Moscow's lovely green Nectar

Friday, August 15, 2008

For months my thoughts have wandered hungrily to Moscow's small but well-loved Nectar restaurant. (When I called a few months ago, a staff member told me the restaurant is working on a website that will arrive soon. As yet, it hasn't debuted, but I look forward to it. It would be great to know menu options before setting out to dine there.) A mandatory family excursion to the Co-op and Tri-State Thursday evening gave me the perfect excuse to step in and try the place out.

As befits a restaurant dedicated to serving as much natural, local food as possible, the outside offers a barely-tamed display of growing veggies and other lovely flora. The greeting desk in the entry features a vase holding a colourful menagerie of fresh flowers. The effect, upon entering, is soothing and lovely.

The restaurant does offer outside seating, but my family is too timid and allergen-averse to eat so brazenly in the open air. Instead my father, when given the choice, opted for the more shaded section of the restaurant. Had it been up to me I'd have expressed a clear preference for the sun-bathed portion of the interior. Ahh well. Do be aware that the inside seating does, in fact, have two areas with distinctly different lighting. The section adjacent to the floor-to-ceiling-length windows is blessedly well-lit. The tables that hide in further recesses and hug the internal walls, however, are cloaked in a darkness that gangsters, assassins, spies and migraine-sufferers would appreciate. While each table sports a candle at its center, that softly wavering flame offers little illumination amidst all the darkness. (I had to tweak the brightness and contrast in the photos significantly in order to make them viewable, so please imagine these images 30% darker than they appear here.)

The dark wooden tables are set with simple elegance. I loved the clear solid simplicity of the tall, slender water glasses. The textured ceiling tiles, variety of fabric-cushioned wood chairs and bare brick walls gave the restaurant a wonderful atmosphere that was complemented by the slinky flow of jazz from the bar. I should note my (increasily pregnant) sister would have preferred comfier seats, but I am resolute in my love for the chairs as they exist right now. Hey, you can't please 'em all.

The restaurant was relatively empty when we arrived at its opening hour of 5pm, but it began to fill up soon thereafter. If you plan to eat later in the evening on a Friday or weekend, reservations would be wise. You should also be forewarned that Nectar appears to embrace the philosophy of slow food. Although our salads arrived not too soon after we ordered, we waited a long time before our entrees appeared. (Gluten-intolerant sis was getting very hungry--and telling me not so happily about it--the longer we waited. Yes there was bread and butter, but sadly that didn't help her.)

As to the staff: Our waiter was informative with regard to the gluten status of menu items. I always appreciate that! He also doted on my cup of coffee. Again, much appreciated.

Nectar's single page menu is short and my sister groused a bit about the limited options she had. (Pregnancy has put her off so many former favorite dishes and restricted her safe food choices so drastically that eating out has become more an unhappy obstacle course than a pleasure. I pity the girl even as I envy her.) While I admit it might have been nice to have a greater selection to choose from, I was perfectly happy with the presented options. I'd never had clams and steamed ones in a wine and butter broth sounded scrumptious. I also chose a green salad (minus onions) with bleu cheese crumbles.

So, on to the food: My decaf coffee was among the best I've had at a restaurant. I tried to control my inner java-chugging fiend, but I still managed to guzzle three cups. Shame on me. The salad was superb. It had just enough slightly sweet vinegar to dazzle my tongue and just enough oil to make the greens a sleek tasty delight to my palate. I should note, however, that I've begun to grasp that restaurants featuring local edibles do not offer typically-sized salads. Rather, the precious and limited nature of the available greens seems to translate into smaller-than-average side salads. That's okay. The truth is that I don't need to gorge on such beautifully-dressed leaves. A smaller portioned indulgence is just fine.

As for the clams, not surprisingly they brought to mind the familiar flavor of my favorite childhood chowder. The wine and butter broth accompanied the chewy creatures well as I unearthed them from the array of shells in my bowl. It was fun and cheerfully time-consuming to separate each clam from its curved abode. Since I can eat so darned little but still like to linger over my meals, this was the perfect dish for me.

My mother and sister were kind enough to offer me bites of their respective pork loin and filet mignon. I found the pork to be splendid. The filet mignon--eh. Once again my disinclination toward steak manifested itself. Sis gave me a big enough bite that I cleaved it in two before tasting it. Had it not been impolite to sibling and restaurant and an unspeakable offense to the animal that gave its life for the meal, I would have forsaken the second bite. This reaction to the meat was later echoed by my sister as we wandered back to the car. While she had enjoyed the salad very much, the filet mignon was just not to her taste and seemed underdone even at medium. She declared the grilled asparagus to have a flavor remiscent of hash (yes, the cannibis kind, not the kind slung over grills at breakfast diners) but had enjoyed the salad quite a bit.

I should note that my mother expressed great fondness for her roasted (or was it grilled?) peach.

Overall Nectar's food was a mixed bag for my family. I will always zealously support the locavore cause and truly admire Nectar's commitment to that culinary philosophy. Still, I'm not sure their dishes have all arrived at the level of delectability that would justify the prices. (And how I hate to say such a thing for I truly do love their cause and want them to stay and thrive in Moscow.) The atmosphere is fun and jazzy. I have a suspicion that this place is a flavor oasis for wine lovers. Since not a single soul in my family can imbibe, that aspect was wasted on us.

Will I revisit this locavore retreat? Not soon, but eventually. Yes.

~L