Small Bite: Café d’Artiste
“Modern American bistros” can be so predictable with their passable roast chickens, steaks, and salmon. But there’s an artist in the kitchen at 51 Lincoln, Newton Highlands’ intimate new spot: Boston veteran Jeff Fournier.
“Modern American bistros” can be so predictable with their passable roast chickens, steaks, and salmon. But there’s an artist in the kitchen at 51 Lincoln, Newton Highlands’ intimate new spot: Boston veteran Jeff Fournier. A chef at the Met Club and, before that, Sophia’s, Fournier has made 51 Lincoln, his first independent venture, a masterpiece. He’s put his stamp on the dining room—his bright, animated murals set off the funky orange banquettes—and, more importantly, on the cuisine. The standard Caesar arrives with made-to-order olive-oily croutons and plump, utterly unfishy white anchovies; the standard steak is accompanied by a piquant apple-garlic jam and blue potatoes.
But the pièce de résistance is the lobster pasta with butter-poached lobster and champagne sauce. Fournier rolls cooked roe into the wide, flat noodles, which manage to taste both light and decadent. Whether or not you really have room for dessert, you’d be unwise to pass up the hot-out-of-the-oven, custom-baked cookies, which, like everything else from this talented chef, are anything but predictable.
51 Lincoln St., Newton Highlands, 617-965-3100, 51lincolnnewton.com.