Extra Virgin - Michael Smith's tapas restaurant

[KCMax]

•Michael Smith is putting the finishing touches on his highly anticipated Extra Virgin bistro at 7 W. 19th St., next door to his namesake restaurant. He will throw a block party starting at 4 p.m. on Oct. 5 with street performers, games, a pig roast and all-you-can-eat food and drink for those 21 and older, all for a $40 entry fee benefiting Turning Point, a support organization for people with chronic illness.

[DaveKCMO]

can someone tell me what idiot at city hall approved such a MASSIVE patio for extra virgin? the sidewalk on 19th street is massive, but it looks like all that's left for pedestrians is the requisite 4 feet for ADA compliance. seriously out of scale!

[LenexatoKCMO]

can someone tell me what idiot at city hall approved such a MASSIVE patio for extra virgin? the sidewalk on 19th street is massive, but it looks like all that's left for pedestrians is the requisite 4 feet for ADA compliance. seriously out of scale!

Noticed that last night - looks like it is built unceccesarily chunky too.  Not as bad as the one at JP though - you have to wrap yourself around a tree to get past it. 

[Tosspot]

There are no pedestrians in Kansas City, so no worries about impeding them on the sidewalk with outdoor seating. City Hall ain't stupid ya know!

[chrizow]

EV may open on tuesday.  http://economy.kansascity.com/?q=node/413

[SegwayHater]

Extra Virgin, Michael Smith's Mediterranean Tapas Bar is suppose to open today.  Me and the Hubby are going to check it out for dinner tomorrow.  I am excited to see what it's like.

[DaveKCMO]

extra virgin is a great space, very focused on the bar. michael was there personally overseeing everything out of the kitchen. best small plates we had were the baked pasta, lamb kebabs, chips, and hummus. the "crossroads cocktail" is a interesting interpretation of the mojito. pretty good crowd, considering the weather.

[KCPowercat]

I almost went but thought it would be packed being night #1.

[KCLofts]

We ate dinner here Friday night.  Very nice, warm, comfortable interior.  The space is dominated by the bar, which allows seating on all four sides.  Small tables are squeezed in around the bar.  I'm sure they are eagerly awaiting nicer weather to allow seating outside on the patio.

We started off with a couple glasses of wine and some grilled bread with ricotta.  Then we added dishes mainly from the wood-fired oven section of the menu - baked pasta, shrimp gratin, charred hanger steak and mussels.  All of the food was very good and by the time we got through those dishes, we were too full for desert.

There are a couple private dining rooms available and it looks like you can order off of either the Extra Virgin or Michael Smith menu in these rooms.  The two restaurants are connected via a hallway in the back (the men's restrooms are in Michael Smith).

About $100 all in for the meal for two - 5 glasses of wine and 5 dishes.

[DaveKCMO]

we went there for drinks after seeing Fling on friday. my friends wanted cocktails, so we sampled the passionfruit cosmo, the lemon creme, some special mojito, and the caipirinha. all very tasty and with enough alcohol to justify the $8-9 prices (compared to, say, one80). on a previous visit i had tried the crossroads cocktail, which was a not very impressive take on the mojito (you might like it if you like the overpowering presence of fresh lime).

after a second visit, i have to give the decor a B- for the lack of originality (plates on the wall!), but having the well-managed bar and kitchen in your face should guarantee this place becomes an instant hot spot.

[PumpkinStalker]

...on a previous visit i had tried the crossroads cocktail, which was a not very impressive take on the mojito (you might like it if you like the overpowering presence of fresh lime).

And I DO!  I'll have to check this out....I love lime things.

[chrizow]

here's the menu:

http://www.michaelsmithkc.com/evmenu.pdf

looks delicious and adventurous for KC.  reasonable prices too. 

[chrizow]

my girlfriend and i went to EV for dinner last night. 

Ambience/Decor:  i think it's a very well-done, classy restaurant.  nothing groundbreaking, not a lot of "character" or personality, but it's a modern, comfortable space.  i like that the bar is large and centrally-located (with a discrete television).  understandably, it feels like the more casual twin to Restaurant Michael Smith next door.  there is the same makeshift entryway/waiting area framed by glowing modern cubes and shelves.  i think the barstools might be the same design, but in different colors.  (either that or i've seen the same barstools somewhere else).  it has the ubiquitous "antique advertising poster" motif on one wall, but it's clearly original and it looks fine.  overall it's a cool, clean space. 

Service:  service was fine, though a bit random and unpolished.  our server was very amiable (in a Chotchkie's sort of way) and was able to answer our questions about the menu.  the restaurant was more busy than i thought it would be on a frigid, snowy tuesday evening - maybe 15-20 diners - but not so busy as to justify the long waits for drinks.  drinks took several minutes to come out, whereas our tapas all came out briskly, in about a five-minute window.  not a big deal, though, the service was decent enough.  it's a tapas place, so i sort of expect randomness.  at least three different servers brought our dishes, even though our main server didn't seem very busy.

Food:  the most important part!  overall i think the food quality is very high, as you would expect with Michael Smith in the kitchen (and he was there last night).  we liked some dishes much better than others, but it was more a matter of personal taste than any lack of execution on the restaurant's part.  we ordered:

* Giardiniera and Olives: exactly what it sounds like - pickled cauliflower, carrots, onions, etc. in oil, with some olives mixed in.  it was very delicious.  the oil had a crisp, clean flavor and the olives brought a lot of different tastes to the dish.  i would have liked to see more olives, but hey...i would order it again - A.

