arcade nearby. Diners were soon hooked on Tran’s lovingly coaxed pho, but not everyone’s idea of a dinner date includes shoppers in the aisles. In 2020, when building owner and restaurateur Jinah Kim, of Sunhee’s Farm & Kitchen, closed the convenience store, Tran finished the pandemic-ravaged year in a larger, emptier space as a lone staff of one.
But life is about connections. The 2021 launch of Bistro 2.0, a ticketed, fine-dining, multicourse pop-up inside Quang ’s, is a rapid collaboration between Tran and the young chef Alexander Goldman. The two met in 2016 at then-newly opened Peck’s Arcade when Goldman, a native of Troy and recent graduate of the culinary program at Johnson & Wales University, joined the kitchen.
Tran, an unflappable professional, has pedigreed front-ofhouse experience at several Michelin-starred bastions of fine dining: Aqua, Octavia and Quince, all in his home city of San Francisco. Meanwhile, Goldman’s brief stint at Peck’s kick-started a four-year journey working under James Beard Award-winning chef Donald
Link at Cochon in New Orleans, chef Greg Proechel at Bib Gourmand Ferris in Manhattan’s Made Hotel, and multiple kitchen stations at three more Michelin-starred restaurants: Oxalis in Brooklyn, followed by Sepia and Acadia in Chicago. In November 2020, with Sepia and Acadia both closed due to COVID -19, Goldman headed home to Troy, where a request he cook a private dinner prompted him to ask Tran about using his kitchen. Instead, Bistro 2.0 was born.
I’d seen photos of the first dinner: The two seatings of six ticketed guests had obvious appeal in an otherwise empty restaurant. When the lockdown happened in March 2020, we’d begun to tire of chef tasting menus, but I’d paid for hard-toget tickets to an eight-person omakase meal at Ama by Brad Kilgore in Miami. No flights, no dinner. Now, 11 months on, a nine-course pop-up dinner by a 25-year-old chef fresh off the Michelin circuit felt like a flex and a flash of excitement in one.
Spoiler: The partnership between Goldman and Tran is flawless, and Tran’s wine choices, if you add the pairing, layers another dimension. A natural sans sulfre Albamar albarino captures the flintiness of coastally grown albarino grapes; velvety Junmai Daiginjo-kobe sake is electric with a complex dashi. Plates are poetry within each composition: a thick, broad bowl is by the Japanese trading company Korin; flecked custommade plates are by Chicagobased ceramicist Ashley Lin.
The food is so pretty and technically precise, with an economy of elements used to brighten or contrast. There’s no big ego on display. If anything there’s a desire to delight, like flawlessly executed choreography. And hospitality is friendly and confident so we feel cared for in our personal space — the few other guests a dozen feet away.
There’s a spring pop-up in the offing, but ambitions are clear now that Goldman, Tran and their investor-partner are scouting for permanent space in Troy. After 11 months watching restaurants shutter and a battered industry struggle to survive, Bistro 2.0 is a spark of hope that revival is here.
Course 1, amuse bouche: A monochrome star to be eaten in a bite or two. Smoked trout creme fraiche sandwiched between two squid-ink crackers resembles a savory Oreo topped with caviar — an oceanic blast to pair, naturally, with Champagne — and a tiny gold-leaf cap. Goldman’s inspiration? “It was really simple. I had the idea while eating a bagel with whitefish spread. I wanted it to be a snack.”
Course 2, celeriac and apple salad: “So pretty!” is everyone’s response to this fun play on salt, fat and acid. Its symmetrical layout is a cool "unsalad" with orange trout roe and the fragrant citrus of pale green yuzu as sharp foils against melon-balled celery root and apple. Creamy sea urchin is mimicked in a foamy buttermilk sea. Says Goldman, “In Chicago you don’t have access to the amazing quality ingredients that you do in New York or in L.A. So at Acadia, for instance, you might use many ingredients, a freeze-dried powder for added interest. … I wanted to keep this simple and pretty.”
Course 3, hamachi crudo: The freshness of raw, thinly
sliced hamachi (yellowtail tuna) layered with large basil leaves in a dashi broth absolutely pops against Hakutsauru Junmai Daiginjo-kobe sake. Goldman: “I knew this dish would be acidforward, with depth and flavor in the dashi from charred onion, kombu, nori, lime ponzu, garlic. ... I had the idea in bed. Sometimes the creative process comes while I’m reading a book, writing or watching TV.”
Course 4, diver scallops: Cocooned in a curved black
bowl as broad as a catcher’s mitt, Goldman pools bronzegold sauce Americaine around two equally golden seared diver scallops and a quenelle of cauliflower puree, the two stitched together by three thin tarragon leaves. The sauce, made with lobster shells, has added umami from miso and white mirepoix. Goldman: “I wanted this course to be classic but elevated, like truffle and sherry, an idea that would be familiar and accessible.”
Course 5, farro: If I had to choose just one course, it might be this. Its deceptive simplicity
as a grain bowl of nutty farro is exquisitely enriched with seared foie gras, sauteed onion and turnip, turnip juice, shio koji brown miso (with sweetness from fermentation) and black pepper toasted in browning foie gras. Tableside, Goldman shaves black Perigord winter truffles on top, but the final note comes from Tran’s pairing of Amontillado, a hazelnutty, fortified sherry. Classically served with beef consommé, sherry and foie gras-soaked farro here are swoon-worthy.
Course 6, rabbit: Goldman was schooled in sausage making in New Orleans, and for this dinner made use of whole rabbit, farm-raised in New Jersey. Rabbit saddle filled with a boudin blanc of brined chicken and rabbit organ meat is wrapped in country ham, sliced in a crosssection and finished at the table with a classic sauce Robert fortified with the rabbit bones and spicy brown mustard. Goldman: “I really wanted this to show classic technique.” To pair? An expressive white Burgundy showing off its limestone terroir.
Course 7, Berkshire pork collar: Impeccable sauces are
Goldman’s superpower, each with that magical glossy finish. Fork-tender Berkshire pork collar is half-enrobed in a dark barbecue sauce and half in a butterscotch-hued caramel sauce. He says, “I was thinking about New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp, sauteed in Worcestershire-spiked butter sauce, and how incredibly flavorful American food can be . ... I learned that caramel sauce at Ferris. To caramelize cream you add (the) alkalinity of baking soda. Reduce while constantly whisking, then blend in brown butter.” The richness is velvet and deserving of a puce, baritone Barolo.
Course 8, palate cleanser: This playful interlude before dessert is a tiny grapefruit gelée with bitterness offset by a foamy cap of lemon and orange air.
Course 9, chocolate cream cheese mousse: Goldman wanted to stay away from Valentine’s weekend chocolate lava cake but learned that, as desserts
go, Tran hates Pavlova.
The result is prettily deconstructed: Sour cherry sorbet and chocolate mousse, broken meringue icebergs stained pink with dried black cherry powder and dotted with mint jelly. Tran
paired juicy Ferreira port — ostensibly for the gents — and frizzante, berry-sweet Brachetto d’acqui, made with blackskinned Italian grapes. I preferred the port.
Next up: Reservations are
now available for a spring equinox pop-up dinner at Quang ’s on March 20 and 21. Five courses, $85. Send a direct message on Instagram for ticket availability: @quangsbistro. Bistro 2.0 at Quang ’s Vietnamese Bistro,
88 Third St., Troy. facebook.com/quangsbistro.