THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Saffron

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Saffron Restaurant Review:

Saffron is currently on the cusp. The stylish and spare enterprise started out as a wine bar with extravagant tapas and has slowly been morphing into quasi-café status with at least one major dish-of-the-day. We’ll reserve judgment on the main dishes for the moment; the wines and tapas we certainly have an opinion on---and that opinion is generally good. A flight of patés takes a term usually reserved for wines and turns it to its advantage as a wine companion. The patés may include duck, rabbit and chicken---varied enough to enjoy with a smoky Spaniard or a fruity Californian. Red wine, that is. A lamb cassoulet might pair nicely with a glass of sprightly Pinot Grigio, calamares with red peppers and onion could be hitched to a fruity albariño, and the cheese plates can go with white or red depending upon the selection. The Sweet Afterthoughts section offers such enticements as a Port cake and upscale chocolate by the ounce---perfect for proving the alleged red-wine-with-chocolate hypothesis. Or not. A Spanish blue cheese served with quince paste and toasted almonds will also work nicely as a dessert. A split of Dampierre Cuvée des Ambassadeurs NV could hardly be wrong as an accompaniment.