Cafe Bisque delights with delicious details

John Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 11, 2003 at midnight

Text size

More Dining

Sometimes one bite tells you all you need to know about a restaurant. Take the Old World Benedict ($9) served at Cafe Bisque. Start with smoky, barely sweet, shaved Bavarian ham - the real thing. Add two impeccably poached fresh eggs and dress them with velvet-smooth Hollandaise sauce with a butter sheen. Set them astride warm, toasted English muffin halves on a warm plate.

I had one mouthful and knew it was one of the best eggs Benedict I'd eaten in years. I could also taste great ingredients carefully chosen and I could see how artistically, not haphazardly, the food was placed on the plate.

The skeptic within immediately wondered whether maybe this was the only great thing chef/owner Alex Gurevich makes at this new American breakfast/lunch destination in Lakewood.

Then I tasted the coffee, ground Kona beans in a French press pot ($5 small/ $7 large). What a hot dark pleasure - rich, not bitter!

It says a lot that Cafe Bisque offers French press. It's the best method bar none to serve brewed java - but not the cheapest, although a small pot is enough for two people. The cost is more than worth it if you are a coffee hound like me who loves to tweak the cosmic hot-coffee-to-cold-milk proportions in my cup without flagging down a waitperson. The details were adding up.

Like Clair de Lune, Cafe Bisque is a one-chef wonder that seats 30 or so and a few more on an inside ''patio.'' The small space is pleasantly decorated with modern art, the tables with raffia-wrapped white linen napkins.

Gurevitch oversees much of the cooking from an open kitchen - that is, when he isn't talking to customers and clearing dishes. He keeps good company in the same Lakewood strip mall that houses 240 Union.

To say that Cafe Bisque only serves breakfast and lunch is like saying Picasso only did art. The chef's stellar a.m. lineup includes the Bisque Benedict ($10) which ups the ante with smoked Nova lox, spinach and avocado, and Bordeaux crepes ($7) laden with either bacon and onions, or ham and sharp cheddar.

On the sweeter side, the fluffy lemon poppyseed pancakes ($7) with Madagascar vanilla syrup simply melt in the mouth. Orange zest and high quality cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg season the charming stuffed French toast ($8). Grilled challah bread is filled with cranberry cream cheese, and sided with maple butter, pure maple syrup and strawberries.

While Cafe Bisque's morning menu has stayed the same, the lunch menu of salads, sandwiches, pizzas and entrees changes with the season as true ingredient-focused cooking should.

During earlier visits we've been wowed by the eatery's opulent shrimp bisque; a literally fresh-picked baby arugula salad; a pork sandwich with apples; and lovely chile poblanos stuffed with goat cheese and shrimp. None of those items is on the summer menu but some will return in the fall.

Summer lunches start with house-baked crackers with a yummy black bean puree. Cafe Bisque's namesake item, tri-pepper bisque ($7, $5 small) is a winner. Red, orange and yellow bell peppers are roasted, skinned and then pureed, lightly spiced and thinned with just a little warm broth. Combined with a slab of super-moist coconut quick bread, it's nearly a meal.

Lots of new American bistros serve a pear, blue cheese and nut salad. Gurevitch's reinvention is an Asian pear salad ($10/$7 appetizer) with oak leaf lettuce, Danish blue cheese, D'Anjou pear slices, luscious candied macadamia nuts and a well-composed red wine lemon grass dressing. Also memorable: The filet and blue cheese ($12) salad with port-infused raisins and flash-fried shallots.

We also loved the sophisticated barbecue prawn pizza ($12) with grilled shrimp in an appealingly sweet barbecue sauce atop thin crust balanced by slightly tart creamy chevre, red onions and basil.

Cafe Bisque's pistachio ahi ($14) is a wonder to behold. A big slice of impeccably fresh, pink, sushi-grade ahi tuna - so delicate and buttery - is pan-cooked medium rare to rare. The pistachios actually encrust the fish and the sauteing releases that nutty aroma and taste. It is masterfully matched with a memorable warm salad of Napa cabbage with toasted sesame oil.

You see now why I like the food at Cafe Bisque? It doesn't involve a lot of chef-y nonsense - wacky garnishes and sauces added just to show off.

I'll be back to try the Maine club sandwich ($11) made with grilled salmon, mesquite bacon, avocado and pesto aioli on artisan bread. The lunch menu includes a few brunch faves like the Bisque Benedict.

Cafe Bisque upgraded recently with a set of French-style desserts (all $5) like petits fours or the artistic mascarpone-stuffed ripe apricots. French cookies are sided with pear milk, a nifty blend of pear nectar and half and half.

I luxuriated in a mocha pie layered with chocolate mousse, ice cream and a profoundly buttery cookie crust.

The servers here are friendly, well-mannered and - shockingly - they appear to have tasted every item on the menu, including the desserts.

When time allows, Gurevitch teaches cooking classes and does some catering. As an experiment, once a month Cafe Bisque has been serving a five-course wine dinner. The only two currently scheduled are July 26 and Aug. 30.

With one young child and a second on the way, Gurevitch the daddy said dinner could wait. No rush. We've never been happier to settle for breakfast and lunch.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News