Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 27, 1990 TAG: 9006270142
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Lelia Albrecht
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Happily, he has turned a new page at The Library and is producing the quality of food and service the restaurant formerly and erroneously claimed.
I began with an appetizer of "Ris de Veau Bonne Maman," or veal sweetbreads ($6.95). I'd learned about this delicacy when we lived in France and had been yearning for it ever since a return to this land of timid dining.
The sweetbreads were perfectly tender (they become tough and hard when overcooked). They rested in a small pool of splendid red wine sauce of unsual delicacy. I could easily have made a meal of a larger serving.
Information corner: Sweetbreads are the thymus gland of an animal used for food. Now, you who just uttered a simultaneous "Uggh," raise your hands, hang your heads, and feel non-adventuresome and sorry for what you're missing.
On another visit, we ordered as a first course the Coquilles Saint Jacques "a la Library," which I had previously found to be a remarkably unimaginative preparation much more "a la backyard grill." Wrapped and grilled in bacon, the only thing that made these scallops different was the rather unnecessary addition of Hollandaise sauce.
Nonetheless, I ordered them, simply because in the past they had been so horrendously bad - dry, completely devoid of taste. But what Ashley Smoak had done to them again passed nobly on all counts: The plate was hot, the scallops perfectly cooked and tender and seemingly right at home in the lemony Hollandaise ($5.95).
For the entree, I ordered another of my favorite foods - a duck breast, which the new Library had roasted "au Grande Marnier" ($19.95). Again I got perfection: The duck breast, which so easily could have been overcooked to dryness, was juicy, semi-rare and happily married to its light fruity sauce.
Earlier, I had written to complain of "no chicken offering, which would certainly alleviate some strain on the pocketbook." Now, there are some. I have tried Coq au Riesling, the breast tender in a simmering of Alsatian wine and further gentled by a $14.95 price tag.
I also sampled the filet of Norwegian salmon served with a mousseline of sole ($19.95); it was perfectly cooked and excellent. Though I don't each much beef, I also tried the Filet de Boeuf a la Russe ($19.95) - a roast filet of beef in a cognac and mushroom sauce. It was rare and extremely tender and flavorful.
Dessert offerings change frequently; the list is breathlessly reeled off by the waiter or the maitre, but it's worth listening. I have sampled a white chocolate mousse with fresh strawberries that was heavenly ($4.95) and a chocolate souffle that was light and perfect ($5.95). Don't miss the capuccino ($3.95); it's the best I've ever had.
The Library's long, remarkably fine wine list includes the 1976 La Tache burgundy ($140), which is indescribably good. But there are also some excellent choices at around $20 per bottle. We had a Mosel Piesporter Michelberg ($20), light and very nice.
Don't assume, however, that the new Library has dropped all its pretentious little touches: the menu, lettered in script on parchment, is still rolled and tied and still snaps backs as you as you try to unwind it. One's salad fork still arrives alone and icy cold on a single napkin-covered serving plate. A cold salad plate is an essential - but a frozen fork?
Incidently, Dining Out had complained previously of two women, purposefully led to the darkest corner of a second completely empty back room. Not this time: Two women were seated in a eminently visible table for two in the front room. Maitre d' Lowell Hill was charmingly helpful.
The new Library's prices are only a bit higher than three years ago, but worth every penny because the cuisine is one helluva lot better. Chef Smoak should take a well-deserved bow.
Postscript: When he moved into the vacated kitchen of the former Library, Smoak commented that the first thing he had to do was find a graveyard for the case of canned peaches he found there.
by CNB