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| - (Shortened; full review on Heirloom's FB)
I'm only giving this place 4 stars because I know it's striving for absolute perfection, so the loss of a star is just to indicate room for improvement. For all other intents and purposes, this place is definitely a 5-star kind of joint and you should DEFINITELY visit.
Why it's NOT perfect:
- Some of the dishes were tooo oily. The salad had way more oil than vinegar in the vinaigrette.
- The broccoli gnocchi suffered from the over-oiled problem, too. And it was just not a very well-conceived dish in general. The texture of the gnocchi was exquisite and the trout-chovy and local cheese was appreciated, but it's all hidden beneath the oppressive flavor of the broccoli.
- I love bread and herbed oil to start off a meal, but a bread basket would be better (instead of a meager single slice), especially if it was an endless one for those who can only afford to indulge in 3 or 5 courses.
- In the broccoli soup, the garnish of popcorn and chervil were cute and looked great, but didn't really add anything besides aesthetics to the dish. Wasn't sure how I was supposed to eat it.
- The space seems a little too wide open. Makes for kind of stark feeling instead of the warm coziness their decor seems to be going for.
Why it's EXCEEDINGLY AWESOME:
+ Pretty much every ingredient is locally sourced, whether it be from a local farm, foraged, or from a small business. We're even talking about the salt and pepper, guys. Insanely ambitiously awesome.
+ Cool, unusual ingredients. Chicken of the woods mushrooms. Chocolate mint. Blue corn. And not only that, but...
+ Creative, thoughtful use of ingredients. Perfectly cooked and crunchy beet matchsticks in the salad with a somewhat bitter foraged black walnut matched with a pungent cheese. It just works!
+ Perfectly cooked ingredients. The soft boiled egg. The gooeyness of the gnocchi. The seared monkfish. The duck falling off the bone. The crunch of the brussels sprouts leaves. The crisp on the rice waffle. Per-fec-tion.
+ Presentation. Every dish looks like a million bucks.
+ The portion size. Not too much, not too little, when you're considering the meal as a whole. For an exciting culinary adventure, get 5+ courses, 7+ if you want to feel full.
+ Dishes: 1) Caviar w/ rice flour waffle, watercress creme fraiche. Fun, beautifully presented, each component tastes delicious and it's absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS all together. 2) Duck Confit w/ blue corn grits, brussels sprouts leaves. We took pictures of all our dishes and we didn't get a picture of this one because it was GONE before we could snap it. Something about the roastiness of the duck going into the creamy grits and the crunch of the brussels sprouts leaves was just so gobble-worthy. 3) Monkfish w/ espelette broth, shaved fennel, pea shoots, gremolata sauce. WOW. I don't even know how all these ingredients came together to be so damn delicious, but it did. What a balance. The flavor of the crunchy fennel wasn't too powerful, the char on the fish gave it so much flavor, the broth had an acid kick to it and all together it just WORKED. All at the right temperature, at the right texture, outstanding.
+ Dessert was also complex: the fruit salad (strawberry, citrus, chocolate mint) was the highlight to the rooftop honey rye cake we got.
+ Can't forget the BEES! What's more local than taking the honey from your rooftop and drizzling it on your dessert?!
+ Service was super knowledgeable, friendly, generally well-paced, out of your face. Although with the nature of the size and number of the dishes, you will see a lot of your servers, and they have things to say about the dish, so your flow of conversation might be interrupted.
About the cost: I hate paying a lot for food. Indeed, my 5-star reviews are reserved for restaurants that make excellent food I can't duplicate at home AND are a steal to eat at. So Heirloom's got the former requirement, for sure. Also, I feel better about paying $$$ when the restaurant is socially conscious. Heirloom's got bees on its roof, it goes local to an almost absurd extent. Check there. I also don't mind patronizing the arts. There is definitely artistry to these dishes. So point there. I mean, think about it--Chef Barlowe makes dishes out of NC-sourced ingredients and the menu is different every day. The kitchen's at the mercy of what's available, and since your menu's changing every day, you've got to train your line cooks to cook the new dishes AND teach your servers how to present it. Every. Day. That's a lot of work. I've been to a few restaurants at this price point that hardly does what Heirloom does daily. So in a way, it's kind of steal to get this kind of quality and effort at this price. Sure, it cuts off a lot of people in the community from dining here, but it's also doing the community a service to a certain extent. So it's a price I'm willing to pay, and even though I can only afford it for special occasions, I'll definitely be back.
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