* Sweetbread Ravioli:  four large ravioli with sweetbreads ground up inside, in a rich broth with capers.  it was rich, gourmet comfort food.  the capers kept the dish from venturing too far into sleeping-bag territory with small bursts of acidity.  A.

* Peruvian Ceviche:  this was just awesome.  it contained many ingredients, including hamachi, sweet potato, corn nuts (!), and another kind of fish, maybe ahi tuna?  it also came with a large crispy plaintain chip to scoop up the ceviche.  it was very fresh-tasting and subtle but also complex.  the corn nuts added some much-needed crunch and saltiness to the ceviche, and were a welcome whimsical touch in a somewhat serious restaurant.  A+.

* Baked Maine Mussels:  Eight or so small-ish mussels baked in a super hot dish with garlic and herbs.  i thought they were tasty, but completely uninteresting.  it reminded me of something one might have in a fine restaurant in 1979.  my girlfriend did not like these at all, commenting that baked mussels really only work well with large mussels.  i liked them ok, but would not order them again.  it was like something i would gladly eat for free at a law firm holiday party, but certainly not a bright spot on the EV menu.  B-.  (sidenote: i think that EV should definitely have steamed mussels on its menu.  steamed mussels are awesome.)

* Grilled Baby Octopus:  four tentacles reaching out from a nest of roasted red bell peppers and greens in olive oil, with potatoes and a pesto-type sauce drizzled on top.  it was a very beautiful, colorful dish.  all the flavors worked perfectly - oily, salty, potato-y, with fresh, clean, yummy octopus.  A+.

* Braised Stuffed Escarole with jasmine rice, pine nuts, and parmesan:  this was the subject of a ridiculous misunderstanding on our part.  my gf and i both misread the menu and thought we were ordering escolar.  what came out was, understandably enough, a hot dish with rice and pine nuts wrapped in bitter leafy greens, with crispy rice/parmesan on top.  the dish was more an exploration of texture than flavor - it was bitter with a smoky/burny flavor, with softness coming from the rice.  my girlfriend and i were horrified (where's the fish?!  is the fish this crusty burned stuff?!), but later we realized it was escarole, not escolar.  first impression:  D-.  after forehead-smacking realization:  B.

* Cheese:  we ordered some sort of soft, vaguely funky italian cheese.  there were two decent-sized wedges of cheese, served with house-made crisps, with a sour cherry compote or something on the side.  it was really delicious.  it would have been a perfect end to our meal (our bitter escarole was, sadly, the last thing we ate).  i would order this again, but i also want to try the other cheeses.  A.

* There is no complimentary bread, so we ordered some to accompany our dishes.  a generous basket of grilled bread was brought out.  i thought it was really nice - quality bread with lots of grilled places to add crunch and flavor.  however, because it was grilled, it was better suited as a crostini-esque platform for delivering ceviche than sopping up any oil or sauces.  it would be nice if EV came up with a more oil/sauce-friendly bread. 

(random nitpick:  as with most tapas places, the dishes are divided on the menu into categories like "hot," "cold," "wood-fired," etc.  this is fine, but i didn't really like how the more esoteric dishes were sequestered into their own section called "for the adventurous."  it seemed somewhat condescending, like patrons can't handle seeing these ingredients without being warned.  why not just have these items in the "hot" section?  other places in town that serve sweetbreads and tripe and the like do not call attention to them in this way.  i am sure it's fine, but it just seemed sort of bush-league to me.)

all of the above, with six glasses of wine, came to $123 - roughly $50 wine, $70 food, though we ordered more food than we normally would because we wanted to try a lot of things. 

[DaveKCMO]

interesting you liked the octopus dish. maybe ours was a tad overcooked.

[mean]

all of the above, with six glasses of wine, came to $123 - roughly $50 wine, $70 food, though we ordered more food than we normally would because we wanted to try a lot of things. 

Wow, that's really not bad for all the food you got. Looking forward to it.

[chrizow]

http://www.pitch.com/2009-01-29/restaur ... sacrifice/

glowing review from the pitch. 

not surprising - both times i have been at EV, i saw ferruzza there. 

[Highlander]

http://www.pitch.com/2009-01-29/restaur ... sacrifice/

glowing review from the pitch. 

not surprising - both times i have been at EV, i saw ferruzza there. 

Sounds like a place to put on my list.  I've taken to this genre of food while in Europe. 

Just out of curiousity, from your review:

Sweetbread Ravioli:  four large ravioli with sweetbreads ground up inside, in a rich broth with capers.  it was rich, gourmet comfort food.  the capers kept the dish from venturing too far into sleeping-bag territory with small bursts of acidity.  A.

Would these be traditional sweetbreads (e.g., sweetbread being glands from a pig...I think) or does the term sweetbread mean something else here?

[LenexatoKCMO]

Would these be traditional sweetbreads (e.g., sweetbread being glands from a pig...I think) or does the term sweetbread mean something else here?

Usually the hypothalmus gland from a baby cow. 

[mean]

Yeah, it's veal, not pork. Pork glands aren't nearly as tasty, I hear.

[LenexatoKCMO]

it can be pork or lamb as well but veal is the more common euro-american choice.