New York Newsday 9/5/00
Eating Out
Way to B!
Soul Food Sublime at the New B.Smith's
By Lenore Skenazy
Naming a restaurant after a woman as gorgeous, classy and perfectionist as owner Barbara Smith is like naming it "That Wonderful Place." Expectations are bound to be high.
Luckily, B. Smith's delivers.
Around the corner from the old B. Smith's, a 15-year institution, this new B. Smith's opened at holiday time last year and still exudes a happy-to-see-you warmth. The walls are yellow, the ceiling soars and the giant painting behind the bar is of Smith herself, a welcoming presence even on the days she's not actually there.
She wasn't the night my friend James and I turned up. But our waiter told us she generally comes in twice a week - more often than most celebrity restaurateurs - and when she does, she stops by every table to say hello.
Smith - who's dubbed "the black Martha Stewart," presumably because, like Stewart, she presides over a TV show, has a magazine named after her, cooks, entertains, runs a media empire and used to be a model - gets the details right. Sam Cooke played softly on the sound system, fabulous flowers adorned the bar and a waiter was so solicitous that after he took our order, James marveled, "I feel like we're really being catered to."
We were. This became especially apparent after the waiter brought James his black-eyed pea soup. It looked and smelled great but - what was this? James discovered a cube of pork, which he doesn't eat. He explained this to the waiter who whisked it away, no questions asked, no charge, not even a "Harrumph!"
But, wait, let's discuss the other items on the menu before we get any further into the meal.
Blending haute cuisine and soul food might sound like the stuff of parody ("I'll have the pig's feet flambé"), but B. Smith's handles it with aplomb. It does this mostly by hewing to traditional upscale offerings like lobster ravioli, garlic prawns and baby lamb chops with red wine sauce, while tossing in a couple of soul food standards, like pork chops and macaroni. Sometimes it does a little mix 'n' matching, serving, for instance, barbecued ribs with fancy Booker's bourbon "moppin' sauce."
MORE EXOTIC
We peeked at the plates of the two young women next to us and, sure enough, one of them had ordered the ribs. She told us she loved them - but loved her friend's smothered porkchops even more. The woman with the chops preferred the ribs. There must have been some restaurant rule of physics at work, although both loved the side order of macaroni with a "plethora of cheeses."
"That says 'love,'" said one of them. "Because when you come to my house for macaroni and cheese, you're getting cheddar."
James was looking for something a bit more exotic, so, for an appetizer, he decided he'd get the Saigon shrimp rolls, as well as the soup, while I opted for potato-leek pancakes. For a main course, he ordered the steak with roasted garlic "smashed" potatoes, and I went for the vegetable roast of cultivated and wild mushrooms.
After the waiter removed James' porky soup, he suggested substituting lobster chowder, and James just adored it. "Wow! I could make a meal outta this!" he exclaimed, relishing the creamy creation, chockfull of luscious lobster bites.
Me, I relished my pancakes. Topped with a generous portion of smoked salmon and caviar, they were thick, crisp and savory.
If James was less thrilled by his shrimp rolls, he avowed it was mainly because the soup was both filling and a hard act to follow. I tried the crunchy rolls and found them delightful.
Taking advantage of James being full, I also dug into his well-done steak, which had somehow retained its juiciness - amazing! Like our friends at the next table, I preferred it to my own mushroom casserole, which, while extremely tasty, needed another vegetable or something. It was just too mushroom-y.
As for dessert, who could pass up a chocolate soufflé? Not James, and not me, even though I had ordered the express cake. This came in a coffee cup sculpted out of dark chocolate. Lovely as it was, the soufflé was even more delicious.
You will love B. Smith's, and so will your dinner companions. You'll love it even more if they know how to share.
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