Jane Restaurant, American Bistro

Rating:





Name: Jane
Location: 100 W. Houston Street (SOHO)
Price: $250 for 3
Server: Julian
Cuisine: American
Chef: Jason Heiselman

Jane is part of a trio of restaurants owned by the Corner Table Restaurant Group. Located in SOHO, we stumbled on this casual spot one drunken afternoon of shopping and decided to review it.

Our reservations were for 5:30 pm, when they opened for dinner. We seem to have a knack for catching restaurants with their pants down. This is no exception. The staff meal, or possibly new menu tasting was going on in the dining room while they were seating for dinner. The lights were up all the way, and their staff was all sitting and chowing. It felt like walking in early to see a hooker, and she's still servicing someone else. Exhibit A:

We were brought to our table by a young hostess who evidently had never heard of a corkage fee. She also evidently didn't feel it necessary to remove the 4th table setting. However, our server Julian promptly detached himself from the carnage in the dining room and came to greet us. They accomodated our corkage request quickly but not cheaply. $25 corkage fee. Julian was pleasant and eager to please, although seems young and slightly inexperienced. Actually, a lot of the staff seems inexperienced, yet eager to please. It's a start.

Julian cleared the extra setting, served our wine, and gave us the specials. But the sugar bowl from lunch with chunks of sugar that had been congealed sitting in it, remained. More about this later...

Although we brought the Melville 2005 Terraces Estate Pinot Noir, we still felt inclined to peruse their wine list. It's a small list and could use some beefing up, however, it is organized by charcteristic and not by varietal or region, which these salty bitches prefer.

Whilst perusing the wine list, my salty mom, who is a designer, stated her distaste for the interiors. However, Myste and myself like the pixelated flower pics and simple bistro interior. The music at Jane is excellent. They play all variety of underground electronic and soul, as well as college pop and eclectic loungy shit you ain't never heard. We dug it. They really need to get their scheduling down however. The lights slowly dimmed as the carnage was cleared from the dining room, approximately 20 minutes after their first seatings for dinner. Downstairs in the banquet area they had a huge trash bag spilled all over the entrance way, which is directly en route to the loo. Yo, get it cleaned first, then open. The hostess stand boasts an impressive array of electronic music devices, but looks like a cord fest. Here's a tip: closet doors.

All external appearances aside, the flower arrangements were beautiful, the table settings were lovely and simple and the atmosphere is great when they finally dim the lights and put their party dress on. We suggest a manager to move the upstarts more quickly into position.

The menu is cleverly designed, with local fresh ingredients, organic if possible and shows a good mix of French and Italian influences in a modern american way. The chef has a creative take on things and we really wanted to order everything. In the interest of our waist lines, and our timeline to see Xanadu, we did not follow the eat everything strategy.

25 minutes later, the busser brought bread, and we were finally ready to order. Julian checked for my allergy requests without delay and we love that. We also love his tattoo of a boombox on his forearm. Hot.

These salty bitches and salty mom shared a Butternut Squash Risotto and the Braised Pork Salad special. The Risotto was off the charts. Creamy yummy perfection, just enough salt, chive, greens, and chunks of butternut squash. We were scraping the bottom of the bowl. But as we are now classy rollerskating theatre bitches, we didn't lick the plate.

Lets have a moment of silence for the Braised Pork. _____ Ok, this dish is just fucking stellar. The pork was so tender and succulent that we sucked it down in a hurry. Seriously, this was the tenderest thing since Tender-roni. Cranberry orange sauce, frisee and mixed greens, braised pork yum, and you have one simple awesome dish. One complaint, more cranberry orange goodness please. We could bathe in this dish.

The presentation of both were simple but pretty. Julian brought the proper share plates and silverware, and had good timing and attentiveness - except for the still remaining sugar bowl - we were the ONLY table with sugar bowl. Were they trying to counter the salt?

45 minutes and 2 appetizers in, they finally lower the lights even more. Now it's sexy time. Here's us getting sexy:


At this point, we have drank a gallon of wine, and we need water. Nobody can be found, finally Julian reappears and asks if we need water. He fills our water and sets the pitcher on the table to take a photo of us 3. The water pitcher stays, but Julian goes. We later see him with another pitcher at other tables. We appreciate that they want to keep us hydrated, but really, you can keep the pitcher.

For dinner, we salty bitches ordered the 2004 Tammarack Cabernet Sauvingnon from Washington. Since liquid diets are not exciting, we also ordered the Sea Bass, The Scallops, and The Pork Chop.


The Sea Bass was in a light tomato broth with tapenade, chive, basil and white beans. Note we were halfway in before it dawned on us to snap a pic: It was beautiful and perfectly cooked. Not dry, not oily, definitely fresh. The presentation was beautiful, with whole cherry tomatoes, which can actually be hot explosions in your mouth, but were not dangerous as we were afraid they might be. It did need a little more salt, or a little more tapenade, but it was delicious.



Next the scallops. We love scallops, even though they look like breast implants before they're implanted. They're yummy. Diver scallops served with tomato based sauce, hominey, bacon, some kind of green, onion, cilantro and just perfect salt and pepper. The dish was southwestern influenced, and Myste and I loved it. Salty mom wasn't sure, but she ate it up anyway. The dish was brothy and Myste asked for a spoon, which she got, but we salty mom and daughter did not. So we had to use our tongues. We salty ladies like our scallops to be Medium Rare, but these were about Medium. They were still fantastic, and if they were just slightly less cooked, would have been stellar.



Finally, the pig.
The pork chop was with butternut squah, root vegetables, apple compote and a marsala wine with honey sauce. The Pork Chop was slightly over-cooked, and not trimmed enough. Lotsa fat still on one side. The compote and the butternut squash and root veggies were Myste's favorite thing about the dish. It was seasonally appropriate, light and perfectly balanced. It could have used less cooking, and more trimming, but we still thought it was divine.




Julian and bussers cleaned the wreckage, and offered desert menu's - and the sugar bowl remains:


Salty Mom and Myste ordered a Banana Bread Pudding with Chocolate Gelato. It was with banana, caramel, chocolate, and was nutmeg goodness. I observed over my espresso as they chowed down. The espresso's were all hot and well made. We switched out the sugar bowl (finally) with a new one that did not have yucky lumps. Salty mom and Myste had their eyes rolling back in their head over this desert. I was jealous, but managed not to stick a fork in their eyes.


Bottomline: The restaurant needs some finessing and some management, but has (to quote New Kids on the Block) all the right stuff. Some better training, time management and hidden staff meals, and a little better attention to temperatures o the food, and we would have given this a 4 shaker review. However, we will definitely come back, and bring friends.