I love the regular menu at Big Jones. For bunch, lunch, and dinner, it's one of my favorite restaurants in the city. From time to time, Big Jones offers special dinners in which Chef Fehribach gets a little more creative in his culinary exploration. Christmas Eve is one of those times. And last night, at the
Creole Reveillon dinner, I had my best Big Jones meal so far.
For all four courses, diners were given their choice of a few selections. Eager to try as much as possible, my dining companion and I agreed to split two appetizers, two mains, and two desserts.
The appetizers we settled on were the Oyster and Carolina Gold Rice Perlau with House Vintage 2012 Country Ham, and Watermelon Molasses. I've never had raw oysters served any way but on the shell but they were great on top of the rice. The thin strip of housemade ham added a whole lot of depth of flavor and the watermelon molasses added a unique sweetness, although there's no way we would have identified it as watermelon.
The perlau dish was really good but it was blown away by the Crispy Duck Liver with American Chestnut Grits, Stewed Gizzards, and Huckleberry Bounce. This dish was the highlight of the night and one of the best things I ate all year. From the chicken to the green tomatoes, Big Jones consistently shows a mastery of fried foods. That didn't chance a bit with the generous slab of liver in this dish. The chestnut grits were great, the stewed gizzards were the most tender gizzards I've ever had and were a really smart addition to the dish. I'd never heard of bounce before - apparently it's fruit preserved in booze and sugar - so I can't say whether this particular version was typical or better or worse than I would have otherwise expected. What I can say is that it provided a great component of not-too-sweet fruit that really brought the whole dish together.
Honestly, the appetizers could easily have been main courses for a normal meal. But this was a Christmas celebration so it was on to richer foods following a salad course. Big Jones makes great gumbo. The holiday special - Heritage American Buff Goose Gumbo with House-made Chaurice Meatballs and Steamed Arkansas Delta Rice - might have been even better. Our bowl was a little light on the pieces of goose, but given that the tender meatballs were very present and very good, I didn't mind. The meatballs were a little different. There was definitely chili powder and cumin in there - enough that I joked they tasted like old school taco meat - but that's not remotely getting across the complexity of the flavor.
The creamed venison and rutabaga pie, which was surrounded with fried kale, was the reason I wanted to go to this dinner and it didn't disappoint. I don't know how that venison was treated before going into the pie, but it was far more tender than I could have hoped. Speaking of tender, the pie crust, which I assume had lard in it, was sensational. The crisp kale added some salt and slight textural contrast, completing a dish that more than lived up to my high expectations.
For dessert, we started with the rum & nutmeg bread pudding topped with a caramel sauce and was served with vanilla bean ice cream atop oatmeal raisin cookie crumble. This was a really, really solid dessert but not particularly memorable. I'm not a huge bread pudding person, so feel free to ignore my lukewarm endorsement. Also, to be clear, I would have happily eaten the entire dessert and taken seconds if offered.
Sorry - had to brighten this pic to show colorsThe cranberry and bone marrow pudding pie was spectacular. With each bite, the first thing I got was the hit of sharp cranberry which was followed by a smooth hit of the bone marrow pudding. I couldn't tell you what goes into the bone marrow pudding. There was definitely something sweet in there but there was no hiding the luscious bone marrow. This pie was ridiculously rich and was an outstanding finish to a really fantastic Christmas feast. I can't imagine not making the Creole Reveillon dinner an annual tradition.