Blue Duck Tavern, in the Park Hyatt, West End - Chef Daniel Hoefler the Latest in an Ever-Growing List

[New Foodie]

Has anyone been to BDT recently? In an odd confluence of events, I am headed here for a work holiday lunch this week and then a holiday dinner with friends next week, so I'm looking for a few recommendations of what to order (or conversely what to avoid) at both meals!

[DonRocks]

Has anyone been to BDT recently? In an odd confluence of events, I am headed here for a work holiday lunch this week and then a holiday dinner with friends next week, so I'm looking for a few recommendations of what to order (or conversely what to avoid) at both meals!

I have not, but I've been firmly reprimanded for not having tried it recently (and for having it underrated in the Dining Guide). The source of the complaint is credible.

[New Foodie]

So after my two trips to BDT over the last week, I'm here to report that both were pronounced excellent by myself, as well as the 6 different people I dined with during my two meals.

I don't think there was anything I wouldn't order again, but some things stood out above others.

Highlights:

• Wood Oven Roasted Bone Marrow ($14 Pepper Crust) - had this at both lunch and dinner (the second time was actually better). So unctuous and savory with garlic and pepper flavors, served with garlic toast and a roasted bulb of garlic. Must order.
  
• Roasted All Natural Half Chicken ($20 Rosemary Jus) - lunch - chicken is often overlooked when dining out, but BDT does it well, and the sauce was delicious
  
• Roasted Muscovy Duck Breast ($28 Crispy Leg Confit, Pumpkin Relish) - dinner - the inclusion of the breast and the sauce and pumpkin relish elevated this above the confit served at lunch
  
• 12 Hour Roasted Suckling Pig ($26 Baby Vegetables, Pork Jus) - dinner - pork just falling apart. So good.
  
• Potato Puree with Soft Garlic ($8) - I don't know how much butter these had in them, but they were smooth and creamy and we were scraping the bowl clean
  
• Hand Cut BDT Triple Fries ($9) - A BDT staple, thick fries (reminded us of yucca) with a garlic aioli. Addicting.
  
• Apple Pie ($9) - had this twice because it was so good the first time. A BDT signature, served with vanilla ice cream, it's a fairly large individual deep dish apple pie with a lovely sweet crumble on top.
  
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Bar, Salted Caramel Cream ($9) - ordered on an impulse, this was a surprise hit. Sort of a homemade PB candy bar with a jelly drizzle and a ridiculously tasty cream alongside.
  

Also good:

• Apple and Endive Salad ($11 Walnuts, Cave-Aged Cheddar Fondue) - Interesting salad option
  
• Mushroom Tart ($12 Mixed Greens Salad, Hazelnut Oil Vinaigrette) - large serving and fairly rich with lovely mushroom flavor
  
• Wood Oven Roasted Confit of Duck Leg ($21 Roasted Baby Vegetables, Red Wine Apple Butter) - lunch - very tender and good flavor, but not quite as good as the dinner dish
  
• Wood Oven Roasted Maine Scallops ($28 Stewed Tomato, Pickled Mushrooms, Bacon Powder) - dinner - a good-sized serving of 5-6 scallops, nicely seared
  
• Brussels Sprouts ($8 Bacon, Pecans, Cranberries, Preserved Lemon) - not my favorite Brussels ever, but all of my other dining companions loved them
  
• Sautéed Wild Mushrooms ($10 Olive Oil Croutons, Garlic, Parsley) - nothing out of the ordinary, but nice if you like mushrooms
  
• Milk Chocolate Banana S’mores ($9) - a very good dessert with a chocolate mousse topped with homemade marshmallow...just not quite as standout as the two above
  

Definitely more of a special occasion place for me, but I look forward to returning.

[Cook In / Dine Out]

I had dinner at Blue Duck Tavern last weekend and wrote about it on my blog today. We had a very nice dinner there and would definitely go back. The entrees were the highlights, particularly the roast barbecue chicken. I really liked how this was brined to impart the flavor of barbecued chicken without the sticky sweetness of barbecue sauce (not that I don't like barbecue sauce, but it was cool to see the idea interpreted in a new way). The braised rib with steak sauce was also very good, and our salads--warm leek salad and beets with fried peanuts--were interesting dishes in their own right too. If I was going to critique anything, it would be the way the entrees were served in a manner meant to be shared. This seems to be big trend right now. Sometimes I don't mind, but here I thought the dishes with their thoughtful sauces and garnishes would have worked better if they'd been plated individually in the kitchen rather than relying on us to do it. Also, the apple pie, while good, wasn't as stellar as I was expecting based on what people have said about it the past. Too bad, since that was apparently the pastry chef's last Saturday night there, as I read that yesterday was his last day. I thought the service was friendly and efficient.

