Franck's
6263 S. Holladay Blvd., Holladay ; 801-274-6263
(see
map)
A bit more attention to detail could bring Franck's back to its fabulous self.
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| Kid-friendly |
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Cuisine: French, American
Price: $$$
Hours: T-Th, 5:30-9 p.m.; F-S, 6-9 p.m.
Liquor: Full Service
Corkage: $ 12
Reservations: Recommended/required
Accepts:    
Website: http://www.francksfood.com
Recommended Dishes: Fondue, fried chicken, meatloaf, butterscotch-chocolate pôt de crème.
November 4, 2009
Reconsidering two Utah favorites
New chef at downtown's Bambara keeps the stove hot, while side dishes reveal innovative cooking technique at Holladay's Francks.
By Lesli J. Neilson
With all the construction going on, downtown Salt Lake City looks deserted much of the time. That's not the case at Bambara, located in the Hotel Monaco. Day or night, the 10-year-old restaurant bustles with business people dining on "power lunches" ($13), theatergoers briskly eating their "3 for $33" meals and other diners enjoying leisurely nights out.
The Tribune last visited Bambara in 2007 when Robert Barker was chef. Nathan Powers has been in charge of the exhibition kitchen for a year now and the food is better than ever.
The cuisine here is seasonal New American. That means appetizers such as the popular Russet potato chips blanketed with melted blue and Monterey jack cheeses ($7), a trio of torpedo-shaped, smoky, crimson piquillo peppers packed with a creative crab-and-corn tortilla stuffing ($14), and an entrée of ridiculously juicy bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin pieces, and an entrée with a maple-brined pork chop with apple-fennel slaw and white cheddar polenta ($25).
If red meat is more your style, Chef Powers makes a mean steak frites (flatiron, $26, or dry-aged New York, $34; both are 12 ounces). The flatiron we ate was expertly grilled to medium-rare and came with some of the best fries I've tasted, adorned with flash-fried rosemary sprigs and sage leaves that shattered between the teeth.
Other menu items sounded a lot better than they tasted. A pool of puréed avocado, serving as a base to a tangle of mixed greens, grapefruit segments and ricotta salata -- dollops of goat cheese on our salad -- looked like unappetizing baby food.
Luscious-sounding chocolate-pecan crostada was overcooked and dry despite embellishments of caramel ice cream and a cocoa-caramel sauce ($8). The delicious huge chunk of pecan brittle that "garnished" the dish could have been dessert by itself.
The wine list has improved considerably since we last visited. Glasses range from $6 to $14; bottles from $26 to $240. Gone are the humdrum Beringers and Estancias, replaced by the refreshing and steely Austrian Hoplers (2007 Grüner Veltliner, $9, $38) and black cherry Apulian Taurinos (2004 Riserva Salice Salentino, $10, $42).
Service was professional, though a bit too casual, and our water glasses went empty for long stretches of time. But those are minor issues. It's evident Bambara is aging elegantly.
Holladay » French restaurants in Utah are few and far between, which is why some of Franck's menu items -- fondue, escargot, coq au vin, tarte tatin -- sound so appealing. My dining companion and I chose the first two to begin our meal.
The fondue for one ($11.95), a gorgeously molten mass of Gruyère, Emmentaler and Swiss cheeses, could have happily fed four ($19.95 for two or more). Basil pesto and garlic butter sauce overpowered the tender nuggets of escargot ($9.95), making the dish way too salty.
Chef Franck Peissel's true talent shows in soups such as a bisquelike tomato-carrot soup with savory whipped cream (soup or salad comes with each entrée) and desserts like his butterscotch-chocolate pôt de crème ($7.95). Well-executed vegetables were often highlights of dishes, including the caramelized carrots that outshined the oversalty escargot, while gingered-candied watermelon was a unique and delicious addition to a plate of pan-roasted duck breast.
The kitchen falters when it delves into fusion food, with menu items such as "pan-seared diver scallops served with baby vegetables, creamy cardamom Japanese eggplant and strawberry seaweed polenta cake in a white chocolate green tea sauce" ($33.95) Come again? Again, technique was impeccable -- the five scallops were seared to perfection, for example -- but the rest of the flavors competed with each other, with a bad end result.
The burnt orange-hued dining room, complete with "chef cam" -- focused on Peissel and others preparing meals -- looks just as it did when the restaurant opened nearly four years ago. The place shows a bit of wear and lack of attention -- in the occasional burned-out light on the strands outside, in the perfunctorily polished silverware and the intermittent disjointed service -- that detracts from the overall "wow" factor of the dining experience when The Tribune last visited in 2006.
But Peissel's technique will keep me coming back. Next time I dine at Franck's, I'll order the fondue, a simple salad and glass of white wine.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
June 21, 2006
Chef Peissel's expertise makes Franck's a four-star experience
By Mary Brown Malouf
Busted.
Let me tell you right up front that my most recent meal at Franck's was not eaten anonymously. A sharp waitress recognized me from my first visit and before I knew it, a special appetizer appeared on our table, compliments of chef Franck Peissel.
But the vegetable tart, a circle of warm shortbread crust topped with grilled zucchini, beet and squash slices and spinach, and crowned with an onion-scented pastry lattice and a startling scoop of goat cheese ice cream, was no last-minute gesture to impress. This was a carefully considered dish, conceived with confidence — daring, even — and presented with panache.
