THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Notion

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Notion Restaurant Review:

Notion is small---just 38 seats---nonetheless, chef/owner Dave Racicot applies ambitious sophistication to every detail and dish. The décor is sleek but warm and welcoming, and very much Racicot’s personal expression---from the fine stemware and contemporary china to the ceramic bricks holding utensils at each setting. Bold red wall accents sharpen the sedate neutral color scheme. An open kitchen just inside the front door greets and engages diners. Service is efficiently coordinated. Racicot, intensely self-trained, has deft mastery of the lexicon of kitchen science. But his emphasis is on the diners’ enjoyment of flavors, not the delivering vehicle of technique. The seasonal, market-driven menu changes daily. Order à la carte or, better yet, select the seven-course tasting menu paired with wines. Here even broccoli becomes exciting in a mélange, variously prepared, with toasted barley, scalded milk froth and braised mustard seed. Feather-light gnocchi assume deep complexity when assembled with prosciutto, lychee spheres and grana padano cheese. Try hay-smoked lamb with roasted pine nuts, red cabbage and rosemary, or buttery short ribs, with caramelized onion, white beans, blue cheese and arugula. Desserts also surprise: milk chocolate joins almond ice cream, rosewater and brown butter cake; fine powders on the plate reconstitute in your mouth as white chocolate. Dishes always surpass the sums of their parts.