The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Get your pho on at Good Elephant
Vietnamese restaurant offers dining experience that’s fun, different, eclectic
CHESTER» Unless you’re plugged into restaurant world 24/7, you would never know that Vietnamese is trending again. Actually, it’s anything Southeast Asian. In Manhattan, you need voodoo chants to get a table at Bún-ker or Khe-Yo.
The venerable Le Colonial in midtown is busier than ever. But French is also trending, with Cherche Midi in the Bowery and Dirty French taking reservations weeks in advance, seats at the bar impossible to snag.
A trend within a trend, who knew?
It was with unbridled anticipation that I bounded up the stairs for the grand opening of The Good Elephant, or Bon Voi, the nifty new French/Vietnamese café brought to you by Linda and Everett Reid, owners of Restaurant L&E and French 75, conveniently located right downstairs.
After all, L&E is a serious restaurant, with a decidedly French outlook and I am Francophile foodie ready to be dazzled.
L&E sits at the quiet end of Main Street in downtown Chester, in the same location where the legendary Restaurant du Village once rocked the state. It’s now owned and operated by the Reids.
Everett attended both the CIA and Le Cordon Blue in Paris, and then worked in London for a couple years before the couple opened the highly regarded American Seasons, and then Restaurant Mona, both on Nantucket Island.
After drastically changing course and retiring to an antique business in the Litchfield Hills, the couple was eventually approached to buy du Village from Cynthia and Michelle Keller. They have completely recreated the space with a trove of European treasures and art from their former antique business, the charming front bar-room overlooking Main Street through large etched-glass windows is the place to be pre-theater.
Linda and Everett had been kicking around the concept for Bon Voi a long while, having been inspired by a dinner they had in Paris some 20 years ago at Tan Dinh, a Vietnamese/French restaurant in the 7th district, the extremely pricey neighborhood where the Eiffel Tower resides. But they have been honing the Bon Voi menu with sous chef Joe Roberto for over a year.
The grand opening was crowded, with every food writer from Fairfield to Fenwick buzzing about. The intimate upstairs space has vaulted ceilings, subdued lighting and a small bar at one end.
Tables and chairs were moved aside and it kind of had the energy of a house party, if your house party had an attractive hipster wait staff offering you exotic cocktails and one great menu item after another.
Brad the bartender was pouring some potent dragon fruit martinis, all the while explaining just what a dragon fruit actually is, over and over again (poor man). I wisely stuck with a lychee nut Bellini.
He makes his own lychee syrup by the way, also kindly informing me that “voi” is Vietnamese for elephant but “bon” means “good” in French.
I was just about to heckle him mercilessly, but was distracted by some spectacular food being brought out.
Trio of deviled eggs were gorgeous, all lined up on a long antique mirror, alternatively topped with spicy tuna tartare, house-pickled cucumber, hoisin marmalade and bacon and BBQ pork.
I chatted with Elise Mclay from Connecticut Magazine, as we tasted barely charred tuna loin on a shrimp cracker with black radish and a tiny piece of nori perfectly perched on top. Incredibly tender “steamed butter clams” came nestled in little individual soup spoons, with the added richness of pork belly, fragrant from cilantro and spiked with chili and rice wine. I could eat dozens.
If there is such a thing as a national sandwich, the Ban-Mi would be it. A fantastic blend of east and west-crispy baguette, with meat and spicy chili slaw.
Bon Voi’s rendition featured meatballs so good that when I accidentally dropped one into my cocktail glass, I slurped the whole thing down as not to waste it. Both “gingered shrimp bisque,” fiery with Thai chilies, cilantro and lemongrass and “mint marinated chicken pho” with sesame, mung beans and basil had layer upon layer of flavors.
Thai food plays extremely well these days, with bold flavors, some hot, some not. It’s light in texture and not too calorie dense. It also has a long history, one of many influences, basically colonial.
The Japanese, Chinese, Dutch and French have all had substantial impact on Vietnamese cooking, but none more significant than the introduction of hot chilies to Southeast Asia from the new world by Dutch merchants, who had developed a taste for them by the mid-1600s. But French influences predominate, lending a certain delicate sophistication to Vietnamese cooking lacking in other regional fare.
“That diner at Tan Dinh is what actually inspired us. We never forgot it,” said Everett, “the combination of styles and flavors. We thought it would be a good time to move forward, it’s a hot cuisine right now — think The Slanted Door in San Francisco, with food that is very approachable.”
When I asked Everett what kind of vibe they were looking for at The Good elephant he replied, “Fun, different, eclectic, we’ll have a ways to go.” If opening night was any indication, they are already there.