Bistro Rollin
142 Fifth Ave
Pelham, NY 10803 (Map it!)
Attendees: Reid, Shelley, Jeffrey, Sylvia
The Case: Bistro Rollin v. The Westchester Breakfast Club
The Venue: Pelham, on the main drag near the train station.
The Facts: I’m sure I have little to add to the reviews of my clubmates as to the quality of the food at Bistro Rollin. As my omelet came, somewhat surprisingly, with cheese, my impression would be as unhelpful as a vegan’s take on a barbecue joint.
However, as the WBC’s General Counsel and Vice President in Charge of Legal Affairs, I think it is my duty to discuss the ethical issues which occasionally confront our merry band. And of course, by “occasionally,” I mean just this one time.
Though I know this may come as a shock to many of our foreign readers, the faces of the WBC aren’t immediately recognized when we walk into a restaurant. Instead we are as ninjas, entering an establishment, eating what food it has to offer, and departing, leaving only a generous tip and the corpses of our enemies behind as proof that we were ever even there.
Now though, the rule of anonymity has been proved by an exception. Unlike most of our dining locations, which we find on our own, Bistro Rollin came to us, in a manner of speaking, with its proprietor sending an unsolicited e-mail asking us to come by and review his establishment. My colleagues were excited by the attention our little blog had gotten, and decided to trek to Pelham.
Now, we didn’t identify ourselves as the WBC when we entered, having chosen to leave our custom-made jackets at home. Nonetheless, we were quickly recognized and given special attention. Or at least we wanted to think it was special attention; to be fair, the owner seemed to treat all the customers rather graciously.
Nevertheless, I think it’s fair to say that the group didn’t let the fact that it was known who we were go unnoticed. And though I can’t speak for the others, and have yet to read their reviews, I can say I found myself hoping that the food lived up to the warm and fuzzy feeling our warm and fuzzy welcome had given me. My objectivity was certainly compromised, and so would have my review, had I written one.
Which brings me to the ethical question. Hopefully, as time goes on, this blog will become better-trafficked and better-known. If that happens, we will most likely be getting more special invitations and warm welcomes. Perhaps offers of free food and drink will come our way. In the light of such special treatment, our ability to treat every breakfast/brunch place even-handedly may suffer. Do we therefore have an obligation to turn any of those offers down, or go so far as to instruct people not to send them our way, like a “no-tipping” sign at a restaurant coat-check?
To me, the answer comes down to the underlying purpose of this blog. Are we providing food reviews, which people will rely on in making purchasing decisions? Or are we just describing our experiences to entertain and amuse? If we’re the former, I would say that we have an ethical obligation to maintain, to the best of our ability, whatever objectivity we can, so that people can trust that their experiences in the establishments we review will fairly track ours. This would probably be the better approach if we’re looking to maximize our readership beyond those who know us.
For me though, I don’t care about that much. I view this blog as both an opportunity and a mandate to spend one morning a week with friends who, due to the demands of real life, I would likely rarely, if ever, see. It gets me out of the city (most of the time) and away from the people who do the same job as me. I became and remain a member of the WBC not because I ever imagined it becoming something many people read, but because it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. I wouldn’t want to chase that feeling away just to maintain the veneer of objectivity.
The Verdict: In my legal opinion, we can accept whatever special treatment people want to provide us, so long as we fully disclose it to our readers, so that they can contextualize our advice accordingly.
In the interest of full disclosure, the proprieters of Bistro Rollin in Pelham contacted the WBC and invited us to try their Sunday brunch, and we obliged, temporarily breaking with our rule to sample restaurants anonymously. I don’t think we received any special treatment. Nonetheless, I felt it was important to inform you, our readers, that our presence was known by the owner and waitstaff this morning. Usually we’re just the weird group in a restaurant cracking jokes and taking pictures of our food.
In all my years of living in Westchester, I’ve never been to Pelham. Bistro Rollin is located on Fifth Avenue, which, while not as swanky as its Manhattan couterpart, is quite charming. The street is lined with local businesses, the Pelham Art Center, some apartment buildings. The train station is nearby. Parking was a bit tricky, what with the sizable snow drifts and all, but we were able to find a spot just steps away from the restaurant. The restaurant has a large storefront, with large windows and shrubbery adorned with white holiday lights. The front door is topped with a simple black awning with the name “Bistro Rollin” in white script letters.
The restaurant is divided into three dining sections. The first is right near the entrance and has just one or two tables; then there are two larger, open areas. We were offered a choice of a round table either in the smaller section or the middle section. We opted for the round table in the middle section, so as not to be near any blasts of cold air that may have come in when the front door was opened (although there was a heavy velvet curtain hanging in front of the door to soften the blow of the cold air). The table itself was situated in a corner near the window, allowing our brunch to be lit by bright natural light. The interior was very bright and cheery, with basic white walls adorned with abstract prints. The celing was embellished in a way that I’m sure there’s a term for, but which escapes me now. So, just look at the picture Sylvia took of the celing:
On top of the table was a small card listing diners’ opinion of the restaurant. I learned from asking the maitre’d that Bistro Rollin has been open for about 2 years, and they’ve been serving brunch for several months. They started serving brunch after patrons began asking about it. In a cute move to make brunch a family-friendly affair, the restaurant has a craft table in the back of one of the dining sections where children can occupy themselves as they wait for their food.
