& REVIEW
skin was cooked separately; the meat was
arranged into a multilayer terrine; and
both were served with a winey sabayon
sauce and a woodsy, eggy mushroom hash.
Yet the technique-heavy plate fell short
of the classic it’s modeled after, ending up
more complicated than delicious. Dessert
returned to form with a lovely manda-
rin posset with sticks of meringue and a
shortbread crumble, but at lunch (which
has been discontinued, so I won’t go into
detail), similar wobbling occurred.
Morin’s beverage program keeps pace
with that tasting menu. Managed by
McLain Hedges and Mary Allison Wright
of RiNo Yacht Club fame, its cocktails
lean on French ingredients, making use of
cognac, Pineau des Charentes (a cognac-
esque apéritif ), cider, and the like. The
Picon Punch, for example, combines “pom-
meau” (a blend of Calvados and fortified
apple juice), cognac, and lemon juice with
house-made Picon-style orange bitters to
produce an intriguing flavor rather like the
San Pellegrino soda Chinotto. Alternative-
ly, try the Provence mocktail from Morin’s
“sans” list; the refreshing fizz reminded me
of a Vietnamese salty lemon soda.
The soul of the program, though, is
a diverse collection of globally sourced,
mostly natural wines. The list is strewn
with runelike symbols that told me a $78
bottle of 2017 Táganan, a white wine from
Canary Islands producer Envínate, was
“crystalline, rustic, and eccentric,” which
made it sound like an aging hippie. I
found the wine fully fruity but dry, tangy,
almost viscous, and funky on the nose. In
other words: good and interesting.
In the end, Morin is a tale of two res-
taurants. One—exemplified by the tasting
menu, bar service, and beverage list—is
ambitious, focused, friendly, and reward-
ing. The other, based on à la carte meals
and table service that was personable but
not crisp, feels uncertain about the point
it’s trying to make about French cooking.
Such food in cities
like New York has
undergone a recent
renaissance, with places
like Le Coucou and
Frenchette confirming
the appeal of tradition-
al techniques paired
with modern exuber-
ance. It would be nice
if Morin sparked a
similar revival here. In
spirit, it’s all there; in
consistency of execu-
tion, pas encore. mFind our Din-
ing Guide,
an extensive
list of area
restaurants,
on page
126 and
online at
5280.com/
restaurants.68 |^5280 |^ AUGUST^2019