by Robb Walsh
Milieu
314 Congress Avenue, 472-1021 Lunch Monday-Friday, 11am-2pm Dinner Monday-Saturday, 6-10pm Beer and chocolate pudding sounds like one of those
3am-standing-in-front-of-the-refrigerator-after-a-long-night-at-Antone’s
combinations. But my waiter insisted I try the chef’s chocolate cr�me
brul�e accompanied by a Belgian beer called Liefmans Frambozen, a brown
ale made with fresh raspberries and raspberry juice.
The cr�me brul�e arrived topped with crunchy caramel, whipped
cream, and a fresh raspberry. The Belgian ale arrived wrapped in fancy paper
like a Christmas present. Dark and slightly sweet, the beer had an enormous
raspberry bouquet. The combination of dense French chocolate and dark, fizzy
berry beer was absolutely outrageous.
On the basis of this innovative pairing of beer and food alone, I would be
willing to argue that Milieu on Congress Avenue is one of the most
sophisticated new restaurants in the city. But given the consistent quality of
every entr�e I’ve tried there, I don’t have to go out on such a limb.
Milieu would be one of the most sophisticated new restaurants in the city even
if they didn’t serve beer with cr�me brul�e.
The short list of beer and wine selections in this little 13-table restaurant
are inspired and eccentric. They are obviously somebody’s personal favorites
and each is described in detail with recommended pairings from the menu.
The other night, my cr�me brul�e was preceded by a huge
oven-roasted veal chop served on grilled tomatoes with apple-smoked bacon and a
morel mushroom sauce, listed at $22.75. The perfectly cooked thick chop must
have weighed at least 12 ounces; the liquid the dried morels had soaked in
supplied the sauce for the dish. My biggest problem with this outstanding
combination was trying to figure out how to get enough veal chop, tomato,
bacon, and mushroom all on the same fork.
Having noticed the interesting beer list first off, I had asked the waiter
which he would recommend with my entr�e. Nearly every other waiter I
have ever queried on the subject of pairing upscale food and fine beer has
suggested that I drink wine instead. This tendency can be traced to a
combination of ignorance and economics that is rarely the waiter’s fault.
Famous food and wine pairings like Sancerre with fish, Sauternes with foie
gras and Champagne with caviar are well known the world over; a good wine
salesman uses these pairings when he calls on the wine buyer at a restaurant.
But ask a beer salesman what pairing he prefers with his favorite ale and he’s
most likely to respond “pretzels.” The American beer revolution has taught us
about dozens of new styles of brews, but unfortunately it has given us very
little idea of what to do with them besides wash down pizza.
Meanwhile, the conventional wisdom of the restaurant industry dictates that a
waiter try to sell us some good wine to increase the ticket and hence his tip.
With little information about beer and food pairings available and economics
breathing down his neck, it’s easy to understand why the average waiter would
rather change the subject than talk beer.
The waiter at Milieu fielded my question with ease. He recommended a Boont
Amber from Anderson Valley Brewing Company as the perfect beer for my veal
chop. It was hoppy enough to stand up to the bacon and mushrooms, but not so
dark as to overwhelm the delicate flavor of the veal. I was delighted with the
beer, although for a moment beforehand, I ungraciously suspected that perhaps
the waiter was one of those beer geeks who takes the other extreme,
recommending beer with everything. I was proved wrong when he assisted my
dining companion in finding the right beverage for the polenta with goat
cheese, shaved truffles, and perfectly grilled summer squash and green beans.
He recommended a crisp and lemony Chardonnay.
The wine and creamy pan-seared polenta were delicious together, although the
truffles were nothing special. Truffle season ends in March; the puny truffles
harvested in the summer have little aroma. Still, summer truffles are often
served in light French dishes and they were appropriate enough here. They
should probably be indentified as “summer truffles” on the menu, however, so
that nobody is misled into expecting the rich and earthy flavor of the real
thing.
Another entr�e on Milieu’s menu I would heartily recommend is the
saut�ed marinated breast of chicken with champagne vinegar reduction,
wild mushrooms and cream, $11.50. I was thinking of Brillat-Savarin’s famous
quote, “Poultry is to the chef what canvas is to the painter,” when I ordered
this dish. What I got was a blend of flavors as classically composed yet
innovatively rendered as a still life by C�zanne. Chicken, cream, and
mushrooms were the tried and true motif. And the tartness and vibrancy of the
champagne vinegar reduction was what transformed the familiar into something
unexpected. If you are bored with chicken dishes, go and let this one change
your mind.
Of the nine entr�es on the menu at Milieu, one is a fish dish which
changes daily and one is a New York strip served with mashed potatoes. I have
had at least a bite of the other four when I could persuade my fellow diners to
part with a sample and I have yet to be disappointed.
There were two appetizers available the last time I stopped in for dinner. I
tried the roasted red pepper stuffed with goat cheese and walnuts, topped with
pineapple chutney and fresh mint which sold for
$5.50. The roasted pepper
was mild and tender and the filling pleasant. The pineapple chutney was a nice
counterpoint in flavor and color, although the old and bruised condition of the
“fresh” mint ruined the presentation.
While the food and beverages may provide enough incentive to return to Milieu
again and again, it is the atmosphere that really sets the place apart from the
many new restaurants that have sprung up in Austin this summer. Milieu’s cozy
urban bistro ambiance is the polar opposite of the loud and frenzied atmosphere
of glitzy eateries where people go to see and be seen. There is a flower
arrangement in the center of the back bar that covers the name of a former
tenant, Gambrinus, which is still painted on the mirror. In fact, nothing much
has been done to the space since it was a Belgian beer bar. But the
old-fashioned shotgun architecture, the waiter with the balls to recommend beer
and chocolate pudding, and yes, even the flower-arrangement camouflage behind
the well-worn bar give Milieu an air of elegant eccentricity that Austinites
will find irresistible. n
This article appears in August 11 • 1995 and August 11 • 1995 (Cover).