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33 Restaurant & Lounge
A new chef does well by an old restaurant with a great reputation
BY ROBERT NADEAU
33 Restaurant & Lounge
(617) 572-3311
33 Stanhope Street, Boston
Open Mon–Sat, 11 a.m.–2 a.m., and Sun, 4 p.m.–2 a.m.
AE, DC, Di, MC, Vi
Full bar
Valet parking, $14
Sidewalk-level access to some tables; bathrooms down full flight of stairs

This column doesn’t usually re-review restaurants when they change chefs. It happens too often, and it’s not always for the better or worse. But in this case, the restaurant’s opening menu was conceived by the brilliant and unconventional Charles Draghi, so the change was going to be considerable. And it has been. The new chef, Anthony Dawodu, is more conventional (and has been given lower price points, especially on the entrées), but very good, and perhaps better suited to the nightclub atmosphere of this unusual space. For their part, the owners have adjusted the space and the music to make the (somewhat reduced) dining area work better. In sum, 33 is no longer a cutting-edge exploration, but it is a better place to dine out overall.

The key spatial adjustment was to remove the tables in what is now a sofa lounge area, thus focusing the dining room in the back of the first floor, where the music is least obtrusive and the weirdly tilted walls and ceilings are least obvious. The owners have also muted the computer-controlled lighting of the translucent walls around the stairwell, so diners are less distracted and more soothed. The old program had quicker changes and clashing colors. The new program runs to blues, purples, and greens. (On warm nights, there are outdoor tables as well.) The overall lighting is a little better, and the sound is more-muted techno, followed by — so you know it’s a restaurant, I suppose — the Gipsy Kings.

The opening breadbasket has also been simplified. Five choices with both butter and olive oil have been reduced to both hard and soft French breads, plus a simple focaccia, with a jazzy spread of chopped olives in lots of extra-virgin olive oil.

The menu, formerly split severely into French and Italian lists, now unites aspects of both under the concept of American nouvelle. On some of Draghi’s remaining dishes, Dawodu doesn’t get it. For example, Draghi’s salad of local beans and beets was defined at the edges of the flavors with a sharp goat cheese and dandelion greens. The current baby-arugula salad ($6) has nice bits of red and yellow beet, frisée for looks, and Granny Smith apple for a surprise, but all was blurred by an over-salted dressing.

Dawodu’s own theme is to move the expected up a notch. This is excellent on the Maine-crab salad ($11), a cylinder almost the size of a crab cake, but cold and all meat, with a lively dressing and a salsa heavy on Italian parsley, a much underrated herb. For a special on soft-shell crab ($13), he does it as tempura, then adds a little salsa of mangos and sautéed julienned peppers. Medley-of-mushroom soup ($8) is mostly cream, with a solid mushroom flavor, and swirls of flavored oils that don’t register with me (along with a shrimp garnish in the middle). Chilled lobster salad ($16) is all wonderful morsels — lobster nuggets, spears of asparagus, and slices of heart of palm — on mixed greens.

For entrées, the pastas are still homemade and toothsome, even the ubiquitous shrimp fettuccini ($18), now with a mild puttanesca sauce that actually sticks to the pasta and makes the dish work well. My favorite of the entrées was the pepper-crusted ahi tuna ($24), sushi-quality tuna just seared at the edges with peppers and coriander (as the French like to add to pepper) for an extra thrill. The sides on this dish are a parsnip-cauliflower purée that melds two strong-flavored vegetables into something new, and a medley of sautéed vegetables (including baby-artichoke hearts) that’s delectable, but again over-salted.

Pan-seared Atlantic salmon ($23) is served on a rectangular plate, but features the same fine parsnip-cauliflower purée, and a different group of vegetables, this time with the coriander-seed flavor popping up here and there. The grilled veal chop ($28) is splendid meat, done to order, with a potato cake, and great carrots in a clear gravy with some thyme.

The wine list is still mostly Italian and French, with some depth, as exemplified by six Alsatian whites. Apparently things haven’t sold so rapidly, so some of the older bottles have become serious bargains. Our bottle of 2000 Schlumberger "Fleur" Gewürztraminer ($46) was a floral sonata, with a slightly sweet finish that complemented all the food very nicely. Wines by the glass are newer and a little cheaper, and still very attractive. The bar makes a clean, authentic mojito ($11) with lots of fresh-mint flavor. Coffee and tea, which used to be excellent, were not offered by our server.

The dessert list is about half of what it used to be, but hasn’t lost a step. On the trio of sorbets ($7), the winner was a very Draghi-like saffron-orange, with a dry finish that really brought out the orange. If you wanted something juicier, the passion fruit was of the orange variety, and very tart. Raspberry was a little icy our night, but well flavored. Warm chocolate cake ($9) is a conventional cupcake of fallen chocolate intensity, with homemade vanilla ice cream on an interesting wafer of, perhaps, candied quince or pear. The "chef’s dessert duo" ($16) is plain but solid cheesecake with strawberries, and a martini glass of "tiramisu" without much cake, so it’s like eating coffee-flavored cream. The only disappointment was the "white chocolate blueberry bread pudding" ($8). The problem is that bread pudding has contrasts of custard binder and enriched bread cubes. This was solid, like an English steamed pudding, though certainly edible.

Service has also settled in, and probably benefits from the shorter menu. Dishes arrived as planned, our server could actually explain the menu, and only the missing coffee request was notable. Salt did accumulate over our evening, but this is easily fixed. The new 33 is a fine all-ages restaurant, with a very hip nightclub downstairs. If you concentrate on entrées and wine, it’s a very fine restaurant, and you’ll still feel like dancing afterward.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com.


Issue Date: October 15 - 21, 2004
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