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A fairy tale without the happy ending
[Times photos: Lara Cerri]
James Samson, left, Vinoy’s restaurant chef, and John Pivar, executive chef, have created distinct personalities for Marchand’s Grill, on the right, and the Terrace Room, left. |
By CHRIS SHERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 23, 2002
A castle as fine as the Vinoy deserves cuisine worthy of the setting. Maybe that's expecting too much.
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ST. PETERSBURG -- It has been 10 years since the Vinoy was restored to its former glory as the queen of the bayfront, and several corporate logos and downtown dreams have run up the flagpole since.
The gorgeous 1925 landmark remains a symbol of proud memories, ambitious goals and satisfying proof that visitors again come to sit on our front porch, have a gin and tonic and say, "This is beautiful."
It reassures us that while resorts have moved to the beaches, the Mouse Trap that is this city is still an appealing part of Florida. (Cue Sally Field.)
That dream gives me pleasure, too. Driving up to a place this glamorous, the Renaissance Vinoy raises expectations and whets the appetite. While I root for independent restaurateurs, I know that big hotels, with their grand history, large staffs and big kitchens, have again taken their place as sources of grand food. In Florida, out-of-town hotel chains set new standards that few locals reached. Consider the arrival of Hyatt Westshore in Tampa in the 1980s or the Ritz-Carltons around Florida.
Featured on the salad menu at Marchand’s is the Tomato Mozzarella Tower, with basil, lahvosh and balsamic reduction.
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I hoped that the Vinoy would do the same for downtown St. Petersburg, which for all its recent growth, still needs culinary leadership. It also needs customers for the same. Even at this hotel, the diners tend to be genteel locals and conventioneers of the sober sort, the kind who did the study questions at the end of each chapter.
The Vinoy has not yet provided the exciting cuisine to change that; the dining room rating needs stars to match the hotel's rating. However, the hotel installed a new culinary team last year and is in the midst of a $4-million restoration to celebrate the anniversary of its grand reopening this August. The interior has been touched up (I'd like to see the coral and teal colors toned down and less mythological furniture) but it's still one of the loveliest places for big functions or intimate drinks.
Dinner's a different matter. Walk down those old tile floors in the beamed corridors and you're entitled to think you'll eat in a special place.
Make the right picks at the Vinoy and you just might. The choices have been confusing, but are less so now. The main dining room has two sides, the casually urbane Marchand's Grill on one side and the crisply formal Terrace Room on the other, plus Alfresco by the pool.
Best bet is first thing in the morning. You expect breakfast in a grand hotel to be good and the Vinoy's is not as expensive as you might fear. In the Terrace Room, breakfast of fresh juice, perfect coffee, eggs and chicken apple sausage requires a ten spot, but I've seen hotels charge more for less. For a little more you can indulge in double-poached eggs over a lobster/homefry hash lushly gilded with sauce choron. Maybe the most expensive eggs in town, certainly the best.
Likewise, the Vinoy's Sunday brunch commands top dollar and justifies it. At brunch, chefs set out the finery they might for an expense-unlimited catering budget.
At other meals, the hotel has refined the distinction between the dining room's two sides and two menus and made the split personality clearer than before. Both are contemporary but the Terrace Room has Asian and Caribbean accents while Marchand's is more Italian and Mediterranean.
From Marchand's new menu, for instance, I had a handsome bowl of shrimp and clam and fettucine with a dollop of mascarpone, not classically Italian yet quite tasty (but not needing more cheese as my server offered).
Soups met the test for classical skill: veal consomme was as thick as a demi glace, and roasted eggplant both creamy and robust (although the garnish of fried basil leaf wilted).
Preserved lemons, one of the secret tricks of the Mideast, punched up a baby green salad; another combined arugula, fennel and goat cheese with vitality.
Yellowtail followed a French theme, topped with a compound tomato butter and sitting on white beans and olives. It was termed a "Mediterranean cassoulet," bizarre but hearty beanstuff nonetheless and a sign of creative thinking.
Alfresco sticks to modern Florida: poolside setting, hot sun and faux Caribbean munchies. Crispy fritters of corn and sweet potatoes or spicy grouper on black bean salsa are crisply executed.
There are also bad turns, often in basics. While service in Marchand's is white-jacketed, well-informed and on its toes, the good stuff at Alfresco always comes with frazzled service; kitchen and servers have been swamped on every visit.
The bakery, which can be a hotel's great strength, failed with limp croissants at breakfast, dull breads at meals (only two choices), a boring pizza crust, flat bread for appetizers and desserts you don't feel compelled to finish (best choice is chocolate tiramisu.)
Beverage service was lackluster: the bar stocks almost no sherry, the best rum was Myer's, and the wine list carries no vintages (our server made good guesses and a 1999 J. Lohr cab was fine for $30).
A few new Italian items didn't work. Grilled vegetable bruschetta was a hard-to-eat affair of bread topped with thick slices of squash. Browned gnocchi was too heavy, the sauce greasy and the arugula and wild mushrooms indistinct. And a tomato mozzarella tower, which I ordered only after warning the server that I'm a pain on this issue, turned out to have tomatoes that were carefully peeled but still soft and soggy.
Other dishes fell smack in the middle. The osso buco on a yellow risotto, which looked so good (and so huge from afar), turned out to be massive but a bit undercooked and in a sauce of more oil than red wine.
Asparagus ravioli with tomato coulis and creme fraiche revealed none of the promised hint of truffle, more like pasta and asparagus spears tossed with an unfinished sauce (prosciutto and good olive oil would be better). A special of grouper with Cajun oysters, which must have migrated from one of the less Italian menus, turned out swimmingly, only the Hollandaise indicated it sat under the heat lamp too long.
Call them pretty good, but not great. That's too bad, but I'm happy to report that at least one manager realized that. Asked how our meal was, we said okay, good.
He conceded that was not the answer he wanted. It would have been nice if he had comp'd the dessert or taken the veal off the bill, but at least he noticed.
Pretty good is just not good enough. If I demand too much when I eat downtown, it is because I hope against the odds for a culinary showcase; if the Vinoy cannot be great, who can?
This Rococco pastel castle is the pride of the shoreline; its cooking should be too.
Marchand's Grill, The Terrace Room, Alfresco
- Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club
- 501 Fifth Ave. NE
- St. Petersburg
- (727) 894-1000
- Hours: Terrace Room, breakfast, 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. daily; lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m, Monday through Saturday; dinner 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; brunch, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.
- Marchand's Grille, lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday; dinner, 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
- Alfresco: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
- Reservations: Suggested
- Credit cards: All major
- Prices: Lunch, $8.50 to $16.50; dinner, $13.75 to $25.
- Details: Full bar, nonsmoking sections, good wheelchair access.
- Special features: Outdoor seating at Alfresco's
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