We were promptly brought water and a basket of sliced French bread along with our menus.The menu provides a typical range of brunch items, from fare like scrambled eggs, omelettes, and pancakes, to lunchtime food like burgers and hanger steak. The menu in the restaurant, however, was somewhat different from the brunch menu that’s on the Bistro’s website. For example, the ham and gruyere omelette that had piqued my interest online was nowhere to be found on the menu this morning. But, I was still able to get this combination in a slightly different form: a croque madame. (We, being a bit less savvy than the average food critic, had to check online to remind ourselves what the difference is between a croque madame and a croque monsieur, both of which were on the Bistro Rollin brunch menu; a croque monsieur is just ham and cheese, a croque madame adds a fried egg into the mix.) We also got a small order of pancakes and a bread basket for the table to share. And, since I was getting over a cold, I ordered some decaf tea.
Soon one of the waiters emerged from the back with a box containing tea selections. There was only one decaf choice, though, a chamomille. All four of us ordered tea and we were brought two large teapots to use. The amount of hot water we had was very generous. Unfortunately, my tea bag was really only good for a single cup. Our bread basket arrived shortly thereafter, and it contained some slices of thick multigrain bread, a croissant, and two muffins. The multigrain bread was delicious, warm and flavorful. I tried only one of the muffins and could place neither its aroma nor its flavor. The flavor was familiar, but I’m just not sure what it was. Perhaps an olive oil muffin? Further, the taste didn’t match the aroma, which struck me as unusual. The taste was better than the smell, in my opinion. This is not to say that the smell was bad; it was neutral, not really smelling much like anything. But the taste…argh, what was that taste?
On to the main meals. Everything was presented beautifully. My croque madame was perfectly arranged next to a generous portion of French fries. The sandwich itself was ham and what I believe was gruyere cheese melted between two slices of a square roll, served with a picture-perfect fried egg on top. Now, I’m not a big fan of runny yolks, so I mainly ate the egg white. The croque madame itself was tasty and thankfully not too greasy. The bread provided just enough crunch to complement the soft contents of the sandwich. The fries were thicker cut fries, but were a bit too salty. Seeing the omelettes that everyone else had gotten made me kind of wish I had gotten one too. The eggs in the omelettes looked so fluffy and wonderful. In fact, Reid said that his omelette was just too much to finish. But that’s probably because we also had:
Pancakes! We ordered a small serving, which was 3 medium sized pancakes generously topped with fresh berries and powdered sugar. Lots of powdered sugar. There was a small cup of syrup on the side. Oh, and 4 dollups of whipped cream. I opted for whipped cream on my piece of pancake instead of syrup. The whipped cream was delicately sweet and refreshing, and paired with the pancake batter and berries made for a perfect combination. I wonder if we got just a few extra berries on our plate since we were the WBC.
As the waitstaff cleared our plates and asked if we wanted to see a dessert menu, we had to say yes. My eye went straight to the pear tart, and Jeffrey was all about the creme brulee. Done and done…but wait. Our waiter returned a few moments later to inform us that there was no creme brulee this morning (somewhat unusual for a French restaurant to be out of creme brulee), and suggested we try the rice pudding, which we were told had the same heated sugar top that the creme brulee would have had. It sounded unique enough that we agreed to try it. The pear tart was a rectangle (I was expecting a round pastry) of flaky layers topped with slices of pear and a scoop of cinammon ice cream. I’ve never had cinammon ice cream, it was an intriguing combination and went well with the flavors of the pear and the pastry crust. The rice pudding looked like creme brulee. I don’t know, the chunks of rice paired with the burned sugar top didn’t really do it for me the way smooth creme brulee does, but it was pleasantly flavorful nonetheless
All in all, we had an enjoyable meal at Bistro Rollin. Although I have to say, I think I prefer to be anonymous at breakfast. This was one of our pricier meals, but we did get alot of food (a main meal each, two dishes for the table to share, tea, and two desserts). The service was very friendly and very attentive, and the food was brought out within a reasonable amount of time. The food was of a high quality, everything was very fresh and obviously made to order. The atmosphere was comfortable and cheery. For those in southern Westchester, Bistro Rollin is a nice place to try a new brunch.
We be famous!
We were invited by the proprietors of Bistro Rollin in Pelham to have brunch. This was a very nice invitation. We decided to make a reservation and announce ourselves. It seemed like a good idea at the time. We arrived and even though we were short one guest, they gave us a very nice window table. One of the owners, or at least I assume he was one of the owners, greeted us and explained how the existence of brunch at Bistro Rollin began at the request of a guest. They even have a crafts table somewhere for the children to play at during brunch. A nice touch.
