The culinary ménage à trois of Marc-Antoine, Joanne Gimenez, and chef Keith Becton has created an absolutely ravishing little cafe in the nether regions of Coconut Grove, one that displays all the warmth and unpretentiousness of a neighborhood restaurant and the culinary sophistication and attention to detail of a big-city eatery.
Actually it's better, as the Kiss presents its traditional and contemporary French bistro cuisine with the kind of passionate care and concern for your complete satisfaction not often seen in even our toniest dining emporiums. It's the difference between a lover's slow caress, gradually building to a breathless climax, and a hooker's quick BJ in the front seat of your SUV.
The Kiss slides into the site formerly occupied by a Peruvian restaurant, Ambrosia. It's an intimate space, nearly naked of all adornment, just a minuscule room with the kitchen and a pair of tables and a somewhat larger wood-planked dining area sheathed in awnings and bamboo "curtains." Furnishings are basic, silverware is mismatched; the most striking design statement is the skeins of Christmas tree lights that frame the patio. It's a great funky-sexy space.
Of course any seduction begins with foreplay, and the Kiss offers a variety of dishes to not only arouse your appetite, but to hammer-stomp it into submission. A leek tart is an almost square-mile bed of flaky puff pastry, topped with a lasciviously creamy stew of gently oniony lily, accompanied by a mesclun salad dressed with a tart vinaigrette.
The prosaically named "homemade terrine" is an entrée-size portion of not one, but two, pâtés — the first a slab of lusty, coarse-texture pork, the second a smaller rectangle of silken-texture duck, indecently rich and topped with a thin layer of quivering aspic. Both are terrific and arrive with more of that excellent mesclun salad and an areole of unctuous celery root remoulade.
Consummating your meal are main courses ranging from delicate and almost feminine to manly-man hearty. Lobster ravioli are made in-house too, plump half-moons of pasta folded over a decadent lobster force, napped with an intense bronze sauce that tastes like the essence of a thousand crustaceans reduced to a single tablespoon.
If you're lusting after a piece of meat, a fat New York steak crowned with a vinegary bordelaise sauce will fulfill all your carnivorous desires. Ordered medium-rare, it comes out almost blue in the French style, but is so tender and full of flavor its carpacciolike character is hugely satisfying. Arriving with it is yet another salad and a heap of thin, crisp, greaseless frites.
The wine list here is more a French peck on the cheek than a full-throated kiss. It contains a dozen or so reds and whites, mostly rustic and inexpensive, including a wine feature of the day. On one visit this was a 2000 Chateau de la Roulerie, a simple but serviceable red from the Loire with an equally modest price tag of $25.
No climax could be better than the Kiss's white chocolate bread pudding, a cube of remarkably light and airy custard-bound bread, drizzled with white and dark chocolate sauces and dusted with powder sugar. It's unconscionably delicious; I want to sigh, lay back, and light a cigarette, which of course I can't do in these politically correct times. Still I'm sure when you're in the mood for a meal at French Kiss Terrasse, it will be as good for you as it was for me.
2779 Bird Ave, Coconut Grove; 305-529-0000. Open Monday through Thursday 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 to 11:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to midnight, Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6:00 to 10:30 p.m.
