HONESTY is the policy: Rosemary and Vine

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When asked about Rye, New York, Tania Rahal, the co-owner of Rosemary and Vine, revealed that the people are honest and straightforward. She mentioned that they are direct and generous at the same time, not afraid to compassionately share their opinions.

The Rosemary and Vine restaurant fits right in. Transparency is very important to the restaurant’s team and mission. Wholesome, fresh, seasonal, organic, and local ingredients are key to the vegetarian Mediterranean-inspired menu. The open kitchen is also paramount to the concept of the table service eatery, allowing guests to see food preparation and indirectly involving them in the process. With that, Rosemary and Vine’s food tastes honest.  Including a mix of family recipes and dishes cultivated by Consulting Chef Erica Wides, summer is on the menu.

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Honesty begins with the starters, a blend of classic and fresh. Start with a cooling and textured gazpacho blanco, complete with a vibrant soft green color, a result of luscious cucumber, grapes, and deep roasted almonds.  Try a smoky babaganoush topped with sweet-tart pomegranate seeds that add a crunch to the sinful eggplant spread. The homemade hummus, a family recipe, is bright and smooth, earthy and meaty, perfect with crisp pita points. An avocado crostini is complex and hums with tangy feta, sweet peas, a layered charmoula, and moments of mint. 

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Rosemary and Vine’s summer flatbreads exude color and bright flavors that combine to be satiating and familiar. The Sarah similar to, but steps above, run-of-the-mill pizza, the Ella smooth with thick ricotta, spicy baby arugula, but accompanied by a crunch from buttery roasted pine nuts, the Yasmine with lemon notes and creamy hummus and fatoush greens. Each one demonstrates discernable fresh seasonal ingredients.

Owners Berj Yeretzian and Tania Rahal

Salads come in all colors, too— textured with lentils or quinoa; colored with cucumbers, tomatoes, or kale; made fresh with sumac dressing or apple cider vinaigrette. 

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Entrees are an amalgamation of a vegetarian paradise and Mediterranean flare that is far from intimidating, but still includes the aromas and flavors of another world. The saffron- scented Moroccan tagine attracts regulars because of its robust warm spices with hints of sweetness supported by delicate butternut squash and zucchini and hearty chickpeas served on couscous.  A truffled summer garden fettuccini is perfect for the scalding summer temperatures, as it remains fresh with earthy grilled asparagus and fatty pine nuts, while the radicchio adds a bitterness balanced by the bursting sweet summer corn. The thick flakes of Sartori Parmesan binds the pasta dish together; its salt brings out the sensuous truffle butter. Other entrees include Turkish braised eggplant ragout, family recipe falafel, five-cheese mushroom lasagna, potato kibbeh, and a Provençal frittata.

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No summer meal is complete without dessert. Abborio rice pudding is laced with spicy cinnamon, bourbon vanilla beans, and the distinct flavor of almond milk, just sweet enough, while the dark chocolate pudding speaks to mature decadence.  The warm chocolate cake is a dessert in between, still luxurious with cocoa powder and 70% dark Valrhona chocolate, but made playful with sweetened strawberries and light whipped cream.

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The restaurant offers a mission-based curated beverage list, including sustainable, small batch production Mediterranean wines; delicate and refined wine cocktails; select draft and bottled beers; coffee by Coffee Labs, a small-batch, local independent roaster in Tarrytown, NY; hot chocolate by Valrhona; and organic teas by Serendipitea.

Rosemary and Vine came together through the vision of owners Berj Yeretzian and Tania Rahal, to bring a taste of their native home to their new home in Rye, New York, culminating in a beer and wine bar offering delicious Mediterranean, vegetarian fare. The eatery has transformed through the sincerity of its clientele, but its constant has remained: honest food.

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7.19.16

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MangiaMore: free-form PEAR tart

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RER 10.27.14

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It’s fall. And things are falling— temperatures, leaves, and pears. There is a pear tree near my boyfriend’s house, so in recent weeks he had accumulated a fair number of freshly fallen or plucked pears. Before long, we had more than we really knew what to do with, so we decided one free Monday, we would make a free-form pear tart.

Neither of us had any free-form tart experience other than gazing at all the beautiful fall galettes on Instagram, featuring perfect spirals of fruit and just browned edges. So this was an experiment.

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Experiments in my mind involve mixing, and as usual, we combined recipes in search of a delectable result. To make the crust, we took the base of this recipe as the ingredients were simple and readily available in the pantry. Our pear filling came from the Ellie Krieger’s Food Network Rustic Pear Tart guidelines. 

