The Progress

photo - Yelp, Andrew H.

The Progress, Dinner, Fillmore
May 5, 2016

P&J:
A few things for the table:
roasted brooks cherries with almond cream
buttermilk biscuit with apple bourbon black butter
ginger-chickpea hummus on seven pepper cracker
lettuce hearts with smoked paprika tonnato
tofu with sunflower seed pesto

Courses:
taylor bay scallop with white ponzu (add-on)
BN Ranch beef tartare - smoked oyster-ramp aioli, kohlrabi & puffed rice
black cod "toast" - maitakes, buttery favas, fermented turnips & lemon oil
So-Cal swordfish - pistachio "crema", fennel-blood orange relish & flowering kale
lamb shank-flat noodle "stir fry" - seasoned with ground 7  pepper, wild ramps & snow peas
rhubarb compote with cornmeal crumble (add-on)

Cocktails:
Martini - vodka, vermouth, smoked castelvetrano olive juice, rosemary oil
Sunny Jim - gin, lemon, vanilla, pineapple, kaffir lime leaf, soda
Black Metal - lemon-verbena infused tequila, fino sherry, swedish punsch, strawberry, lemon, grapefruit bitters
Great Mana - mezcal, aged rum, banana, coconut, lime, bitters


Notes:
The Progress was the second planned restaurant visit during our friend's stay in town.  This is the sister restaurant to the joint next door called State Bird Provisions.  I've been wanting to go to State Bird forever, but it's (still) impossible to get a reservation, and we really don't like long waits, so we've just never gone.  And since we could get a reservation at The Progress, and since it seems to be equally well-loved, I thought it a win.

The other draw (for me) was the concept, it's different - think tasting menu served family style.  Diners are charged per person, 4 courses are served to the table on large plates (versus plated for each individual) and little bites start off the meal.  It's an interesting take if you ask me, and I was excited to give it a shot.

As we were brought into the restaurant, we're once again met with modern aesthetic so popular in restaurants today: the soaring ceilings, exposed concrete and steel.  But here, thin slats of raw wood lined an entire wall, warming the room and dampening some of the noise.  The dining room was a little crowded, though, we were at the table that always seemed to be in the way.  On the other hand, this didn't feel out of place; the restaurant had a casual, communal vibe, so what's the harm in making room for a few friends?  Except I don't like people.  Kidding!  I do like people.  I also like cocktails.

We started with a round; all of their cocktails sounded appealing, so we each ordered something different.  Mine was the winner - the Sunny Jim - tart, not too sweet, and refreshing.  But we were all off to a good start, frankly.  We sipped our drinks, the server handed us a pencil and a menu, and we went to town, marking off the items we wanted to have by filling in little bubbles next to each.  It was like a test you're happy to take.  Shortly thereafter, we were brought little snacks from the kitchen.  The winners for Patrick were the roasted brooks cherry (roasted just long enough to maintain its integrity, stem and all, but the flesh inside was warm, soft and juicy) and the buttermilk biscuits - he's a biscuit man, and these were proper - tender and buttery.  (But tiny!  One bite!)  I couldn't believe how good the hummus tasted; was it just the ginger that made the difference?  The little lettuce hearts with smoked paprika tonnato were delightful - cold and crispy lettuce with a dab of unctuous, savory sauce (tonnato is essentially a tuna mayonnaise).  The tofu didn't win any favor - it was good but on the bland side and came off as "healthy" more than anything else.  (Ptooey!  Nah, I thought it was fine.)

Next came the little bay scallops.  These were a joke; they were tiny (I mean, TINY) and the white ponzu only served to mask their flavor.  But, we soon forgot the letdown once the beef tartare came along, a truly lovely dish.  Curls of paper thin kohlrabi and a generous smattering of herbs were laid over a small dice of deep-burgundy colored beef, tossed with crisped grains of rice and the pungent, umami-heavy oyster-ramp aioli.  I could have eaten just this, and I would have been in heaven.  It was full of flavor, the textures were complimentary and playful, the seasoning was perfect, everything was in balance.  The black cod "toast" arrived next, another winner.  Large pieces of lightly seared, succulent cod were placed over thin rectangles of toasted house-made bread.   Tender fava beans, earthy maitake mushrooms, and piquant turnips were scattered across the top; the pool of smoky, buttery, citrusy sauce soaked into the toasts and brought it all home.  This was a great dish, but this is where the excitement ended.

The flat noodle "stir fry" was more redolent of an Italian dish than the Asian-influence suggested by the menu.  (I'm not sure they know how to use air quotes.)  The noodles were a wide-cut fresh pasta and rested on the plate in a tangled lump.  The lamb was seasoned nicely, but so meager in proportion it was hard to get a proper taste, and the garnish of cucumber spears, sharp with vinegar, were a distraction.  This dish had potential, but it wasn't executed very well.  Finally, the swordfish; this was the most disappointing for me.  The swordfish was a thin, bordering on overcooked.  The pistachio "crema" (there are those air quotes again) at the base of the plate had little to no discernible pistachio flavor.  The "fennel-blood orange relish" (please note the proper use of air quotes, here) was actually just slices of fennel and blood orange, and the flowering kale was little more than pretty.  That's all this dish was - pretty.  And that's if you like deliberately plated food, where the plate is the blank canvas, the food is the artist's medium, and tweezers are involved.  I'm being overly dramatic; maybe they didn't use tweezers.

Dessert could turn this all around, right?  Well, no.  Dessert is not part of the deal, it's an additional charge.   But I was looking to end the meal on a positive note, so I pushed for it. There were three choices offered, and none really grabbed us, so we asked the server to choose for us.  He wouldn't tell us which he'd picked, but when he set forks on the table, it became clear, we were not getting either of the ice cream desserts.  Because who (willingly) eats ice cream with a fork?  No one, ever, and that's a fact.  Nevertheless, our dessert was sad and disappointing: cooked until just soft rhubarb with rock hard crumbles of cornmeal cookie and the tiniest dollop of fresh whipped cream.  In an effort to let the rhubarb sing, they forgot to add (enough) sugar; it was entirely too tart.  The crumble served as an example of why people don't like cornmeal (and I am not one of those people); it was like eating gravel.  Sadly, the best part was the thimbleful of cream.


I don't know that we'd go back.  It was a lovely restaurant with an interesting concept, but only half of what we ate was worth raving about and the total bill was outrageous.  I'm still not sure how everything added up to be so expensive, but it did.  We are happy to pay (very well) for good food, but this just wasn't that good, and we left pretty disappointed.