Bleu Boheme

Yay! Bert had the day off to spend with me. We just watched "The Simpsons"(which is destined to become a classic) that morning. It was pretty funny, especially all of the "inside" jokes and a shot of Bart's bits and pieces. Every character is in there. I wish they had given Apu more face time though. After the movie, we decided to check out this new French restaurant on Adams Avenue in the cute neighborhood of Kensington...
My co worker had just eaten there when it opened three weeks ago, Bleu Boheme is the newest restaurant venture by Philippe Beltran (La Vache, Vagabond), Bleu Boheme took over the former site of the Green Tomato across the street from the Ken Theatre. If you want to know other opinions, check out Chowhound review here and yelp's here. The reviews are mixed. By the way, here's a disclaimer, although I do post a lot of entries about food, restaurants, etc, I don't consider my blog to be a "total" food blog. I do post other entries about other topics like music, pop culture and my boring ass life.

Once you step in, there are two seating areas. In the middle is the bar.

To the right is a large seating area with lots of tables. Our waiter told us this side gets pretty "happening" at night. There's also a huge chalkboard with the menus (same as the one online). The decor is a mixture of industrial and country French.

There is also a cool lounge area near the bar with banquettes, square tables and suede ottomans.

Here's that menu again. Sucky photo.

Their lunch menu was presented on a blue wooden board and was affixed by a clothespin on top (not seen):

We were seated in the other dining area (it would be to your left if you came in through the door). Thick brown paper covered the white table cloths. The utensils in the mason jars were a nice touch. This dining area also had a huge stone wall (not pictured).

The bread and butter came first. I thought the way the served this was inconsistent. The first time, the slices were hard and toasted. For the second serving, the bread was warm and soft. I preferred the latter. Nothing's worse than cutting the roof of your mouth with a hard bread crust. For his appetizer, Bert ordered the Soupe A L'Oignon Gratinee ($7.50), aka French Onion Soup. The menu describes it as caramelized sweet onions and fresh herbs, simmered in a beef consomme, topped with croutons and melted Gruyere". He really liked the soup's rich onion flavor - along with the creamy cheese and crouton topping. However, we both agreed that it was waaaaay too salty. First strike.

Look at those onions! So gooood!

I ordered the Calamars Frits avec Rouille et Sauce Tartare Maison ($7.50), aka Fried Squid. Let's not kid ourselves by calling it the lovely name of calamari. It's squid folks. It's "flash fried calamari servied with Provencal Rouille and homemade tartar sauce. The squid was tender and the breading was just right. It wasn't too thick and overly dipped in batter like some places serve it. I also liked that they had the tentacles in there along with the more popular and safe looking squid ring pieces. My only beef is that there wasn't enough sauce to go with the squid - they were served in microscopic ramekins.

Bert's entree was the Nicoise salad with seared ahi tuna. Sorry I don't have the fancy French title or description (and it's not on their website either). You can see the salad has Bibb lettuce, potatoes, sliced boiled egg, radish, green beans, and cucumbers. Bert's only complaint about this was that they overdressed the salad. It was a bit too oily for my tastes. He had quite a lot of his plate - at least my husband chose a somewhat healthy entree. Maybe next time (if there is one), get the dressing on the side.

Here is my dish - the Moules Marinieres avec Pommes Frites ($12.50) aka Mussels with Fries. This was "black mussels steamed in a white wine broth with shallots, garlic and chopped parsley and served with Bleu Boheme French Fries". When I used the bread to soak up the broth, my taste buds went into shock. I would have liked this dish better if it wasn't so damn salty!!! Two strikes. This dish was similar to the one I had at Vagabond last year but Vagabond's was better. More recently, I had a version of this at Bite last month which I also liked (sans the fries).

Mmm, plump mussels.

The pommes frites...

I asked our waiter if a dipping sauce came with the fries. He said he would bring us the sauces that they serve with their steak. Clockwise, this trio of sauces include curry (top right), port truffle and peppercorn. However, when I came home and looked it up on their online menu, their steak sauces are described as Bordelaise, curry and truffle. Perhaps the peppercorn is the Bordelaise? I thought it was a bit odd for fries to come with these sauces, which I'm sure, would taste great with meat, but fries? So I asked for the rouille. I was expecting an aioli or some sort of mayo-based sauce. He also brought out a bottle of ketchup! Gasp.

Here's a interesting design detail - there's this transparent insert in the floor just as you step into the dining room (left hand side once you enter). Our lunch experience was a mixed bag. We really liked the calamari but the soup was too salty. So was my broth in my mussels dish. The service was good although I overhead one of the waitresses admitting she couldn't pronounce a lot of the items on the menu. Our waiter (I forgot his name) was a nice guy who thought it was amusing that I was taking photos. I'd try this place again but for dinner next time just to see the ambiance and also because the dinner menu is a lot different. During lunch, it was pretty empty. There were only four other tables that were occupied so it wasn't noisy.