As if you needed any more reasons to get your slurp on at Mignonette (a dozen bivalves perpetually on rotation and the best lobster roll in town), the best friend chef/lawyer duo behind the New Orleans style oyster bar and seafood house — Daniel Serfer and Ryan Roman—have taken their restaurant love child and given it a sibling. Enter Mignonette Uptown, nestled in the former Hannah’s Gourmet Diner trailer, which Serfer frequented as a child. What’s best, the menu is (for the most part) completely different thanks to the deft hand of chef de cuisine Anthony Ciancio whose food you might be familiar with from places such at Michael’s Genuine, 27 Restaurant & Bar, and Alter. Oh, and he’s also honed his culinary skills with some James Beard award-winning chefs: Sean Brock at McCrady’s in Charleston and Jodi Adams at Trade in Boston.
While Mignonette Uptown is his baby, sort to speak, it’s the diners he’s coddling with tastefully distinctive yet similarly aligned type of fucking fancy fare that makes Mignonette Downtown (as it is now tongue-and-cheekly called) great, and worth the trek uptown. Rather than buttermilk biscuits with rotating jam and butter there’s Cast Iron Baked Rolls everything bagel style. Instead of seared scallops with Andouille, foie gras, and dirty polenta, the Buffalo Scallops have been doused in hot sauce and served alongside gorgonzola and crispy chicken skin for a bite that keeps on giving once it’s over. No, you can’t have lobster deviled eggs, but you won’t miss them thanks to a Smoked Fish Dip that’ll have everyone at your table eyeing (and politely fighting over) the last saltine cracker. Charred and smoky Octopus has gotten the BBQ and cold treatment, as it’s served alongside coleslaw for some complimenting cool and tangy crunch. Don’t be fooled by the equally and perfectly cooked Crab Cakes, which have foregone the worcestershire butter and scallions for heartier melted leeks and equivalently piquant mustard cream sauce. You can still get all the usual suspects you’d expect to find — Mussels (in red spicy tomato or white wine and garlic), Clams Casino, Shrimp Cocktail, stacked Seafood Towers with pristinely shucked oysters, Popcorn Shrimp, Caviar, and of course the drawn butter Maine Lobster Roll on a Portuguese roll that makes you warm inside. CBGB (chowder, bisque, or gumbo), Crudo, and Whole Fish are still on the daily agenda and in tandem with whatever the ocean and Ciancio have freshly available and up their sleeve. Plain proteins are the same in rendition and execution, though why opt for those when there’s a handful of fancy entrees to savor, like a deliciously sounding Cod with yucca, oysters, champagne and caviar that though we overlooked, but was the recommended choice by team members. (We’re already planning our next visit in order to undo our oversight.) If it measures up anything to the Swordfish we had whirling in a mushroom broth with beluga lentils, wild mushrooms, and tomatoes concasse, you’re in for a hell of a palate pleaser.
Since Blue Collar, Daniel Serfer has been lauded for his way with veggies, a food group that Ciancio is ensuring holds up to its precedent by grilling up Peaches and soaking them in peanut vinaigrette; roasting Carrots in Amaretto and honey; and charring Sweet Potatoes in chili and herb butter. And let’s not forget to mention what might possibly be the best Curly Fries we’ve ever had in a diner trailer, which go hand-in-hand with the buttermilk Fried Chicken oozing of honey and thyme. There’s also a dry aged bone-in NY Strip for the carnivores at the table, and for those with a sweet tooth, fret not — the Butterscotch Heath Bar Bread Pudding with cayenne whipped cream has gone uptown, too. Wash it all down with a Strawberry Milkshake since you are in a classic aluminum-sided diner with can’t-be-missed neon signage —even if there’s an oyster shucking station front-and-center, seafood towers on every table, and golden-clad lavatories— after all.
