| Maxie's
Supper Club and Oyster Bar has always been a party, spilling
over with enthusiastic patrons, good local music, great food
and grog, and fun. Chick and Dewi Evans take a smart approach
to the art and the theater of the restaurant business, and their
place has recently - and intelligently - grown to accommodate
both the happy crowds and the busy kitchen staff without sacrificing
a thing in the way of food, service, or ambiance.
On a recent visit, we were happy to discover our old favorites
still on the menu, the same top-quality New Orleans-style fresh
raw oysters on the half shell nestled around a string of silvery
Mardi Gras beads; that most comforting of southern comfort foods,
shrimp and grits with tasso sauce and smoky andouille sausage;
a good selection of fish prepared in imaginative ever-changing
ways; meaty crab cakes; crusty oyster or fried green tomato
po' boys; and late-night small dinners, perfect for satisfying
those after-theater munchies. But you have probably sampled
most of that.
There's still the same watchful, gracious service in the new
Tavern as well as in the original bar and dining room. And the
Evanses have completely refurbished and expanded their kitchen,
as well as adding a smoker that cranks out hunks of slow-cooked,
tender, intricately spiced barbecued meats.
Early on a Sunday evening, before Maxie's weekly Shuck and Jive
musicale, we wandered in to find the place packed with people,
conversation, and laughter.
We centered ourselves with a double trio of the oysters du jour
- briny and fashionably gray in their iridescent shells - served
up with two sauces: one of vinegar and shallots, the other a
red cocktail sauce with the rare treat of sinus-clearing freshly
grated horseradish.
Surveying Maxie's Martini Buffet, we were tempted by the Mango
Martini. But, with spring right around the corner, we settled
on the Maxirita, the house margarita: big, wet, and refreshingly
tart.
The "specials" menu offered small and large platters
and we first dug into a "small." A filleted and sautéed
Wyoming golden trout was encrusted with crunchy crushed tortillas
and decked out with a well-balanced chipotle mole sauce that
danced with sweet, slow, cheery heat. And we were just getting
warmed up. From the regular menu, a bowl of the gumbo - dark,
spicy, complex, and meaty - was richly satisfying.
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But
the star of this show was the aptly named Piggy Platter, a sampler
of the new smoker's products. Folks of normal appetite would have
been sated by that time, but we dove - forks first - into a heap
of supremely tender, smoky pulled pork in a vinegary North Carolina-style
sauce; a quarter rack of well-bronzed Kansas City-style barbecued
ribs; a mound of barbecued beans that had smoked under the meats,
catching their smoke-darkened juices; a generous helping of crunchy,
piquant coleslaw dotted with parsley; and a hunk of chewy cornbread
with not a hint of chalky baking soda - all in all, a smokehouse
tour de force. This we washed down with Hosmer's Dry Rosé,
a good companion to the barbecue's smoke and spices.
For dessert, we settled on a slim slice of pecan tart, a delicate
and restrained slice of buttery crusted pecan'd heaven surrounded
by a stark study in white: Purity vanilla ice cream cross-hatched
with a pale cinnamon crème anglaise, and topped with an
ever-so-tasteful dollop of whipped cream. Fab!
A slightly less adventuresome bowl of the local bittersweet ice
cream, served with a crisp gaufrette, was another fine finale.
We add our own kudos to the Wine Spectator's for Maxie's award-winning
wine list. Dewi Evans and Kim Navarro have put together a roster
that draws from the reasonably priced best of both old world and
new, with a thoughtful selection of wines by the glass, half bottles,
and, best of all, a good listing of Finger Lakes wines which are
also available by the glass. There's also a handful of well-chosen
dessert wines, desserts in themselves, including Bonny Doon's
Framboise, a couple of Ports, a Muscat de Beaumes, and a Sauternes.
Maxie's, located at 635 W. State Street, is a party any
night, but particularly on Tuesdays and Sundays, when bands carry
on. The kitchen is open for dinner until midnight, later on weekends.
They don't accept reservations, but you can call 272-4136 for
information.
Restaurant stories in the Ithaca Times are generally done with
full knowledge of the establishment's owners. The writer interviews
staff members and is presented with a meal for two as a courtesy
of the restaurant.
©Ithaca Times 2004
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