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In the end, our tart looked just like our fresh pears- organic and imperfect. It was like a kindergartener got its hands on shapes and playdough. We didn’t put care into arranging our fruit filling into a lovely pattern or fit the pear pieces into idyllic moments. It was simple, fast, and to be euphemistic, rustic.

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Despite its unpolished aesthetic, it was pretty tasty. The pears were just sweet enough, and still a little firm, holding up to the surprisingly buttery and flaky crust. It had hints of fall through cinnamon and brown sugar and made for a satisfying afternoon snack with warmed apple cider from Demarest Farms. #thisisfall

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10.27.14

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back to BASICS: ABC Kitchen

RER 10.6.13

Walking into ABC Kitchen was like stumbling into enchanted woods, dusted with white snow and pretty fairy lights. Or wandering into the refined interior of a farmhouse with white details, exposed bulbs and comfortable armchairs. They were washed over with rustic moments, modern elegance, and white. The space created a blurry white afterimage, fuzzy from satiety and fond moments.

They managed to sneak for an early dinner that Sunday, sans reservation but full of hope. Wishes were granted, white seats were taken at a white table, and farm fresh menus were studied. Dizzy with excitement and forgetting the time constraint, they ordered with big eyes.

 

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The housemade ricotta and fig market table starter was a dream, served with slightly charred grilled bread to bring mouths back to reality. The dense ricotta and syrupy fig compote felt like dessert, smooth and creamy, where the dark bread and drizzle of olive oil reintroduced the savory. Even the white of the cheese and the distressed brown of the figs echoed the decor.

 

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However, the crab toast with lemon aioli spoke to a different kind of sweetness. The crab was so fresh that it hardly tasted like crab, but just sweet and juicy meat, doused in a delicate but present acidic charm. The lumps were garlicky and bright as well, absorbed by thick dark toast.

 

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Even the raw diver scallops brought alive the beauty of fresh and organic elements, mimicking some of the tastes in the crab toast; the seafood, the citrus, the pleasure. The tart lemon and spicy chilies danced in the appetizer, and each thin slice of scallop induced new feelings.

 

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The squash blossom pizza was salty and tangy, bready and light. The cheese countered the acidic grape tomatoes, and the whole-wheat crust added balance. But the pretty farm-to-table blossoms were decorative and delicate, last of their season.

 

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Many of the mains featured fish, but the suckling pig entrée tempted with in season tiny white turnips and a sweet and spicy bacon marmalade. The dish was too rich and heavy in comparison. Even though the dark green leaves were left on the root vegetables, the dish lacked that light fresh appeal. Turnips have a heaviness, a starchy creaminess that perpetuated the decadence of the fatty pork. The bacon marmalade’s heat proved useful to cut the fat, but the gummy chunks of bacon were too large and superfluous.

 

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Dessert continued the downhill with the almond cake with poached pears that brought the meal to a standstill. The cake was light and crunchy with little sweet crystals that recall marzipan, but it was dry and the poached pears felt less fresh. The tangy housemade yogurt broke up the odd monotony, but was too savory for the limp dessert. The cinnamon and the pears were inharmonious, an unexpected clash when most of the meal was well orchestrated.

 

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The freshness that ABC Kitchen is known for sang in every dish, resonating in their mouths and minds. The drinks also felt clean like the very last light of summer and the new beginnings of fall. But fall was creeping into the menu, highlighting the newly available ingredients. The squash blossoms were vanishing, and concord grapes replaced by cherries and strawberries. The menu morphs as Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten focuses on the organic here-and-now at ABC Kitchen, only using relevant produce and seasonal gifts.

NOTE: Since this meal, the menu has changed. Some items are the same, while others have different produce elements, like the ricotta market table item, the pizza and the almond cake dessert.

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10.10.13

RER 10.6.13

photo op: sweetgreen NoMad

RER 7.24.13

The cult favorite from D.C. has finally made its way to the Big Apple, and it is the sweetlife. sweetgreen has landed in NoMad (North of Madison Square Park), and it is going to make a big impact, on the area, local farms, and its community. Check out my article on Miss A for more of the details, and sit back and take in the sweet view.

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Also, I would love if you would like the foodie ventures facebook page. We have over 100 likes, and I really appreciate the support. Let's keep sharing and growing!

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7.30.13

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