A small space and big taste add up to top-notch dining in Benton Park
By Dave Lowry
What’s not to like about Niche? A sleek and intimate interior, with space shared by banquettes and tables, holds about 40 diners. Enormous front windows catch natural light, and well-placed lighting inside bathes the place in a welcoming glow after dark. The space is tucked into a corner of the Benton Park neighborhood, amid lovingly rehabbed Second Empire houses and shops that exude charm as surely as Matt Lauer oozes insincerity.
What’s not to like about the menu? It is a bit precious, with the “To Nosh On” and “On to Bigger Things” sort of headings instead of the “appetizers” and “main courses” that grown-ups use in dining, and it’s presented—in an apparent confusion of clunky and chic—on an awkward wooden clipboard, but the selections are absolutely worthy. Appetizers feature a chicken-liver terrine that should not be missed. We could taste onions and chicken stock, and even if the liver had been ground instead of chopped (as it should be for a good terrine), the kitchen did a great job of hiding it. This is a top-notch terrine, served with an orange-and-date compote. The cheese plate is an unusual choice for a starter course but one that works well here: a trio of soft, pungent cheeses with a juicy strawberry and nuts to complement the flavors. On our visit, one of the cheeses was a buttery triple-crème St. André, a cow’s-milk cheese that’ll make you forget the best Brie you ever ate. Order the cheese plate with the flatbread—square hunks of a pita-like bread lightly brushed with butter, a pleasant change of pace. (The olive tapenade that comes with the bread is salty and flavorful, the white-bean purée is chalky and bland.) As for other starters, the tastes of dill and chives unfold on the palate with every spoonful of a creamy chilled beet-and-buttermilk soup; we took the waiter’s advice and ordered a cup of it along with a tangy salad of field greens topped with a light Champagne vinaigrette.
Among the main courses, a bistro steak tasted like tenderloin, the surface nicely caramelized on the grill and the meat tender and juicy, seated in a shallow purple pool of a port and plum–reduction sauce and served with a dollop of finely whipped potatoes and a spray of buttery asparagus. Little knobs of gnocchi are laced with herbs and tossed with a tangle of meaty and delectable wild mushrooms, crisp English peas and delicate shards of truffle, then topped with a grinding of pecorino cheese. This dish is extremely successful, a mélange of disparate ingredients that work together without losing their own essential identities.
Arranged beautifully on a long rectangular platter, seared medallions of duck breast rest on a bed of faro. Faro, or wheat berries, has become a must-serve for many chefs. About the size of popcorn kernels, the grains add a slightly chewy texture to a dish. Here, mixed with fresh spinach, they are a worthy accompaniment to the duck, with its honey-sweet crispy skin and fragrant meat. A pork tenderloin is cut into similar medallions, the meat happily prepared to be just a little pink in the middle. (Lighten up; you are more likely to get rich from a Nigerian banking offer online than you are to suffer from any undercooked pork.) With a beer-reduction sauce and an apple-cider demi-glace, along with riced sweet potatoes and cabbage, this locally produced pork has become a signature dish at Niche.
Normally we react to the notion of a vegetable tart with about as much enthusiasm as we’d show for our cable service’s adding the Bollywood Channel. Here, however, the vegetables are cooked until just done, retaining all their texture, and caramelized onions and ricotta cheese add a satisfying character to the dish, brought together with a spritz of Champagne vinaigrette. The portion was huge and would make a good side dish to order for the table ($15). Niche is justly proud of its lamb shank; the meaty bone is slowly braised just to the point where further preparation would compromise the taste and mouth feel. It’s presented with polenta and a bramble of wild mushrooms ($20).
The menu has “Sides” that are recommended if you’re dining in a group. They’re generous servings of choices like a purée of potatoes drenched in olive oil or roasted vegetables, that change frequently. Note, too, that Niche features a three-course prix-fixe for $30 that must be one of the best dinner bargains in town.
A chocolate-ganache cake is one of several unusually good desserts, a luxurious fudgy sauce spilling from the center with the first forkful. The kitchen also enjoys trying out weird ice-cream flavors: Ovaltine and tea were available recently. The dollop of apricot sorbet that accompanied a brown-sugar cake was nearly as good as the cake, and that’s saying something; the cake was simultaneously airy and extravagantly rich with the taste of warm brown sugar.
Like our weekend in Ibiza with Salma Hayek, the wine list here is short and wonderful. Equal thought went into quality and price, a welcome approach. Nearly every bottle is in the $20-to-$30 range; none is a compromise. We tried a Zinfandel, the Hess Artezin ’04, which was wonderful, staining the tongue with cherries and raspberries. (Warning: That St. André on the cheese-platter will make any white wine taste like liquid pennies. Skip drinking wine with it or choose something like a Pinot Noir.)
So what’s not to like? Very little, but Niche does make a few gaffes: More money should have been spent on tableware than on the cauldron-size wineglasses. A cheese plate arrived without a knife and so did a steak, and sides meant for the entire table came without serving spoons. Before taking orders, waiters deliver an informed litany of the menu, including loving descriptions of the dessert offerings, and it seemed as if we were being rushed. Let us contemplate the meal before we consider its final course.
Service, on the other hand, manages to be friendly but not familiar. It can get a little slow as the place gets crowded, which it does almost every night. Diners at Niche were initially plagued in colder months
with blasts of frigid air that invaded each time the door opened, but the problem was solved last year with a glass propylaeum. And if the weather is at all amenable, the outside seating here is delightful. Benton Park is seeing the emergence of an urban renaissance. The presence of an establishment such as Niche is a significant factor in making this neighborhood a destination, either for an evening’s dining or as a place to call home.
Niche
Address: 1831 Sidney, 314-773-7755
Average Main Course: $18
Reservations: Only necessary on those days of the week ending in "y"
Dress: Like that smart cosmopolitan we all know you are
Bottom Line: A menu as delightful as it is compact, in a setting as enjoyable as it is urbane