[BookGuy]

I was there last night.  I had walked past it so many times as my dentist is down the block and didn't realize that it was there.  It is a large rather forbidding place and my companion requested a quiet place.  My guess is that there isn't any to be had.  I had the crab cakes because the Post food critic raved about them in his Fall Guide and I thought they were excellent.  My companion had the salmon which, as a person who always orders salmon, she found excellent.  We shared a bowl of fairly rich mashed potatoes.  For the appetizer, we both had the butternot squash soup.which was similarly good.  We finished off by sharing three flavors of sorbet served in a large glass from which we each took what we wanted.  It was, barring the noise, an excellent place to dine and i would certainly go back.  It does raise the question of whether expensive places should spend a little extra money on noise-deadening acoustic tile.

[DonRocks]

"Chef de Cuisine John Melfi Leaving Blue Duck Tavern"  by Jessica Sidman at washingtoncitypaper.com

Melfi says he has "something big lined up for a big-name chef in the city" but is holding off on the announcement. Melfi wouldn't say if he's heading to a new or existing restaurant.

--

John Melfi is going to be working for Fabio Trabocchi.

[squidsdc]

I was thinking of going to Blue Duck Tavern for my birthday this year. Hopefully if he hasn't left yet it still may be an option...it seems like every time a celebratory event comes up, the restaurant I've been "eyeing" to finally try undergoes a change. (sigh)

[DonRocks]

I was thinking of going to Blue Duck Tavern for my birthday this year. Hopefully if he hasn't left yet it still may be an option...it seems like every time a celebratory event comes up, the restaurant I've been "eyeing" to finally try undergoes a change. (sigh)

I would call if I were you.

[The Hersch]

I would call if I were you.

You'd call and ask what? "Are you still in business?" "Does your restaurant suck now?" Or just "Is Chef Melfi still there?" And if he's not, would you assume that the answer to "Does your restaurant suck now?" would be "yes", or that the answer to "are you still in business?" would be "no"?

[DonRocks]

You'd call and ask what? "Are you still in business?" "Does your restaurant suck now?" Or just "Is Chef Melfi still there?" And if he's not, would you assume that the answer to "Does your restaurant suck now?" would be "yes", or that the answer to "are you still in business?" would be "no"?

"Hi, I read in City Paper that Chef Melfi was leaving, and I wanted to know if he was still there so I could try his cooking one last time."

[KeithA]

Impromptu lunch yesterday at BDT was excellent. Apparently they keep pretty good tabs on their guests as they ask for my name "for their records" and then when my wife and I were trying to remember the last time we had been, the staff politely noted it had been back in 2008. Checking my own comments above in this thread that looks right. It also looks like BDT has not gotten much love from the DRBoard which should be rectified as soon as we all have the spare cash to afford it - really great food, nice atmosphere and good service albiet a bit pricey but not more so than other high end places and the portions are a good size here.

My wife had the burger which comes with their good duck fat fries. It was very good, but not super exciting - I think she chose poorly.  The fries are rather good and they come with their housemade ketchup, which I loved - note that it had very little if any tomato in it and is really more of a slightly sweet BBQ/steak sauce. The gratis crusty bread and butter were very good (worth noting since so many places are cutting back on it).  I had the really nice duck leg confit which comes as two good size pieces with lots of meat (I took one home for leftovers), just the right amount of crispy skin in a rich reduction sauce with a little squash that goes nicely with it. We also shared the Daily Harvest Vegetables side which was a rather pretty and tasty mix of different carrots over a bit of hazelnut accented sauce. The waiter said the carrots were likely to be on the new menu.  I say pretty because it was an interesting melange of roasted, shaved, and sliced different colored/types of carrots.

We didn't have dessert but I saw the really good apple pies being made in the bakery section of the kitchen near the entrance.  Definitely, need to remember to not wait so long till I come back again.

