Last night was the friends and family night for the much anticipated Mignonette in Edgewater. This restaurant brought to you from the two most huggable chaps (their preferred term) in the industry, Blue Collar's Danny Serfer and Miami Rankings' Ryan Roman, brings their signature charm.
You will get a chance to try out the food for yourself starting this Friday, but here are some dishes to get excited about. Here, we open up the oyster shell to a new restaurants filled with raw and Rockefeller oysters, brews, popcorn conch, Thanksgiving chicken, champagne, and everything else that straddles the line between "plain" and "fancy" -- the visual representation of this is the famed tuxedo shirts on servers.
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Before you dive into the menu, begin your meal with the House Aperitif ($18). It has a mix of champagne, Banyuls vinegar, candied shallots, and pink peppercorns. You get the bubbles with the acid, touch of sweetness and that surprise burst of pepper for a drink that sets the tone for a fun and unexpected night.
If you want to know what kind of oyster they have, check the marquee for the main attractions. A single oyster ($3) or a dozen ($30) are accompanied by the namesake mignonette. If you want to get fancy try the oysters Bienville or Rockefeller ($19).
From the apps section, the crab cake ($17) was a huge standout. Instead of measly little couple biters, there was one massive crab patty. It comes with red onion, bell pepper, scallions thrown in the mix and a delectable worcestershire butter.
A fun and pop-able section of the menu is popcorn ($14) where you can a rotation of golden fried clam, conch, shrimp and oysters. Last night, the conch was available and while it may have had more of a chicken finger shape it was still as finger lickin' and can't stop popping treat.
The legendary CBGB club may no longer be, but Mignonette has given it its own revival of sorts with a way to categorize the daily special of Chowder, Bisques and GumBo (get it?) Last night the gumbo brought the heat.
A fancy monk, may be an oxymoron -- like jumbo shrimp -- but the monkfish ($22) at Mignonette was placed on the fancy side of the menu with broccolini, lobster sauce and smoked trout roe. Other fancy items include caviar, seafood towers, prime rib and lobster rolls.
If you want a sweet end to your meal, there were lemon squares, butterscotch and Heath bar bread pudding and a to-die-for daily pies. Last night was a blueberry and mango masterpiece.
If you don't eat seafood or meat, Serfer serves his plethora of famed veggie sides $6 for one, or a plate of four for $19.
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