THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Brie & Bordeaux

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Brie & Bordeaux Restaurant Review:

Once a sliver of a shop selling a few cheeses, some wine, soups and sandwiches, Brie & Bordeaux has not only expanded the square footage it devotes to wine and cheese, it has blossomed to include a 30-seat restaurant. Done in a charming country-kitchen motif, the dining room is at it’s most alluring after dark, when many candles exert their influence. Even the display kitchen doesn’t infringe on the dining room’s intimacy; it merely emphasizes the casual, at-home feel of the place. Proprietor Alison Leber works the floor, along with wine steward Kevin Hobart and one server, which can mean the meal proceeds at a leisurely pace. Chef Chris Boehme’s lusty seasonal fare shows a touch of refinement. It deserves to be lingered over. Boehme sauces pork with a prune demi-glace; lamb with tart cranberry jus. Rabbit is particularly stunning: the pan-roasted, boned leg and loin are paired with sweet peppers and olives braised in sherry and a black olive polenta cake, all surrounded by vivid pimento purée. We often start with house-made pâté (duck liver with Bing cherries is a favorite) or soup (creamy mushroom in rabbit stock, if it’s fall; sweet corn in the summer). Cheeses are superb; the house selection is accompanied by brittle crocantini. For dessert we are often torn, but most recently we’ve been smitten by the delicate English toffee cake puddled in caramel sauce. The retail shop serves as the wine list. Browse among 500 bottles and carry your choice back through the wide archway to the bistro for a charge of $15 over the retail price. That policy offers great value, as does the $38 four-course, prix-fixe menu available on weekends.