Inconsistency and service problems undermine Restaurant Aleksandar s upscale intrigue HEAD TOPICS

Inconsistency and service problems undermine Restaurant Aleksandar s upscale intrigue

10/21/2022 2:22:00 PM

Daily News Inconsistency and service problems undermine Restaurant Aleksandar s upscale intrigue

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Philly Daily News

Daily News Inconsistency and service problems undermine Restaurant Aleksandar s upscale intrigue The promising concept near Rittenhouse Square is helmed by owner Aleksandar Stojnic and executive chef Montana Houston. —My previous visit to this shiny new addition to Rittenhouse Square, an upscale destination in the space vacated by V Street, had delivered a meal that surpassed my expectations for a group of owners and chefs who have little leadership experience between them. Perched at a cozy round table near the front window, a relatively quiet corner in this buzzy narrow space, I dove into fresh pierogis filled with smoked cheddar and potatoes dusted with fresh horseradish. A lamb shank practically melted off the bone into creamy polenta after a 14-hour braise. Duck confit served over spaetzle in sour cherry jus. A fine N.Y. strip with gorgonzola potato croquettes was glossed in a dark sauce spiked with Serbian brandy. Read more:
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Updated 40 minutes ago Things at Restaurant Aleksandar had been going fairly well.What's new or coming soon to Jacksonville's Beaches and Intracoastal neighborhoods Another standout was the yellowtail jalapeno carpaccio ($17).Polls Show Republican Attacks on Teaching Racism Are Backfiring In one of its first moves after taking power Tuesday, Sweden’s newly elected right-wing government scrapped the country’s environment ministry, drawing outrage from opposition lawmakers who say the step threatens to undermine the nation’s chances of meeting its climate targets.He also allegedly yelled at a server over an issue with his wife's food. But then we came for a revisit to try the ambitious new fall menu, and my confidence quickly unraveled as our middle dishes were somehow delayed until after the entrées and then — rush! rush! rush! — everything was delivered to our crowded table at once. This multi-course meal was mashed into total confusion. We also shared the sashimi tuna crudo ($18) adorned with crispy onions, avocado mousse and wasabi soy. My previous visit to this shiny new addition to Rittenhouse Square, an upscale destination in the space vacated by V Street, had delivered a meal that surpassed my expectations for a group of owners and chefs who have little leadership experience between them. Pär Holmgren, a Swedish meteorologist and member of the European Parliament, also expressed outrage on Twitter. Perched at a cozy round table near the front window, a relatively quiet corner in this buzzy narrow space, I dove into fresh pierogis filled with smoked cheddar and potatoes dusted with fresh horseradish. Recommended by our server was the ‘blazing saddles’ ($18) makimono. A lamb shank practically melted off the bone into creamy polenta after a 14-hour braise. "That's when James Corden began yelling like crazy to the server," the report claims,"'You can't do your job! You can't do your job! Maybe I should go into the kitchen and cook the omelette myself!'" The dish was then fixed again, and a manager gave Corden and Carey free champagne. Duck confit served over spaetzle in sour cherry jus. It was a treat, and paired harmoniously with tempura shrimp, avocado, cilantro aioli, crispy onions and a sweet soy sauce. — Pär Holmgren (@ParHolmgren) October 18, 2022 Following the change announced by right-wing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, new environment minister Romina Pourmokhtari will work under the minister for energy, business, and industry, Ebba Busch. A fine N.Y. Enter the ‘firecracker’ ($16) roll. strip with gorgonzola potato croquettes was glossed in a dark sauce spiked with Serbian brandy. Bloomberg reported Tuesday that “Kristersson’s government is heavily dependent on the nationalist Sweden Democrats, the only party in parliament that doesn’t back the country’s target of having net zero emissions by 2045. The vivid green vegan cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and mushrooms with tamarind and soy glaze offered a delicious window into the intriguing collaborations possible at Aleksandar between its two creative forces. Complete with spicy salmon, avocado, cucumber and sweet soy, we couldn’t get enough of this unique roll. Having [expletive] up myself more than most people, I strongly believe in second chances," McNally wrote. They evoked the modern twist on Slavic accents that operator Aleksandar Stojnic had hoped to showcase with his debut restaurant’s menu, with nods also to the eggrolls chef Montana Houston grew up eating with his dad in South Jersey. A large whole branzino dramatically posed in tempura crust as if it had swum right into the deep-fryer, a spectacular centerpiece draped with charred broccolini with fiery chili sauce. Cucumber and avocado round this roll out.” Kristersson is also pushing for an expansion of nuclear power, aiming to reverse to dismantle the country’s reactors. Dishes like these caught my attention in late September once the opening menu had settled into a practiced groove. Stojnic, 31, a German of Serbian descent who moved to Philly eight years ago, is the vision behind this operation. Perhaps the least memorable of the bunch was the ‘rising sun’ ($15) roll: crab, avocado and cucumber meet raw salmon topped with sliced lemon. He worked his way up from a busser position to food runner and expediter at Brauhaus Schmitz, but has little restaurant management background. Others posited that he was only apologizing because the post about the ban had gone viral—the initial post has over 30K likes. He’s relying here mostly on childhood experiences at his family’s