modern american

I am going to use a single post to write about recent dining experiences in what appears to be a rather popular "cuisine" in Richmond (at least at a certain ubiquitous price bracket that I had alluded to earlier). While it appears that I am generally doing away with my multiple-visit-informed-opinion rule (I still strongly believe in the principle but with some serious budget watching on hand, it is increasingly becoming difficult to justify spending three digits* on patronage at places that dont seem to deserve a repeat visit).
Three recent uneven visits in this somewhat fuddled genre have been to Water Grill and Bonvenu in Carytown and Lemaire at the Jefferson, all typified by essentially similar sets of offerings.
Avoiding specifics and admitting that it is probably not fair to use a negative set of adjectives to describe the food based on an n=2 (same visit) but WG and BV fall into my category of avoid-in-future. The food and the service left so much to be desired. Long waits (in WG's defense, they comp'd our appetizer as an apology), clueless wait staff, poor presentation, quality and preparation left quite a bad taste in the mouth, pun intended. Restaurants may have an off night but in some cases, I think one can get a general taste of the overall philosophy, if you will.
Noise levels at WG and BV were very high. These places were packed on the weekend nights. Once again, I found myself at odds with such a large section of the populace. Urbanspoon has rave reviews for WG. The positive at WG was that it had a nice list of (reasonably priced) beers and a nice interior (plus its on Opentable)! The less said about BV the better.
Lemaire on the other hand was rather satisfactory. There was an 'emphasis' (a novel concept :)) on local sourcing that was quite nice. It was interesting to see VA bison on the menu, the taste of which was well liked. Random tidbit detour - bison can rotate on their back legs ! Despite the wide selection of VA wines, we ended up with some awfully good Australian wines in honor of our Aussie friend (the Margaret River wines have recently been quite impressive). What it lacked in general diversity, it made up in taste, presentation and service. This place on a weeknight was packed with business types and expense accounts, which is not an "issue" per se but does tend to give the place a rather stuffy interior. Vaulted ceilings and turn of the century rubenesque portraits added to this vibe. But I guess its no surprise that the grand old Jefferson can be quite grand. The lighting and the decor did give it a nice intimate feel though. Conversation was definitely easy here.

Digging around I found this rather amusing quote by Ed Vasaio, the local owner and chef of MZu - "I’ve never made a claim at [sic] this was haute cuisine. This amount of foodies and blogs … it’s vulgar. The preoccupation with food is an eating disorder. I love to cook and I love to eat."
I've come to feel (in apparently a bit of a minority opinion) that some restaurants in RVA (at least judging from their menus, prices and attitudes) seem to harbor the impression that they're haute cuisine. And patrons seemingly oblige.

* Checks were with typically - shared appetizer, an entree each, shared dessert and ~ a glass of wine each + t&t !