MADE L.V.
Cheesy Garlic Toast – Four cheeses
Bacon Cheddar Biscuits – Honey salt butter
Country House Pate – Pickles, fruit mostarda, grilled bread
Pimento Cheese – Saltines, pretzel chips, breakfast radishes
Smokey Bleu Cheese Fondue – Thick cut salt & pepper chips
Black Mission Figs – Balsamic roasted & fresh, goat cheese, pistachios, pomegranate, arugula
Baked Artichokes – Freekeh Stuffing, Parmesan, Lemon, Herbs, Garlic
Bacon & Eggs – Thick cut bacon, deviled egg, red onion jam, grilled multigrain
Breakfast Poutine – Two eggs, fries, turkey gravy, curds
Dirty Mac and Cheese – Burnt pork ends, four cheese, peas, Ritz Cracker crust
Butcher Style Chicken Wings – Hot smoked, flash fried, BBQ
Bag of Donut Holes – Cinnamon sugar dusted
Banana Pudding – Nilla wafers, whipped cream, salted caramel
Loaded S’Mores Nachos – Graham crackers, torched marshmallows, toasted walnuts, Oreo cookie crumbs, chocolate sauce, fluff cream
The newest addition to Tivoli Village, MADE LV fills the seemingly cursed spot formerly inhabited by Bradley Ogden’s Hops & Harvest and featuring the culinary talents of Kim Canteenwalla it was to a wide sampling of the restaurant’s nouveau-American menu that I sat down with eight friends on Saturday afternoon, the results a resounding success as fourteen plates delivered in five courses arrived to nearly universal praise. Offering a relaxed environment with touchtunes playing at a modest levels beneath a bistronomic tin-style ceiling as the Little League World Series showed on a pair of LCDs it was at a large banquette that our party was sat and with the open atrium bathed in sunlight our meal began quickly, the service spot-on throughout our two hour stay with several visits from the Chef himself assuring all was well. Speaking next to the quality of the food it can only be said that while perhaps ‘simple’ by some standards the execution of nearly every dish of the afternoon was nothing short of exemplary and with much of our order trending towards the menu’s heavier offerings it was perhaps unsurprising that flavors presented with aplomb, the cheddar biscuits a full-frontal savory assault finding levity in the creamy house blended butter while both the pimento cheese and rich fondue arrived in plethoric portions with extra chips and crackers offered compliments of the house. Moving next to things more complicated the very few faults of the meal were found in early-season figs that had not yet found maximum sweetness and fries that trended slightly less crisp than savory toppings would afford but with deviled eggs set aside crisp bacon soon followed by reference standard mac n’ cheese plus juicy wings rife with smoke beneath intensely crisp skin one would be hard pressed to complain – a trio of All-American sweets every bit on par with the savories finally rounding out a meal that more that lived up to the restaurant’s promise of “good food, good drinks, and good company” from beginning to end.
FOUR STARS: With only the heavy handed poutine’s somewhat limp fries and less-than-perfect figs proving anything short of exemplary it would be difficult to say MADE LV is anything less than excellent considering it has been open for less than one week. Generally giving restaurants time to find their footing, particularly with regard to service, those leery of visiting should take solace in the fact that the team is already very well trained and although one cannot be sure Chef Kim will always be present given the fact that he is pulling double (and soon to be triple) duty with Honey Salt it is clear that this is a project very important to him and one in which he and partner Elizabeth Blau are willing to invest; one can only hope that the locals (and location) will return the favor.
RECOMMENDED: Bacon Cheddar Biscuits, Country House Pate, Pimento Cheese, Smokey Bleu Cheese Fondue, Bacon & Eggs, Banana Pudding, S’mores Nachos
AVOID: While certainly not ‘bad’ the Figs were nowhere near as large or plump as some and largely lacking in sweetness while the reinterpreted poutine suffered from fries that were simply too limp to stand up to the substantial gravy and perfectly poached eggs.
TIP: With most plates served in sharing portions from open to close while ribs and chicken are relegated to dinner only one is best served to inquire about portion sizes with the staff – the bacon and eggs, for instance, a very small portion while the rich pimento cheese, enormous artichoke, and poutine can easily feed a larger group.
WHAT THE STARS MEAN: 5 World Class, 4 Excellent, 3 Good, 2 Fair, 1 Poor
http://made-lv.com/
