Description
Saul helped pioneer Manhattan-grade fine dining on Smith Street in Brooklyn with its skillful, French-inflected New American cuisine. Since it opened in 1999, the Boerum Hill restaurant has established a reputation and held onto it. Chef Saul Bolton tends to a menu that breathes with the seasons but has also generated some seminal dishes: the pan roasted skate, the squab breast and leg confit, and, most famously, the baked Alaska. Many of the gourmet, seasonal ingredients are sourced locally, and the cooks are known to maximize the taste potential of delicacies like chanterelles, diver scallops, or Hudson Valley foie gras. Indeed, a tasting menu is available to sample the full array of Saul's thoughtfully plated cuisine. The service is civilized enough to honor the food, as is the dining room's refined but simple look. Unlike some finer restaurants in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, Saul doesn't pander to any more-artisinal-than-thou nostalgia or alienating modern concept. Its slow and steady ethos means Saul is both classic and present, quietly co-existing on Smith St.'s bistro-row but also standing out. --Alex Spoto