The drinks order was taken and for the first time, no one was ordering coffee. My excuse was that I was slightly ill and thought that tea would suit my illness better than coffee. I picked the “captains” tea, Earl Grey. After pondering the choices on the menu and hearing the specials, I ordered the omelette of the day. It was a salmon, asparagus, and cheese omelette, served with a mound of fries. When the food arrived, I couldn’t wait to dig in, but pictures had to be taken and utensils needed to be used. Damn common social manners! The omlette was fine. It was an egg that was folded over the aforementioned ingredients. I feel like there wasn’t enough salmon, but I only think that because I love salmon and even if they put an entire fish in that omelette, I still wouldn’t think there was enough salmon. The cheese added another layer of flavor, even though I can’t for the life of me remember what kind of cheese it was. Hopefully Sylvia will remember, seeing as how she ordered the same meal as me but with greens instead of fries. The fries, I feel, were over-salted.
Someone had a good idea of getting a bread basket and a small order of pancakes for the table. Good idea. The pancakes were delicious. I loved the fresh fruit on top. The bread basket was under par as far as bread baskets go. I’m sure someone will cover it more in his or her review. We also split some dessert. There was a pear tort or tart. I don’t know the difference. (Editor’s note: It was a tart, not a torte.) I also ordered a lavander crème brulee, but they ran out of that. So I got the rice pudding. It was no crème brulee, but it was okay. As for price of this endeavor, it was a bit pricey. We each ended up dishing out 30 dollars including tip. I mean, we did get dessert and food for the table, but I’m a poor person.
Our disclaimer to this review: The WBC had received an e-mail from the proprietors of Bistro Rollin inviting us to give them a try. Intrigued, I made the reservation under my name, but as a note to the restaurant I put down “Greetings from the Westchester Breakfast Club”. So, long story short, they knew we were coming.
The menu presented to us was slightly different than what is shown on their website. But that didn’t matter once our waiter told us the specials. The omelet of the day was a smoked salmon, gruyere, and asparagus omelet. Sold! I had that along with some English breakfast tea, and a shared bread basket and small order of pancakes.
The bread basket, oh where do I start? I love the idea of the bread basket, it’s a great way to sample and share various pastries as a group. The Cookshop had an amazing bread basket, and was completely worth the steep $12 they charged. Horsefeathers had a wonderful little bread basket at no charge that I would be willing to pay for if they started charging. Bistro Rollin, not so much. Don’t get me wrong, the two muffins that came with it were excellent. They were normal sized, warm, and absolutely delicious. One had cranberries and the other had a very familiar flavor to it, but none of us could pinpoint what it was. (Maybe banana?) The croissant on the other hand, was overly greasy, gummy, and not very golden brown. Then the other 50% of the basket was two slices of bread. The multigrain toast was really good. The slices were nice and thick and well-toasted. But the other slice of toast was white toast. It was good for white toast, but if 50% of the basket is toast, then $12 is a bit steep. At least make it cinnamon raisin toast or brioche, or throw anything in to make it more unique than plain white toast.
The rest of the meal was quite tasty. The omelet was not overcooked and was slightly runny in the middle, just the way I like it. The mixture of the cheese with the salmon and the asparagus was excellent. However, the cheese was shredded, and Gruyere doesn’t melt very quickly, so every once in awhile I got a good bite of shredded cheese only. I love cheese, so not an issue for me! The side of salad greens I had were also very good and well dressed. The pancakes were served with fresh berries and some decorative dollops of whipped cream and then coated in powdered sugar. No need for syrup! They were pretty good. Light, but a bit thinner than I’d like, although with the copious amounts of powdered sugar on top, it was hard to tell the final coloring of the pancake itself.
For dessert, we originally ordered a lavender crème brulee and a pear tart served with cinnamon ice cream. Unfortunately we had to swap out the crème brulee with rice pudding, which apparently also had the caramelized burned sugar topping. The pear tart was really good, especially with the cinnamon ice cream. The puff pastry with the pear slices and the ice cream all worked really well with each other. The rice pudding was okay. I’m not sure if rice pudding needs the sugar topping. It weighed it down a bit.
We were told that Bistro Rollin had only started serving brunch recently on the request of a customer who wanted to bring the kids. We sat near the door, so from observation, it seemed like quite a few people who came in for brunch were regulars, since everyone seemed to know their names. It’s a good thing, and it seemed very much like a warm neighborhood restaurant.
I would say Bistro Rollin has the Zitoune syndrome. Like Zitoune, they are offering brunch as a means to extend hours, and hopefully capture an additional market, and it shows. However, unlike Zitoune, who basically took some entrees and threw an egg in it to make it brunch, Bistro Rollin plays it safe, too safe. It wasn’t imaginative enough. The food itself was good, but not $28 good, especially since they will be participating in the upcoming Hudson Valley restaurant week with $28 prix fixe dinner.
The czar says: The quality is very good, even if the selections were a bit plain. I would be interested to go back to try them at what seems to be their stronger suit…dinner!
Sensei
February 10, 2011 at 10:18 am
You must remove all pictures of yourselves from this blog in order to maintain your Breakfast Ninja status.