Peissel, imported from New York's Park Bistro to work at the now-closed L'Avenue Bistro in Sugar House, provides the culinary expertise at the new restaurant. Aaron Ferrer (owner of Tuscany, among others) provides the food business savvy. Partner and former Jazz player Mark Eaton lends a little celebrity stardust to the mix, and Tuscany itself shares the lovely location with its new sibling. Together, these elements were bound to produce a winner.
That is not to say there aren't some minor glitches, many of them created directly by Franck's immediate popularity. We were not the only guests who had to wait well past their reservation time to get a table. The hostess was unprofessionally flustered. And when, to while away the wait, we wanted to order a bottle of wine, she told us she was out of wine lists. "We only have 10!" she said.
After we shared one with some other waiting guests and specified a bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne, the hostess became even more scattered because she didn't "know anything about wine" and needed to copy the name from the very good list.
Clearly, the front of the house needs a little more training. Granted, it is harder to provide high-quality service when you have a hit on your hands. But the kitchen and the serving staff seemed to remain unruffled and part of a hostess's function is to provide an illusion of serenity at the door.
We finally were seated on the twinkle-lit patio, right behind the band's amplifiers of an al fresco wedding at Tuscany, a completely enchanting spot even with the band's rendition of "Shout!" occasionally overpowering our conversation. And our server made the rest of the evening blissfully smooth, the only excitement provided by the extraordinary food and an occasional visit from the property's resident calico cat, Cici.
On the first visit, on a quieter midweek evening, my guests and I sat in the dining room, a lovely space awash in warm orange with hanging drum lights providing soft ambient art-light. Our table was right in front of the beautiful room's main attraction, the large plasma screen that airs a constant reality show: the chef and his assistants preparing your meal. A chef-cam allows everyone in the dining room to watch every step in the kitchen — flames rising from a sauté pan, mashed potatoes being squeezed out from a giant pastry bladder, a Pollock-like squiggle spiraling from a spoon and voila. The plate disappears from the kitchen, only to reappear moments later on your table.
Once the food is in front of you, you kind of lose interest in the screen. After all, at that point, you become the protagonist in the drama. And this food deserves your full attention. It is action-packed.
A Nigella Lawson-style tilted oval bowl held a cluster of perfect Prince Edward Island (PEI) mussels, plump, pink and resting in a broth of lemony butter with crisp fresh-fried potatoes on the side, a perfect moules frites ($8.50). The fat little quartered mushrooms in a deconstructed tart ($9.95) were sautéed to swollen richness; their earthiness was emphasized by truffle essence and offset by port wine reduction and the fresh bite of micro-greens.
Salads (with a lemony vinaigrette) and a daily soup (the only light split pea I've ever tasted, leavened by asparagus and a hint of smoke) come with every entree. Desserts range from American butterscotch-chocolate pudding ($6.95) to French pear tarte tatin ($6.95).
The marvelous thing about this restaurant, the quality that sets it apart from most other Salt Lake Valley restaurants, is the absence of any theme other than the talent of the chef. Franck's has an idiosyncratic menu, ranging from French bistro fare such as moules frites to thoroughly American dishes such as fried chicken ($21.95) — three enormous golden pieces on the bone, fried to that fractal surface irregularity that only comes from correct breading and near-smoking fat. With it, mashed potatoes, a veal reduction standing in for cream gravy, and a smattering of green, crunchy snow peas, a clever borrowing of texture from those other master fry-cooks, the Chinese.
The only common denominator on this menu seems to be the chef's personal definition of delicious. There is a wondrous shellfish-stuffed ravioli ($21.95) — through the tender pasta you could distinctly taste shrimp and scallop bits enriched with chicken jus enlivened with pancetta. The menu also serves "meatloaf " ($22.95), a cylinder of mixed meat morsels — pork, veal and chicken — each slow-cooked to shreds, then combined lightly into a cake cooked to barely crisp edges, the pale meats deepened by a clear, dark berry sauce.
The vegetarian among us received a special plate that included "cauliflower couscous," which normally accompanies the pan-seared snapper ($22.95). Turns out it wasn't couscous at all, but crumbled cauliflower florets cooked in butter (or chicken broth for nonvegetarians) and so savory that it made a cauliflower convert out of someone who had always avoided cruciferous vegetables.
Linguine with duck confit ($22.95) led us to suspect that the chef-cam works both ways. The plate arrived with a mere duck wing perched on a pile of pasta dressed, along with carrots, broccoli rabe and more snow peas, in chicken jus. "Is that it?" asked the diner, poking hopefully through the noodles. And the next minute, our server appeared with a plate of duck confit. "The chef realized he had not put enough on the plate," was the explanation.
I expect to get a lot of flak for stating that Franck's is the finest dining experience I have had in the Salt Lake Valley. But my opinion is not based on the extra attention I received as a recognized critic.
First, please note the qualifications — I have not eaten everywhere in the Salt LakeValley. And note the personal pronoun — the finest experience I have had. There may be a better restaurant in the valley according to someone else, but in my experience, Franck's is the best. Its excellence is no accident. Like a Derby winner, Franck's was bred to be the best.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
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