San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Chef Dan Moody (right) has learned a lesson about wine glasses.
- Photo by William Moody
Relate opened Feb. 3 and is around only until Feb. 26, so you don’t have much time to get in on this culinary experience. Moody’s taken over Encinitas breakfast / lunch / smoothie spot Bistro St. Germain and turned it into a highbrow, experimental dinner location. The fun of a pop-up restaurant, Moody says, is the freedom from having to answer to the vision of an owner or management group. From a dining perspective, the more adventurous food connoisseur will enjoy seeing and tasting how a chef develops a dish: experimenting with flavors and taking risks. Sometimes the risks don’t work, which is why this particular encounter isn’t for everyone. There’s no ordering off a menu, and you’re drinking either water or wine. Your five-course tasting menu is $55, and for an extra $20, you can have a small glass of wine paired with four of those courses.
The amuse bouche arrived in the form of what looked like a tater tot. Our server instructed us to pop the whole shebang into our mouths, and for good reason. After chomping down on the crispy breaded nugget, hot onion broth burst out of its shell, filling my mouth with a savory bite of French onion soup. The whimsical “soup” made me feel like Violet Beauregarde tasting Willy Wonka’s experimental chewing gum. All that was missing was the blueberry pie. It was a truly inspired bit of cooking.
The butter-poached lobster that came next was rich and tasty, with a sweet and wonderful fennel jam. It was topped with a warm egg-and-caviar salad, which was rich and sparkly, although my more timid companions were a little weirded-out by the warm egg puddled on the plate.
Moody has his whole family working at Relate, including his brother waiting tables and his mom working the front of the house. Mom was a bit worried about her son’s plan to serve rabbit cassoulet as one of the courses, but she shouldn’t fret. If you’ve avoided trying rabbit for fear of being judged by Thumper’s mother, this cassoulet is a perfect way to get your lucky feet wet.
The heartiest course was a buttery and nearly bloody piece of beef that was fork tender and amazing. The outside had a dry rub that was bordering on too spicy for a pre-fixe tasting menu, with flavors of chipotle and coffee. I could have eaten a plate of the crispy porcini spaetzle that accompanied the meat. The soft little potato twists are an item not seen often enough on most menus.
The biggest flaw was the painful slowness of the wine pairings. We were done with the first course before our first glass of wine arrived, and with each subsequent course there was a delay. I spoke with Moody a few days after our visit and he told me that among the lessons he’s learned while popping up a restaurant, one of the more important ones is: Buy enough wine glasses.
Food nerds will love the flying-by-the-ties-of-their-aprons feel of Relate and revel in both the mistakes and inspiration of a chef working out the beats. Diners who aren’t interested in the process, merely the final product, may not relate to the price.
Write to jennym@sdcitybeat.com and editor@sdcitybeat.com.
