I was pleased to have organized the LTH foray to Elizabeth, selecting the Owl Menu. I was surprised by the fully developed excellence of several of the dishes, and need to revise some of my previous comments, although it is possible that the shorter Owl differs from the longer Deer menu (and perhaps from the still longer Diamond menu that I have not ordered). The Deer menu (tried as a Friends and Family dinner) was very much in the style of modernist cuisine but with foraged ingredients. The Owl menu was much more a set of dishes, rather than a set of tastes, and while some of the ingredients were foraged, the emphasis on gathered ingredients was reduced. Rather than dishes that were notably for how they were plated, these dishes were cooked in place, and in this they were far more abundant and restauranty than the underground dinners at One Sister. Iliana Regan really can cook, and very well. The strongest dishes were the most substantial.

I fully agree with BR that the Corn Bread and Trout Roe was not a success. The corn bread pancake was dry and overcooked. I had previously proclaimed that the goat cheese pancake on the Deer Menu was undercooked, so perhaps I am to blame. So be it.

I was particularly impressed with the Lamb and Fall Fixings (a real dish with a creative set of ingredients), the Hen and Egg, the Sweetbreads and Cauliflower (a particularly beautiful dish), the Celery Root Soup (one of the finest soups of the year), and the Carrot Tea. The Swiss Chard Sorbet and Smoke Aroma (shades of Alinea) was also a thorough success, as was the modest but delicious homemade bread and charcuterie. Pear and Hazelnut in various forms (with bacon) was an excellent dessert. In contrast the Raccoon Bolognese was mostly notable for the fact that it contained raccoon. The Pumpkin, Apple and Gravlax was pretty as a construction, but without a startling mix of flavors. The first amuse (a sip of American Caviar and Apple Pie smear) was appealing, as was the bacon fat in the Trough of Tastes (although the other flavors were perhaps not strong enough).

I came away feeling that it some essential, but indescribable, way, the Owl Menu moved beyond conventional canons of Modernist cuisine (I first wrote post-modernist, but that term has its own problems). While there were excellent dishes on the Deer Menu (the Queen Anne's Lace dish, for example), I was even more impressed with this shorter menu, which might suggest that Chef Regan is more successfully creative with a larger canvas. A string of one-bites is too often exciting in one's imagination, but many times not the most successful strategy in practice. These were dishes, not mere canapes.