Italian restaurant back in Bremen, as well as the support of his wife, Monika Maj, and her father, developer Marek Maj, who owns the space. This adds a soy glaze to the offering and then it's torched, giving a distinct flavor. They put plenty of DIY effort into the makeover of the room, from carpentry to the distressed mirror, and benefitted from the colorful original art painted by Stojnic’s mom, Svetlana Alimpijevic. He’s found an intriguing talent in Camden-born executive chef Houston, 26, who was inspired early on by his grandmother Beverly (”We call her Dutchess”), and has since risen fast through the restaurant ranks. I love a cloudy sake, and went with the snow maiden nigori ($9 for 4 oz. After starting out at Jordan Johnson’s in Northeast Philly, he worked at Brick Farm Tavern in Hopewell, Restaurant Daniel and Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan (where he made uni foam and pine needle dust), Medford’s Braddock’s Tavern. With another young cook by his side in sous-chef in Ja’mir Wimberly-Cole, who, at 22, has already spent time at Per Se and the Fitler Club, this duo consistently produced beautifully plated dishes built around quality ingredients. Creamy, with notes of honeydew melon, this Junmai nigori complimented our appetizers nicely. But the inexperience on all sides is apparent, particularly in the transition between summer and fall menus, with hardly a carryover dish and a format makeover from a three-course a la carte offering to a pricier multi-section menu with an option for a $95 five-course tasting. Aleksandar’s dining room staff was friendly enough, but, having thoroughly fumbled our straightforward request for a few a la carte dishes, does not seem up to choreographing a five-course tasting. This popular cocktail provides a sweet heat from a marriage of vibrant yellow-orange passionfruit puree (sweet) and habanero syrup (heat). By October, the cocktail menu was out of sync with the seasons, still lingering on white spirits. And what did arrive was shaky. Overall, the food quality was excellent but the service was just okay. A Clover Club with beet syrup and raspberry was so bitter and sour I could not drink it. Try a rarely seen Zilovka from Bosnia-Herzegovina instead, a beautiful white that’s more on theme. If nothing else for two orders of those otoro spoons! O-Ku Jacksonville Beach 502 1st St. Menu evolution is to be expected. But I question the wisdom of completely replacing a menu that had already earned this two-month-old restaurant some early fans., Jacksonville Beach 904-694-2770. That short rib pasta dish? Gone. “We want to push boundaries,” Stojnic says. “But even our PR guy was upset.” The new menu has increased entree prices into the mid-$30s, and that short rib has reappeared in whole chunks braised with root beer over vanilla-scented mashed potatoes, a tribute to the Weber’s Drive-Ins of Houston’s and Wimberly-Cole’s South Jersey childhoods. It was sweet, but also tasty enough — until I tried to bite through a pale undercooked onion ring whose gluten-free corn starch batter was as impenetrable as plaster of paris. Houston and his creative crew want to grow quickly. But change as a reflex isn’t smart when your team can’t yet execute the plan. The fall menu shows plenty of cracks, in its increasing drift away from the restaurant’s early Eastern European-rooted identity towards a generic modern American do-anything-you-want template, in misleading menu descriptions and dishes that simply need more work. The pierogi took a wrong turn into a Philly bar cliché by stuffing the dumplings with cheesesteak fixings. I’m usually OK with selling bread separately when the bread is good. But $12 is too much for the doughy, pale little Parker House rolls that arrived looking nothing like the brioche signaled on the menu. The “wild mushroom risotto” was confusing, too, because it appeared to be a squash risotto topped with a single roasted maitake. Turns out it was made with mushroom broth, but why then disguise it with squash puree? There is already a very good pumpkin soup garnished with chamomile oil and crispy parsnip chips to rep the Jack O’ Lantern orange fall mood. I want to taste the forest when I order mushroom risotto. The fact that risotto was still delicious reaffirms this kitchen has talent. But a more disciplined vision for its identity is essential. Several dishes here are vegan, a proper nod to this space’s history as V Street. But some, like the carrots in curry over coconut jasmine rice with baba ghanoush and chili crisp, seemed completely random. There are some Louisiana references, too, like the head-on prawns with étouffée sauce, but over saffron basmati (an odd pairing for this Cajun-Creole dish) and with sauce was so scant I could hardly find it. There were some positives in our second meal, like the tea-brined chicken with potato gratin and an Urfa pepper butter sauce. The seared halibut was a more manageable alternative to the 86′d whole fish, which apparently was too bothersome for some in the Rittenhouse crowd to debone, not to mention bad for Aleksandar’s food cost. I enjoyed that halibut in chowdery, buttered leeks with little necks, fingerlings and truffles. With desserts, however, the stumbles continued, with beautiful plates undermined by key details. The gorgeously decorated chocolate mousse would have been perfect if the mousse itself not been seized and grainy. The gluten-free carrot cake had potential, too, but that chef’s trick of adding a pinch of salt to heighten sweetness backfired when a heavy hand turned the garnishes into a salt lick. Add this dessert disappointment to the service mistakes that disrupted the flow of this expensive and imperfect meal, which approached $100 per person with drinks and tips, and you’d think someone might have paused to consider an opportunity to offer a simple gesture of apology. But not a peep. No one at Aleksandar was really paying attention. Restaurant Aleksandar .