JG Domestic

Yes, we read reviews stating "you sit under an escalator" and the food was good but pricey.  Even so, we looked forward to trying JG Domestic to see for ourselves.  I was already a fan of the chef and was anxious to see if I still felt that way when I left.

Friends from a former employer took SEPTA in from the Western suburbs on this cold day for a "reunion" over dinner.  Conveniently, they did not have to even go outside as this Iron Chef Jose Garces restaurant is connected to 30th Street Station.  Up one escalator and down another delivers hungry travellers or foodies to this restaurant within a business office building.

It is easy to see how some would fret that the space is "under an escalator."  This criticism seemed much ado about nothing as the dining space that doesn't have an actual ceiling is limited and it looked very comfortable with  overhead beams and lots of plants to soften the space.

Our group followed the hostess to the back, which was most certainly an actual room with walls and a ceiling.  A party of 5, we sat in the back right corner.  As seen in the picture below, this room was obviously for larger parties as there were only 4 tables - 3 for 6 and 1 for 8.  For quite some time we had our own private room.  About mid-way through our meal we were joined by a party of 8.

It did not appear that you needed to have a large party to get a seat away from the hostess stand (read: away from the escalator).  The restaurant does have an open kitchen, so bear that in mind when making a reservation to help you determine if you want to see what's going on or not.  One possibility if you do sit by the kitchen - you may get to see Jose Garces in action.

We didn't sit by the kitchen but our waitress told us that "Chef" was in that night.  We joked that we were going to complain about a dish and demand to see the chef.  Our waitress semi-smiled.  She had either heard that a dozen times or she thought we were complete rubes.  We didn't complain but we did see "Chef" on the way out and he was kind enough to greet us, asked if we enjoyed it, and thanked us for coming in.  We thanked him, as well, for this treat of a dining experience.

When we were first seated we asked some questions about the wine.  Even though our waitress' "favorite" was the $165 bottle, we opted for the $40 bottle of Rosenblum (red) Zinfandel.  The wine was perfectly acceptable - especially after it breathed a little.  (A few days later I saw the exact bottle in a New Jersey wine store for $11.)  One of my friends ordered a drink with Stoli vodka and we were reminded what the "Domestic" means in "JG Domestic."  (Everything is from the US.  While Stoli didn't make the list of exceptions, we were told a few scotches did.  Apparently they make that concession for the older businessmen in the Cira Center, the building in which JG Domestic is housed.)

There is a Chef Tasting Menu every night but the entire table has to order this.  This night one of the two tastings was based on the passion fruit menu Chef used when he retained his Iron Chef title just the week before. (If that's something you want to try, it should be available for quite awhile as I've backdated this blog entry almost three weeks and it is still on the menu.)  We, however, were all anxious to sample a wide variety of dishes.  Since we had some specific ones we wanted to try, we opted not to go for the tasting menu ($65 per person) where the chef chooses what is served. 

And speaking of the menu.  Wow.  We were unanimous that everything was excellent and one dish was "OK."  Fortunately, each of the five of us didn't mind passing dishes and allowing others to try everything.  This is what we ate:

• Maine Lobster Cappuccino - a soup including Butternut squash dumpling and vanilla emulsion
• Kabocha Squash - with black kale, sheep milk cheese candied squash seeds
• Sugar Pumpkin Croquettes - with chevre, baby fennel, orange
• Chef's Garden Crosnes - a tuber with potato dumpling and crispy artichoke (more detail below)
• Chilled Heirloom Baby Beets - with whipped creme fraiche, molasses vinaigrette
• Texas Wild Boar Rack - with mustard glaze and maple grits
• Jidori Chicken - herb roasted with baby carrots, fingerling potatoes, cipollini
• Adobo Rubbed Ribeye - with refried rancho gordo cranberry beans and vidalia onion rings

The precious gems amongst all of these jewels were the lobster cappuccino soup, the pumpkin croquettes, and the crosnes.  The soup had great texture and taste.  The pumpkin croquettes literally melted in your mouth.  And the crosnes?  Quite a discovery for our party!  We asked the waitress questions about this tuber.  She said they had the texture of a water chestnut and were becoming more and more popular in the US.

This root vegetable is pronounced "crones" (one syllable) and was named after the French town of Crosne where they were brought from Japan in 1882, according to The New York Times.  In February 2004, the paper had an informative and amusing article about this unsightly vegetable.  A New York farmer was quoted as saying this one-inch vegetable is difficult to harvest in the late fall when the ground is cold.  For cooks, 

they are impossible to peel and annoying to clean. (Rub them with salt and a little water -- the salt gets the dirt out of nooks and crannies.)

Apparently, much of the flavor resides in the skin.  The article added,

The French variety tastes a bit like potato. The American variety is smaller and nuttier. The delicate flavor suggests jicama or Jerusalem artichoke. Unlike most tubers, crosnes stay crunchy when cooked.

Intrigued by this little vegetable prepared so well at JG Domestic, I did a little more research on chow.com.  It said this tuber is "from the mint family with a nutty, artichoke-like flavor."  This website differed from The New York Times, however, in that it stated crosnes were brought to France from China.  Whatever their origin, I will be on the hunt to try crosnes in other restaurants.  I want to see if they are as fabulous as I think or if they benefited greatly from the wizardly of Chef.

The last two meals listed above (chicken and ribeye) were extremely large portions.  The boar was..well...a bore. It received mostly rave reviews online but our table was very ambivalent about it.  I've had better in several places, including Pumpkin in South Philly.  Also, it was a much smaller serving than the chicken and ribeye.

After discovering the proximity to the escalator is not an issue for JG Domestic and, yes, the food is pricey I still highly recommend it.  If you're going to travel by car, it may be easier to park at 30th Street and walk through the train station than navigate the maze of roads and railroad tracks around the Cira Center.  But if you decide to drive anyway, I certainly understand.  Chef Jose Garces' restaurant is so comfortable and the food so creative that this fan knows you do what you have to do to experience it.