Santa n'est pas encore officiellement passe a la maison, nous l'attendons avec impatience. Mais il a pense a nous a La Cuisine et nous a fait un beau cadeau.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 10:08 a.m.
Dear Santa:
Of course, this time of year, you get hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of letters requesting this or that gadget under the Christmas tree. I sometimes wonder how many of us ever write back to say, “Thank you.”
But I’d like to offer a heartfelt thanks for some things in our local culinary scene this year, whether you had a hand in them or not.
First, thanks for La Cuisine. It’s been a long time since there’s been a legitimate French restaurant in Ocala; longer, certainly, than I’ve been here. Petite Jardin? Perhaps back in the day it was French, but while chef John Bell owned it from before 2000 to its closing in 2003, it offered more of a contemporary fusion cuisine.
Was the area ready for French? After all, at least some hereabouts succumbed to the anti-anything-French atmosphere in the ramp-up to war in Iraq in 2002-’03. Bell once said that attitude played a role in his restaurant’s closing.
Evidently, we were ready. La Cuisine opened in August, and its owners indicate it’s doing well, despite our continued hard times. But here’s the cool part: In only a few weeks of existence, La Cuisine managed to make it to Florida Trend’s annual list of the Best 500 Restaurants in the state of Florida. Considering there are more than 36,000 restaurants in the Sunshine State, that places La Cuisine in the top 1.5 percent of all those eateries.
Moreover, Florida Trend food guru Chris Sherman dubs La Cuisine one of the Best Newcomers of 2009; only 17 were picked.
“Not one but three French chefs in the kitchen give a downtown charmer true vichyssoise, fish quenelles, beef Burgundy, eggs meurette and saucisson,” Sherman notes in the December issue.
“It’s very amazing, and we’re very surprised,” says Stephane Gattacieca, one of La Cuisine’s owners.
The eatery opened in August at 48 S.W. First Ave. Gattacieca, his wife, Marie, chef Patrice Perron, his family and Christophe Crouzet, a rising star in French culinary circles, moved to Ocala earlier this year with the express purpose of delivering French cuisine as purely as can be using substitute American ingredients.
The restaurant features a Lyon “French home-country cooking” rather than the rich, sauce-heavy cuisine of Paris. And it has introduced a lunch menu - a way to experience La Cuisine for fewer francs.
The other day, I enjoyed a hachis parmentier (pronounced “ha-shee par-men-ti-AY”), described as a French version of shepherd’s pie. Instead of ground beef, this is a tender pulled pork in a luscious, honey-soy “barbecue” sauce covered with a thin layer of baked mashed potatoes. Barbecue around here rarely has tasted better.
Anyway, Santa, they tell me they have no regrets leaving France, although Stephane does concede he’ll miss skiing in the Alps this winter. Marie Gattacieca says she’ll probably write a thank-you letter to you, so you might keep an eye out for it.
“And we’ll be good, too,” she adds.
But Santa, that’s not all.
Felix’s, a fixture on the 500 Best list for most of the decade, remains there again this year. Felix’s, as you might know, switched from its older American-Continental fusion to Italian earlier this year.
And there’s another new addition to the list: Bonefish Grill, the result of a new category in the list that recognizes excellence in chain restaurants. So, if a chain is dubbed “best,” then every link in every Florida city is listed, too.
This is the first time I count three Ocala restaurants on the list at the same time, and that, Santa, is certainly something worthy of thanks.
Second, there’s Ipanema and SKY.
I thank you not because they’re here, but because they’re still here. Both were once owned by officers of the late Taylor, Bean & Whitaker. When word swept through town that TBW was collapsing in August, my first thought was, “Will Ipanema survive? Will the SKY fall?”
Ipanema, I’ve since learned, has been doing well; it weathered the TBW fall with nary a hiccup. And at SKY, Danny Gaekwad, owner of the Holiday Inn at Interstate 75 and State Road 200 where SKY resides, stepped in to keep the Asian fusion restaurant afloat.
Finally, Santa, if there’s a little bit of room in your pack tonight, might you please consider bringing us a stand-alone Mongolian barbecue place?
Why not ask?
Hope your rounds go well, and have a good 2010."