[The Hersch]

I had an appointment at 1 pm near Washington Circle today, and being otherwise at liberty decided to reserve at Blue Duck Tavern at 2 pm for lunch for one. I hadn't been in quite a while, but have always loved the meals I've had there. Today's was very nice, although I might have ordered more wisely than I did. I started with an asparagus salad  with "Coddled Hen Egg, Guanciale, Shaved Parmesan, Chili-Lime Vinaigrette". This was really quite lovely, and a very substantial plate of food. In addition to the ingredients listed in the menu description, there were also radicchio and rucola and maybe a bit of frisée. The asparagus was both green and white. Some of the green were thin shavings, some thin slices, and the one mis-step, to me, were the green tips, which were left whole with about an inch and a half of stalk, barely cooked. They would have been better either cooked more or also shaved. But a very nice salad, and the guanciale and perfect coddled egg raised it into the stratum of the sublime. I followed the salad with the "Suckling Pig Sandwich, Braised Greens, Roasted Garlic, Beer Mustard". This was too-cutely served on a wooden cutting board, with a frisée salad topped with pork scratchings. The sandwich was made with about a 12-inch section of wonderful baguette, crisp and warm (they do bread very well), stuffed with quite a lot of very long-cooked pork, which was moist and delicious, with what seemed to be braised mustard greens, the whole thing cut in half. I didn't really discern any "beer mustard". Anyway, it was excellent, but I could barely finish one of the halves, and brought the other home. I had two very generous pours of prosecco by the glass. Had I known how large the portions of salad and sandwich would be, I would have skipped the introductory salad (there was a salad with the sandwich anyway, though it isn't listed on the menu), or followed it with another appetizer.

A very nice lunch indeed, and remarkably expensive. With tax and a generous tip the bill came to just under $70 (for a salad and a sandwich! okay, and two glasses of wine).

[DonRocks]

It seems as if Blue Duck Tavern's surprising star is shining slightly softer in recent stretches.

Sebastian Archambault was nominally the "Executive Chef" at Blue Duck Tavern from Dec, 2011 until Aug, 2014, most likely running the Park Hyatt's entire F&B program while various "Chefs de Cuisine" were in charge of Blue Duck Tavern. In Aug, 2014, Archambault departed for the now-defunct Back Room at One57 in the New York City Park Hyatt, which is in the process of being rebranded.

Ryan LaRoche was working in NoMi at the Chicago Park Hyatt, then became "Executive Chef" of Blue Duck Tavern in Sep, 2014, replacing Archambault, and departing in Aug, 2015 to return to Chicago, at Mariano's. 

Frank Loquet was working for Sofitel Jul, 2011 - Oct, 2015, and was named "Executive Chef" of Blue Duck Tavern in Nov, 2015.

John Melfi worked for Jeff Buben at Vidalia from Apr, 2008 through May, 2011, then came to Blue Duck Tavern as Chef de Cuisine for 2.5 years, departed in Dec, 2013 to spend two years as Chef de Cuisine at Fiola Mare, before replacing Tony Conte as Chef de Cuisine at The Oval Room in Jan, 2015

 

Dan Singhofen closed Eola in Aug, 2013, arrived as Chef de Cuisine at Blue Duck Tavern in Jan, 2014, left a few months later, and headed for Macon Bistro & Larder in Feb, 2015.

Brad DeBoy has been Chef de Cuisine at Blue Duck Tavern since Sep, 2014. 

A very credible source tells me that Executive Chef Frank Loquet has resigned - I have not confirmed this with the hotel, but seeing as though Cluster Fuck Tavern has a Michelin Star, I thought some people might want to do some independent verification.

I have no knowledge of the internal structure here, but it seems like the Executive Chef has always gotten top billing, and I don't know if that's right - breakfast, room service, F&B ... they all take a lot out of a person. I can understand the higher salary, but not necessarily top billing for the restaurant itself.

[DonRocks]

On 1/4/2017 at 11:38 AM, DonRocks said:

It seems as if Blue Duck Tavern's surprising star is shining slightly softer in recent stretches.

A very credible source tells me that Executive Chef Frank Loquet has resigned - I have not confirmed this with the hotel, but seeing as though Cluster Fuck Tavern has a Michelin Star, I thought some people might want to do some independent verification.

Indeed, Troy Knapp has replaced the now-departed Frank Loquet as Executive Chef - Brad DeBoy remains as Chef de Cuisine.

[The Doctor]

Daniel Hoefler is now chef de cuisine at Blue Duck Tavern.