Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Blue Hill was a really amazing meal that took almost six hours to finish. Since it was such a long meal, I thought I’d split it into separate posts for each course. Day one’s post: Blue Hill amuse bouches and from the green house.

A very belated birthday post from our celebration dinner at Blue Hill, but I finally had the time to sit down, get my pictures in order and write this post! My mom had flown in to help us move out of our apartment. Our lease ended on May 31st (two days after our birthday) so I tried to make a reservation for us at Blue Hill. I tried making a reservation online but there was nothing available; luckily, I had Dan Barber’s email address and he managed to get a reservation for us on Saturday, May 28th. We wanted to arrive early to tour the farm but we were too busy moving on Saturday and arrived right before our reservation. We did have time to take a few pictures before going inside for dinner:

Me, David and my mom in front of the restaurant:

Blue Hill at Stone Barns has an educational center, a greenhouse, chicken coop, lots of space for all of the animals, a gift shop and a really fresh farmer’s market all by the restaurant. They also host a lot of private parties and weddings – there was actually a wedding the night we went! The restaurant has beautiful high ceilings with exposed wood beams and a farm table in the middle of the restaurant showcasing all of the fresh produce and special foods they’re preparing that night:

The menu for each table is different based on your preferences and allergies. We opted for the eight course meal:

I started off with a cocktail with almond milk, spiced rum, nutmeg and other spices:

My mom started with the rhubarb cocktail:

Ken ordered a cocktail with fresh herbs and lemons:

And David and Laura ordered beer and wine:

After our server took our initial list of likes/dislikes and also allergies, we were presented with fresh herb spritzers in shot classes:

Ken and Laura accidentally drank the spritzer as a shot; they thought it was supposed to be taken as a shot since it was a in a shot glass! It tasted a bit like bitter lemon with some fresh herbs as well – not too sweet with a bit of sourness.

Next, radishes with fresh butter:

The restaurant has a ton of awesome plates and ways to present their dishes, including this presentation of baby vegetables:

The fresh carrots and sugar snap peas were probably my favorites (you can actually eat the entire carrot and stem, especially the ones that are brushed with butter like the ones at Blue Hill!)

The next course was really cool – the server brought by shears with the peas so we could snip off the green parts of the peas and dip them in the green chile-like sauce:

David and Laura snipping away:

We really liked the peas but then servers brought by kale, potatoes and sweet potato chips:

Next, farm fresh eggs with lardo:

And David was presented with pureed peas and lardo:

Next, prosciutto on flatbread:

Asparagus with sesame seeds that look just like pineapples:

Fresh asparagus steamed with herbs:

Served with veal marrow:

The server wanted to remove the twine with tweezers but couldn’t do it so Ken had to help:

The veal marrow was topped with breadcrumbs:

Next, pureed pea burgers served on a bed of sesame seeds:

Then came pork face chips:

And a small cube of cheese wrapped with leeks:

These fish balls were really interesting – we were instructed to wrap the fish ball and dip it in the green mayo (phytoplankton):

My wrapped fish ball:

Surprisingly, those were all amuse bouches before we started our actual eight courses! Before our first course was brought out, the server wheeled out some of the vegetables that are produced in the green house next door. The greenhouse example veggies:

The vegetables transformed into a salad:

Each person was presented with a plate with different types of vegetables and a really zesty vinaigrette. The radishes at Blue Hill were really buttery and had much more flavor than any radishes we’ve purchased at the grocery store in the city.

Tomorrow: from the field.