Metrovino

I don’t want to be dramatic or anything, but Metrovino Executive Chef Gregory Denton makes the best chowder in the universe. No really, he does. It’s as rich as a Gossip Girl socialite but with far more depth, and it’s beautifully balanced, with a consistently flawless ratio of broth to flotsam & jetsam, each round spoonful dredging up hearty bits of fish and bacon and potatoes and corn kernels so sweet and fresh they pop between your teeth like roe. Just when you think your palate can’t handle the emotions this chowder is evoking, there’s one last final spicy note that sends it over the edge, and suddenly you’re weeping into your glass of Blanc de Blancs. How does he do that?

Using soup as a barometer of culinary excellence, you’ll not be surprised that Chef Denton’s beautiful chowder is just the beginning of a menu where nearly every dish is on the A-list.

Some people feel that how soups are executed is an excellent test of a chef’s mettle. I’d have to agree, because a truly admirable soup is something be marveled at. And using soup as a barometer of culinary excellence, you’ll not be surprised that Chef Denton’s beautiful chowder is just the beginning of a menu where nearly every dish is on the A-list. Start with Metrovino’s superlative oyster trio–three fat oysters who’ve been stripped of their shells and are lounging around in Chinese soup spoons wearing cucumber mignonette, ponzu wasabi, and horseradish cocktail sauce dressing gowns. I never cease to be delighted by the tiny ball of wasabi perched on the edge of Oyster No. 2’s spoon. It  is a small touch that characterizes the menu–fun and adventurous, but never over the top.

The menu is brief but fraught with difficult decisions–do you opt for the grilled heirloom tomatoes and green bean salad with anchovy-brown butter vinaigrette, or do you indulge your omnipresent yearning for smoked trout and get the smoked trout and cucumber salad with warm potatoes and braised pork belly? Duck leg confit with warm lobster and green bean salad, grilled halibut with potato tomato gratin, or roasted eggplant and goat cheese ravioli in a summery basil pesto broth? Get them all, I’d say. You only live twice.

Metrovino occupies the lovely northeast corner space of the Pearl District’s elegant Tanner Place condominiums. The L-shaped restaurant is separated into several distinct dining areas, each with their own personality–the quiet semi-private row of booths to the left, the rather opulent upper dining area to the right, a small bottleshop in the middle, and the classy but cheerful bar area and sizeable patio at the west end. The bar hosts Metrovino’s crown jewel, a pressurized Enomatic wine preservation system, which allows Metrovino to offer more than 80 wines by the glass, including unusual and spendy wines you weren’t planning on being able to otherwise afford to try until you received your inheritance. But lest I give you the impression that your withered billfold will spend the evening trying to burrow a hole out of your Dockers before the bill comes, the extensive wine list has a list of $9 and under pours, and a tiered tasting system that allows you to purchase wine by the bottle, glass or 2.5-ounce taste, which is an excellent option for both gourmands on a very tight budget and for your mother who doesn’t necessarily hold her liquor well and starts telling the server your life story at roughly the 4-ounce mark.

Lest I forget to mention Metrovino’s exceptional happy hour, on weeknights from 4-6pm, for the price of a mediocre Whole Foods deli meal, you can slurp naked oyster trios, nibble on salmon gravlax bruschetta served with a healthy dollop of edamame purée and grapefruit, and get your vitamins with a citrus and pine nut- specked roasted beet salad, while enjoying $5 cocktail and house wine specials.

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