Omnivore - A visit to Napoleon’s Grill
Chef Ryan Aiken back in the kitchen
We visited the new Napoleon’s Grill Thursday night. The restaurant stars Ryan Aiken, one of my longtime favorite chefs. This new venue, of which he’s also part-owner with the folks from Front Page News, offers a simple pub menu.
- http://napoleonsgrill.com
Some dishes are a blast from the past. For example, a plate of super-crispy fries comes with a Thai coconut-peanut sauce, which, as I recall, was also included in my favorite burrito at Burrito Art, Aiken’s first restaurant.
The menu is large and includes tacos and hot dogs, along with entrees, salads and soups. I tried the “Full On” dog, a cheap and delicious creation that includes salsa verde, chili, cilantro and salsa. In all honesty, I couldn’t find the salsa verde or the cilantro.
Another dish that did not arrive exactly as expected was my entree of braised beef with saffron risotto and a roasted red-pepper sauce. The menu said it was topped with rosemary gravy and pureed herbs, but I encountered neither. I would have preferred more risotto and less of the red-pepper sauce. Still, great flavors all around.
Wayne ordered an intense, four-cheese ravioli topped with bits of Italian sausage.
More in a future “Grazing.”