Delightful Watts Grocery

The Clarion found the new Durham restaurant, Watts Grocery, on Broad Street just west of downtown, a wonderful experience. In an older building, just a couple of doors down from the legendary Durham pool hall, The Green Room, Watts Grocery has converted what used to be Pars Oriental Rugs into a beautiful space. They have maintained the rugged exposed brick and duct work that give the place an urban, older Durham feel.

Beneath duct work and beside the brick, the other colors are soft, easy hues, that make the place feel comfortable and welcoming, not trendy and over the top. The bar is a L shaped. It is highlighted by the short side of the L which does double duty as a display case filled with owner, Amy Tornquist's memories, from her grandmother's handwritten recipes, to family photos, to Durham headlines and momentos from her youth. The bar service continues right over the top of this display and this is in fact where the Clarion and friend ate last week.

The service was terrific. The bartender was a wit and handled getting us dinner and drinks with cool aplomb. Occasionally in a nice joint it is a risk to get waited on over the bar, occasionally it is a treat, this was a case of the latter. We ate the bar because when we called for reservations we found they were booked. It is a small intimate space, probably no more than 12 to 15 tables. This intimacy melds perfectly with the rest of the warm atmosphere.

The food was good, too, bordering on excellent. The truth is the entrees were far superior to the appetizers. The Clarion's delightful dinner company had a mixed green salad tossed with tomatoes, red bell peppers, pecans and roasted garlic. It was good, but standard fare in these kind of restaurants now a days. The dressing no act of culinary bravery either, was the usual balsamic vinaigrette. This was unfortunate because we were mildly disappointed with our own appetizer, also. It was an oyster stew with bacon, thyme and fresh spinach. It was inoffensive, but rather too mild and bland. The Clarion loves spinach and bacon, so perhaps hopes were too high, but within moments after the first spoonful we were instinctively going for the salt and pepper, never a good sign for the chef. (Neither appetizer was bad, both were, in fact, pretty good, in the damning with faint praise kind of way.)

The entrees, however, were superb. Our friend had a organic salmon glazed with molasses chile, served over collard green risotto. We both love risotto. Though the Clarion is more of a collard green fan than our friend, both of us loved the texture and taste of the risotto. The salmon was cooked perfectly and the molasses chile was supremely savory. Ironically, neither of us anticipated chili as a theme, but the Clarion had a chili accented entree, too. It was a beautifully presented plate of chili braised short ribs, tender as could be, the meat just fell off the bone. They were served with a celery root puree and brussels sprouts. The brussels sprouts, which are easily under or over cooked were the ideal consistency and firmness.

The pace of the meal was just what we had hoped. Leisurely and relaxing, sometimes a restaurant with a lot of reservations will try to push folks through, or at minimum ignore the folks appear to be going slowly, so as to focus on turning other tables. That was never the case here, not once did the Clarion feel rushed or ignored. We had a before dinner cocktail and finished off with a good cup of coffee. Two more thoughts, it really was good coffee, the Clarion is a stickler and a coffee snob. Both of which explain our final thought and why Watts Grocery is an A- work in progress, not quite an A just yet. With this wonderful coffee, despite a clearly voiced request for a half and half, we were served whole milk. When we reiterated our request, as coffee aficionados we appreciate the difference, we were told they didn't have any half and half. Oh well, it was a great meal, anyway, ended with a good cup of coffee. They left something to strive for; all and all, Watts Grocery was great service, wonderful, authentic atmosphere, excellent entrees, and reasonably priced for the experience.

Walking Around Lucky

Did you ever hear the old saw, "You might be walking around lucky and not even know it." Some would tell you every day you get is a lucky one, others believe the world is samsaric. The Clarion has been known to espouse both points of view.

The Clarion had an experience that was distinctly more lucky the other night. We dropped by a friend's house, for an early evening for a happy hour beer on the way home. Unfortunately for her, but fortuitously for the Clarion, said friend's girl called out sick on the dinner he was preparing for her. Now the Clarion knows any number of great amateur chefs, but it just so happened, it was our luck, or perhaps our karma, we were at the residence of one of the professional ones. A person who had been preparing a delightful dinner for two when the girl came up ill.

After long hours over low heat on the stove the Clarion witnessed our pal combine his butternut squash stock, delicately seasoned, with heavy cream in a new Hamilton Beach blender. After some slow blending this mix was poured back into the soup pot and placed back over low heat. Its rich aroma wafted into every nook and cranny of chef's place.

We settled back into another episode of Entourage. (commercial free.) The Clarion isn't sure when chef cooked the pork tenderloin, by the time we became aware of it, it was on a cutting board. It had already been roasted and looked mouth wateringly moist. But what was chef doing? He was slicing it up into just bigger than bite sized pieces and tossing it into a warm bowl with raw spinach. When served this produced spinach of an other worldly texture, not raw, not cooked, just ever so slightly softened by the heat of the meat. The pork's heat had shaped the spinach leaves, too, curling them, bending them, inward, folding them around individual pieces of the meat.

Chef plated this rich green and brown mix on smallish, bright, white plates, the butternut squash soup was served in a matching white coffee mug, using said plate as a saucer. The soup's reddish orange hue complimenting, lightening the mix of other colors perfectly. The tastes meshed even better.

The Clarion was sorry she was sick. She is a good egg, and a kick to hang out around. But some days, you are walking around lucky and don't even know it. Other days you gotta remind yourself that be able to walk around and able to access clean water out of a tap at will makes one pretty lucky. Problems, everybody's got a few. Other days you walk into a wonderful meal and forget about them for a while.

Uber local Durham: Rue Cler

Had dinner at a terrific, small restaurant in Durham last weekend, Rue Cler. The service was solid, efficient without being intrusively ominpresent. The Clarion and friend each ordered from the Prix Fixe menu. First course options included a delicious marinated mushroom plate with a sharp side of greens slathered in Crème Fraîche. It was the first, but most certainly not the last of the superb, thoughtful, flavor combinations. My pal had a first course mixed green salad with oranges and candied pecans, also lovely. Both dishes had tantalizingly wonderful plate presentations.

For the second course, both of us got a pear tartlet baked with a scrumptious cheese mixture, and garnished with warm dates. Again, it was a brilliant flavor profile with an excellent plate presentation. The only down side, and perhaps we should have assumed it, but was no warning from the waiter that the tartlet might be a very hot temperature. Fortunately, no taste buds were scorched.

For the main course, we were both delighted with our selections. The Clarion’s friend had an amazingly wonderful dish of Kobe beef strips with little medallions of potatoes and hearty brown lentils. The lentil seasoning which was rich, meaty, peppery and warm, was out of this world. The beef was tender and cooked perfectly to order. The Clarion had a sumptuous, buttery soft piece of halibut, lightly breaded. The fish was served in a citrus sauce, over a bed of cabbage and sweet vidalia onions. Again, the initial reaction might be to think it a strange combination, but instead a couple more ingredients gave it a strikingly vibrant flavor profile; tiny, sharp, salty, black olives and capers, mixed with the sweet citrus sauce and buttery fish for a fantastic dish.

Normally, hard to talk into desert the Clarion had such a grand time, that arms barely had to be twisted before a banana chocolate chip ice cream appeared, accompanied by French Press coffee and real half-n-half. All and all, it was one of the best meals of ten years of living and dining in Durham.