In the Neighborhood

Le Café and Red Light bring distinctive styles to the Upper Eastside

By Danny Brody

Le Café’s salmon with mango relish and a side of red potatoes and carrots. Photo by Richard M. Brooks

Neighborhood restaurants can help redefine a neighborhood — something Michy’s did for the Upper Eastside and Michael’s Genuine did for the Design District, paving the way for other brave chefs and entrepreneurs to pick up the gauntlet of creative chef-driven menus, fairly priced wine lists and an informal environment that masks a very substantial ambition. Of course, just because you live in their respective neighborhoods doesn’t mean they’re mere neighborhood places. Two new spots on Biscayne Boulevard employ completely different methods to arrive at that “neighborhood” designation, and both please equally on their own levels.

Le Café

7295 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-754-6551

Bruce and Lucia Brill, owners of Asia Bay Bistro in Bal Harbour, have re-energized the old Café Le Glacier, now called Le Café, in a small strip a few blocks north of Michy’s.

The idea for a French place stemmed from their sushi bar’s location next to a French bakery, and, almost by osmosis, the aromas of fresh-baked goods began to permeate their thoughts. The result is a low-key spot with mustard-colored walls, framed French posters, lazily turning wooden ceiling fans and a small bakery that turns out fresh baguettes and croissants every day.

Every neighborhood needs at least one or two good bakeries to be taken seriously, and the Upper Eastside finally has its first (with another possible contender, Yiya’s, coming soon to Northeast 79th Street).

The whole-wheat loaves are crusty outside and fluffy within, and are great plain or with a little butter alongside the Segafredo coffees they serve. The croissants are crusty, without being too much so, and their healthy aroma is mostly of butter. The chocolate croissants, however, are beautifully over the top, with filling oozing out everywhere — bread and chocolate as only the French do it. Although Bruce hails from Holland and Lucia is from Colombia, their chef is from France. 

All of the soups and quiches are made from scratch, and the quiche lorraine, loaded with ham, has a nice custardy zing to it, with a light crust holding it together. The vegetarian quiche is comprised mostly of spinach, which is a healthy, substantial alternative. However, I wasn’t too fond of the lackluster seafood quiche, as I’m not a big fan of surimi, or imitation crab, which would probably taste better at room temperature, rather than reheated. But something as pedestrian as chicken salad really tasted refined tucked into a slim, fresh baguette. The entrées are not too bold, with salmon and snapper leading the way. But for $14, I’m sure there are a lot of folks in the neighborhood who would rather have someone else do the cooking while they sit out on Le Cafe’s little patio, enjoying a $25 bottle of Vivir, Vivir and snacking on some escargots in garlic butter sauce.

Red Light

7700 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-757-7773

At Red Light, just a few blocks north but light years away in aspirations, Chef Kris Wessel’s goal was to do the improbable — turn out a full menu of ambitiously sourced and prepared food, night after night, from a tiny kitchen with barely any prep space. Of course, it has turned out to be impossible, for now, and Wessel has had to be content with sending out a limited menu of modern American cuisine, with such flourishes as sous vide, or vacuum-packed slow cooking, mixed with more traditional items such as burgers and barbecue shrimp.

The menu may list just one soup — the conch-rich chowder — one salad and maybe seven or eight main dishes, most of which are served in small and large portions. While some of these items are phenomenal, such as the fried baby conch ($8 or $15), others mystify, such as the slow-cooked ribs, which manage to be dense, yet flavorless.

Although the menu items rotate, two are always available — Wessel’s signature BBQ Shrimp ($10 or $18), done New Orleans-style, which means they are not barbecued at all, but floating in a tangy Worcestershire-based sauce; and a trendy “pan roast” of organic eggs, applewood bacon, morbier cheese and tomato toast ($9 or $17). There’s usually a local catch of the day, such as pompano, served in one of Chef Wessel’s fruit-forward sauces. I especially liked the Spiny Lobster, served with leeks, orange confit, red bliss potatoes and littleneck clams ($12 for a half portion), and cooked sous vide, which means the ingredients (at least the lobster and one or two other ingredients) are cooked in a vacuum pouch in a thermal circulator, which keeps water at a constant low temperature, 110 degrees, for 20 minutes. The pouch is then opened tableside and poured over the other ingredients. I’ve never eaten spiny lobster that tasted quite like this, although I will say that this dish is both fascinating and frustrating at the same time.

Perhaps that is my only real beef with Red Light. If the chef is going to introduce new cooking methods to the table, perhaps they should be accompanied by better service. Dumping a bag of food on the plate is inelegant at best, especially when the cooking method is described by the server as “like papillote” (cooking in parchment), which is nothing at all like sous vide. Or when the server brought a bottle of wine to the table and asked if we’d “like to taste it first, or should I just pour it?” — a question that simply should not be asked. Of course, all neighborhood joints are granted special exemptions to work out some of the kinks, and, in the end, I’m sure the allure of Kris Wessel’s innovative cooking, as well as the location on the “banks of the Little River,” will outshine any early misstep.