1515a restaurant I want to try

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Jul. 21, 2003

 

 

AUSTIN CHRONICLE

VOL.22 NO.46: CUISINES: WESTERN ZING



Chef Robert McGrath's trailblazing blend of the robust and bold
Western Zing

BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD




July 18, 2003:

Roaring Fork: An American Western Bistro & Saloon
701 Congress (Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel), 583-0000
Lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:30am-2pm
Dinner: Sunday-Thursday, 5-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 5-11pm
Saloon opens daily at 4pm
www.roaringfork.com
photo by John Anderson



One of the major tenets I follow when reviewing restaurants is to
consider just how well the restaurant actually does what it sets out
to do. On rare occasions, all the various elements of a restaurant,
everything from the name to the concept to the location to the décor
and, finally, to the food and service, are so well conceived and
carefully executed that a very good restaurant emerges. It's a
pleasure to dine in such places and exciting to review them. The
Roaring Fork, an American Western bistro developed by chef Robert
McGrath, is a very good restaurant indeed.

McGrath named the restaurant after Colorado's Roaring Fork River near
Aspen, an area that's dear to his heart. The rustic décor -- all
stone, metal, leather, and antlers -- evokes images of a comfortable,
upscale hunting and fishing camp somewhere in the Rocky Mountains --
the kind of place where you'd grill steaks outside in the waning
daylight and spend crisp mornings fishing for trout in a crystal-
clear mountain stream. The menu completes the picture with a list of
hearty Western entrées and side dishes that are innovative and packed
with robust flavors. It's a carnivore's dream. The saloon serves good
drinks, and the staff is friendly and eager to please. In short, the
Roaring Fork delivers on the overwhelming number of the expectations
that its image creates. I predict it has a solid future in Austin.

Locals may remember chef Robert McGrath from his long-ago tenure at
the local Four Seasons Hotel. From Austin, he moved to the Four
Seasons property in Houston and then achieved national acclaim as the
chef at the luxurious Phoenician resort in the Arizona desert. The
Roaring Fork is McGrath's first independent restaurant venture, and
he has joined forces with longtime local restaurant developers Larry
Foles and Guy Villavaso. The original Roaring Fork is in Scottsdale,
Ariz., where Foles and Villavaso have also scored with Z Tejas Grill.
The Austin outlet is the partners' second joint venture, located in
the prime Congress Avenue corner spot that formerly housed the ill-
fated Star Canyon. Chef McGrath divides his time between Austin and
Scottsdale while chef Brian Krellenstein is on the range here
regularly. The restaurant has a good pedigree and, based on my
experience, is in very good hands.

On a recent Monday evening, some girlfriends joined me in the Roaring
Fork saloon. We'd been enticed by an ad touting the special summer
prices on their happy-hour appetizers. Bypassing the tall, spindly
bar chairs (note to restaurant designers everywhere: Most bar chairs
are hideous and absolute torture to sit in for any length of time --
burn 'em all), we settled ourselves comfortably on some very
attractive leather couches and ate off a low trestle table. The happy-
hour menu here is made up of a couple of items from the lunch menu,
as well as some of the dinner appetizers, and, at $6 per plate, some
of the deals are unbeatable! The Big Ass Cheeseburger is a moist
patty topped with melted cheddar cheese, crisp peppered bacon,
grilled onions, roasted poblano peppers, and a thick slice of garden
tomato on a toasted bun slathered with chipotle mayo. The huge burger
comes with a mountain of fresh-cut, crispy fries dusted with a tingly
house spice blend. It's a mess to eat, but it's also one of the best
burgers in town at any price.

Also impressive are the fish tacos: warm, homemade flour tortillas
chock-full of delicately battered, lightly fried chunks of halibut
dressed with a zingy cabbage slaw. Another winner was a skillet full
of fall-off-the-bone tender pork ribs in a sweet, spicy barbecue
sauce. And don't get me started about the house beef jerky, the
perfect Atkins appetizer, so I'm told. With the $6 deals available
all summer, the saloon should be a busy place.

A group of old friends joined my sister and I at the Roaring Fork for
dinner to celebrate her birthday. We enjoyed another stellar meal
with only a few minor glitches. We ran the table that night, with
five appetizers, four entrées, and three desserts, scoring 10 hits
and only two misses. Among the appetizers, we were particularly
impressed by the Spinach and Smoked Ruby Trout Salad ($8.75), which
offered a flaky trout fillet atop a towering pile of greens with
matchstick strips of crisp green apple and sweet red onion dressed in
a tangy cider-bacon vinaigrette. It's a refreshing appetite enhancer.

My personal favorite, which I was loathe to share around the table,
was the New Mexico Fondue Pot ($10.50) with little lamb chops,
toasted bread cubes, and roasted squash to dip in a small, cast-iron
pot of zesty cheese dip. Another sure winner. Our only disappointment
in this course was the Tortilla Soup ($8.75), a thick smoked-tomato
broth poured (at the table) into a flat bowl around a tower of
grilled chicken and guacamole. There were two problems here, the
first being an issue of accurate menu description. If the menu had
said the soup base was a thick tomato broth, the diner who isn't
overly fond of tomatoes probably wouldn't have ordered it in the
first place. The second problem was a flavor issue in that the
smokiness of the broth was so overwhelming, the blander chicken and
guacamole had no chance of balancing it out.

Our entrées, however, were winners all the way around. Each was
paired with a well-conceived side-dish casserole, such as McGrath's
signature Green Chile Macaroni and Cheese, as well as crisp seasonal
vegetables. One standout is the divine Pork Porterhouse ($22.50), a
cut that's showing up on more restaurant menus all the time. At the
Roaring Fork, the moist, juicy slab of pork is rubbed with zesty
spices and napped with a red-bell-pepper ketchup. It's served with a
pot of roasted potatoes in the same cheese sauce that accompanies the
lamb fondue, plus spears of bright green broccoli rabe.

The Pan-Seared Halibut Filet ($19.50) was a firm, flaky piece of fish
with a delicate, gold-top crust, served with a mild rock-shrimp
remoulade, a pot of hearty, smoked tomato grits, and crunchy sugar-
snap peas. (In this second appearance of the smoky tomato broth, some
of its power was soothed by the grits themselves, and there were
several other flavors on the plate to create a balance.) The 22-ounce
Bone-In RibEye ($28) is the best example of that particular cut I've
eaten in Austin. The Roaring Fork dry-ages their beef, and the
resulting flavor is remarkable. Ordered "Pittsburgh medium rare," the
flavorful steak arrived at the table with a dark, caramelized
exterior and a center that was red to pink. Paired with a delicate
sweet-corn casserole, it's a marvelous piece of meat.

The entrées had raised our expectations, and we went boldly on to
desserts, ordering some to share around the table. The Devil's Food
Cake ($7.50) with pecan cream Anglaise, caramelized bananas, and
vanilla ice cream offered delightful contrasts of flavor, texture,
and temperature. The Seasonal Individual Fruit Pie ($7.50), fresh
peach in this instance, was a woefully underdone, doughy
disappointment rather than the homey, comforting dish we were
expecting. Perhaps next time I'll stick to sorbets and ice creams
after such hearty meals.

Though I'm obviously now an unabashed fan of the Roaring Fork, the
one improvement I'd like to see is in the service area. The entire
waitstaff should be well versed in the ingredients of each dish, and
some of the more inexperienced staffers could use instruction in the
area of food-and-wine pairing if they intend to enhance their check
averages with wine sales. Considering how much I liked this
restaurant, these are relatively minor quibbles. Overall, the Roaring
Fork comes through in a big way.