| rev:text
| - We have always enjoyed Kevin Binkley's places, but this was our first time at his newly reformatted Binkley's in the previous Bink's Mid-town location. Kevin decided to scale back and focus on his passion, which is cooking, rather than multi-unit restaurant management.
The format of the new Binkley's is extremely personal with lots of interaction. The dining experience is played out in three distinct acts. The first act is on the front patio and involves a series of tastes (passed by Chef Binkley and others) along with beverages (more on this later). This where everyone gathers at the appointed dining time. There's a fireplace and a small kitchen garden. The second act is in the "parlor", including the bar and some adjacent tables. Plates get a little larger and beverages continue to flow. As each plate comes out, it is accompanied by an explanation of what it is and, often, the story behind it. The third act is in the "dining room" where the tables are oriented toward the open kitchen. By open kitchen, I mean completely open. Guest are invite to come in and watch or ask questions. The later courses and dessert happen in this act.
An endearing trait of Chef Binkley is his complete fascination with food combined with a desire to share the knowledge and experience with others. At the new Binkley's, guest come away with a superb meal and great service, but also they leave with some new thinking about food. He definitely spends as much time as he can talking about the food without shortchanging the actual production and serving of the food.
The food is delicious, interesting and carefully crafted. It consists of 22 courses set in advance (no choices, but you can tell them in advance of any allergies). In our case, this included: foie gras slider, tuna tartare, brown butter baby radishes, bacon donuts, trio of aged hams, date soup, chilled poached scallops, white truffle risotto, tangerine soda, slow cooked whey-fed pork shoulder, freezing mango soup, caramel apple and much more. All showed creativity and clever presentation. One of the simplest courses from a guest point of view is apparently one of the hardest from a restaurant point of view: a fresh brioche. They were brought to the table fresh from the oven and were absolutely outstanding. After sitting just 5 minutes, they were just good. That's just one example of the learning experience combined with the actual eating.
The restaurant only seats 24 people per seating (1 on Thursday and Sunday and 2 on Friday and Saturday, I think). It is fixed price and it is a ticket paid for in advance (we paid $160 per person plus 22% gratuity). If you don't show or are late, things continue without you.
Beverages may be purchased ala carte or as a pairing. We chose the pairing and this included a cocktail plus six or seven glasses of wine. The pairing is also purchased with the dining ticket.
It is one of the more unique dining options in the Valley and for anyone who has an interest in food: one not to be missed!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)