New 'A Team' on West Main
"His lemon curd is tremendous," says Gresge.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER
Mark Gresge, chef/owner of l'©toile on West Main, tells us that they now have a new sous chef who’s baking his own bread for the restaurant and revamping the dessert list.
“Now we have two ââ?¬Ë?A Team’ members,” says Gresge, referring to head chef Brian Wilkinson and new hire Brendan Cowley, a CIA grad who comes to us by way of Michigan.
“At lunches our catfish Po Boy is on one of his betards"–- a small roll–- says Gresge, “and for dinner we are using his bread for our guests when they arrive. Desserts are another specialty of his; his lemon curd is tremendous.”
In other l'©toile news, Gresge says they are now getting their chickens from Timber Creek Organics, a small Joel Salatin-inspired farm near Foxfield.
“They are fed with organic feed, which makes all the difference,” says Gresge. “It’s in our tarragon chicken salad.”
6 comments
L'etoile would probably not have lasted as long if situated in a larger city, I have had too many badly cooked duck, ill reduced sauces, poorly made amuse bouche, bad desserts.
Of course anyone not accustomed to fine dining will be duped.
Mas is what it is, not pretending, just simple Tapas fair.
I would love for Mas to serve Donkey sausage, the one I had in Corsica were extremely good.
Yes "fare"....Sorry, I am not a college educated and foreigner on top of that.
To everyone its own;
but I will confirm that the cooking at l'etoile is poorly executed; so I might be pretentious (or it is the kitchen that tried to achieve something that is over their heads??) but this my opinion and nothing is stoping you to patronize them.
You would save money by doing their shrimps & grits at home (no need to be CIA graduate for that) and it seems to be the dish of c-ville (10 other places have it on their menu).
A small roll is called in French "Batard" not "betards".
L'etoile needs a lot of help, the execution in the kitchen is terrible, may be the new guy can help them fixing it.
They anyway needs more than organic fed chickens and lemon curd to become a real white table cloth restaurant, right now it is all smoke.
I have still to find a better "tarte au citron" than the one of Raymond Blanc, so I will go, just to find out if he can make dessert.
Congratulations to L'etoile on a wonderful addition to their staff. I am in agreement that it is a great place to enjoy French cuisine, and I have never been less than elated by the quality of the food which is served. Not to mention a great selection of classic southern cocktails.
L'etoile is doing some of the best food in Charlottesville right now. Go eat some bacon wrapped dates at Mas, donkey.
We like L'etoile very much and we are quite accustomed to 'fine dining' in many larger cities. We've never been disappointed in a meal there, the service is always lovely and the food is delicious. The shrimp and grits are particularly good. Kevin, I'm so sorry if your bouche wasn't amused, but you do sound a bit pretentious with your "simple Tapas fair" attitute. (BTW, it's 'fare').