Terrific Takeout: Duet Brasserie Our Coverage Sponsored by Fresh Origins
Star of the Show: Owner and Executive Chef of Duet Dmitry Rodov
His wife Diana (not pictured) is the Executive Pastry Chef
We love math. We love French words.
In case you don't: Diana + Dmitry = Duet
The exquisite seared dayboat scallops
He gave us the only business card we've received that we can eat.
It's chocolate.
Now it's gone...!
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It's not who you know, it's WHOM YOU KNOW and we are so glad to now know Dmitry. Once upon a time there was a girl from Connecticut who moved to New York for an internship at CBS news (see right) and one of the first friends she made was a guy named Yuri who was Russian and played for the Red Army hockey team and had an amazing sports card store right near MSG. Yes, guess who collects hockey cards. So, Yuri set a very good precedent for anyone Russian that we meet in New York.
Diana and Dmitry Rodov are the amazing chefs behind their newest creation: Duet. It's our first time there, and Dmitry could not have been more cordial. Or more talented. Or more detail oriented! He must have been reading!!! And also, we surmise he is like this anyway so we're super glad to have discovered him for ourselves. Dmitry just killed it during this takeout review so he has set the bar high for himself when we go back someday for the formal review! Duet is their first Manhattan restaurant and it opened November 3, 2014. He had a restaurant in Brooklyn previously, and they have a bakery in Brooklyn. We have never met or worked with Dmitry before.
Duet Brasserie is American Continental cuisine.
We began with our salad option: Avocado Salad, which we chose. Not only are avocados hot and trendy but also we like them and did before they were so uber-popular. We will still like them when the next trendy person picks something else...
As you scroll down it will become obvious to you that everything at Duet is beautiful. They have their name personalized on everything which we love (you know there is a column called Monogrammed Peachy...) and these tiny slices of avocado were stacked in a beautiful arrangement to form the foundation for this vision of grace. Baby Basil by Fresh Origins rests upon this castle of vegetables that did not last long. Cilantro, lime juice, grape tomatoes and plantain chip also join the party here. There is the tiniest hint of red onion that is perfect. Of the salads we did like this one the best.
Dmitry suggested we try the Lardon Salad, which is also very good. He created this 15 years ago and note this is no ordinary sherry vinaigrette: for all the connoisseurs of salad dressing reading this you should know this dressing boasts 26 ingredients.
We love love love Edible Flowers (and we bet Eloise does too-we borrow her verbiage here) and this one Dmitry tells us is the Fresh Origins pansy. We also really enjoyed how the tomatoes are halved: both red and yellow. It's easier to eat that way (but if you do have exploding tomatoes at dinner call our friend John-Claude or maybe just use their app on your phone.)
The Lardon Salad is a symphony of bacon, lardon, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, homemade polenta croutons, and poached egg, which takes center stage:
For our hot appetizer, we tried Beggar's Escargot.
Inside is a wonderfully intoxicating mix of creamed spinach, red wine, and sauteed shallots along with the snails of course. Dmitry created these in Paris originally.
We chose the Seared Dayboat Scallops as an entree. They waltz in a brussel sprout puree enhanced with white wine, lemon and butter. Exquisite and divine, this should be your dinner. You agree, n'est pas mes amies?
If there were pageants for food, Dmitry's plates would have sashes galore.
The scallops were seared wonderfully and were petite and joy-inducing.
We love green vegetables on the side and want to try to eat as many vegetables as we can (as no one wants cancer right?!?!) It is a plus when they are this delicious and halved ideally as these brussel sprouts were:
Dmitry does not miss a trick on presentation and these arrived in style in a lovely copper:
Then he said would Peachy like dessert.
What do you think readers?
Peachy is a huge raspberry sorbet enthusiast, and she recently had it at a big name brand place that starts with H. Dmitry's is better:
Plus, you almost feel like you are at a hockey game (we want to feel like that all the time) because it is presented in a block of ice! How fun. We wanted to eat it with a hockey stick but left ours at home.
The blackberry on top with mint was again, perfect.
Then Dmitry said wait I can make chocolate souffle!
Oh my goodness.
His chocolate souffle has no flour.
It's served with the most decadent creme anglaise we've had in quite some time.
Just superb!!!
Not only can you eat the business card, but also you can eat that little chocolate to the right that says "Duet."
Yes, Duet is Terrific Takeout.
We hope they continue to be so amazing!
Finally, who can say no to peach-infused vodka??? Not us.
