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A Tribute to the American Middle West
 Farmington
Hills, Michigan – As maitre d’ Mickey
Bakst likes to say, “I wanted people to walk away
from our restaurant feeling as though they had never
been to Detroit.”
By all accounts, Bakst and the restaurant Tribute’s
chef, Takashi Yagihashi, have succeeded royally.
The mission was to bring a luxury restaurant to the
Detroit suburbs, where automakers could wine and dine
their customers in splendor. But the elegant, eclectic,
electric spot situated at the crossroads of a suburban
highway (wedged between a gas station and a mom and
pop pancake house) draws more than deep pocket guys
from the industry. The restaurant, opened in 1996, has
received just about every restaurant accolade one can
garner in the US, as it is listed as one of America’s
50 Best Restaurants by Gourmet Magazine, and in the
year 2000 chef Yagihashi was named one of America’s
Ten Best New Chefs by Food & Wine magazine.
Americans always believe that if you sink enough money
into a project, you can make it work. Restaurant Tribute
– created with a huge, blank check – tends
to prove the point. But there is more than money behind
the restaurant: There is also passion, serious forethought,
a love for blending the classic with the modern in both
design and in the kitchen, and a lot of strong personalities
to tie it together.
Bakst and Yagihashi, along with pastry chef Michael
Laiskonis, have created a true gastronomic haven with
a lot of soul. So Andy Warhol art is framed in thick
gilded frames, and Asian Bouillabaisse appears on the
table. The result is the best of both worlds, carried
out with care and calculation.
The wine cellar, of course, is astonishing, with more
than 1,000 top world wines on the list, including plenty
of welcome half bottles and a healthy selection of wines
by the glass.
A recent meal there showed up their special talent
for pairing wine and food. A delicate, vibrant and clean-flavored
first course of big eye tuna and fluke sashimi, teamed
up with geoduck clams and sweet onion-soy dressing,
was a dreamy match for the deep-flavored, golden Champagne
Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 1993.
But the star of the meal was unquestionably the chef’s
brilliant Asian Bouillabaisse, a welcome version of
the often tired bouillabaisse imitations found around
the world. Here, the chef offered a full palate of fish
and shellfish – from clams to mussels, to rich
meaty lobster – and bathed it all in a fragrant,
tangy kaffir lime foam. The full pleasure of the dish
was achieved with the pairing of the rich Zind-Humbrecht
1999 Riesling Clos Saint Urbain. Here, the much ignored
Riesling grape seemed to do a little dance, happy to
play its role by adding spice, acidity, balance and
a refreshing counterpart.
A main course roasted loin of lamb (cooked to a perfect
rareness) was paired with a measured portion of Hudson
Valley foie gras, a fricassee of spring vegetables,
and a most welcoming spring pea custard, all tied together
with an understated (but oh so evident) red wine and
rosemary sauce. The 1996 Italian Barolo -- the Bricco
Rocche from Brunate – was in perfect company.
Pastry chef Laiskonis stepped in with energy and clarity,
offering a soothing French melon soup with a Sauternes
gelée; and a quivering buttermilk pannacotta
flanked by a ginger-citrus gelée and a rhubarb-blood
orange compote. But the grand finale --- a chocolate
caramel egg shell anointed with just a few grains of
fleur de sel – brought the house down. In happy
company was the 1997 sweet white Bonnezeaux, Chateau
de Fesles.
Tribute
31425 West Twelve Mile Road
Farmington Hills, Michigan 48334.
Tel: 248 848 9393.
Fax: 248 848 1919.
Email: tribute@earthlink.com
Internet:
www.tribute-restaurant.com
Open for dinner only, Tuesday through Saturday.
Nothing beats the anticipation of returning to a restaurant
you have loved for years. A recent dinner at one of
my preferred restaurants in the world – Rick and
Deanne Bayless’s casual Frontera Grill and more
formal Topolobampo – found the owners, their kitchen,
and dining room, in top form.
As ever, the food was full of dense, intense flavors,
with dishes that both offered surprises and that essential
security net, familiarity. Most of us did not grow up
with palates weaned on banana leaves or crunchy jicama,
poblano peppers or pasilla chiles. So Rick and Deanne
do their best to add touches of familiarity, both visual
and gustative. A case in point is their new tostaditas
de Tinga, crispy tostadas topped with home-smoked organic
chicken, roasted tomatoes, smoky chipotle chiles, avocado
and cheese. The simple addition of a tiny tangle of
frisee salad seemed to tell us all, it’s ok, it’s
familiar. I could have easily had three servings of
these delicious tostaditas. In fact, a fellow diner
actually had two!
Other dishes were no less appealing, and included very
smooth and tender shrimp tamales steamed in banana leaves
and served in a bright-flavored ancho-arbol sauce and
a tang, cooling pea shoot salad.
Pork is back in America in big way, showing up on the
best menus all over the nation. Chicago is no exception,
and the Bayless’s offered roasted Maple Creek Farm
pork loin cooked to a welcome rareness, much as one
would cook a loin of lamb. The meaty, tender pork was
accented by a complex, rich (but not at all heavy) sauce
that combined hazelnuts, pine nuts, and pecans in a
mole of ancho and pasilla chiles. The accent was almost
French in the accompanying braised organic spinach and
garlicky bread pudding.
Topolobampo
445 North Clark, Chicago, Illinois.
Tel: 213 661 1434.
Chef’s tasting dinner, five courses, $70 ($100
with wine.) A la carte, about $45 per person, not including
service or wine.
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