 LE RÊVE
Fine dining is dreamy in
this intimate restaurant
By RON BECHTOL
Photography JANET ROGERS
These days, Andrew Weissman claims he gets about five hours of sleep a night because he needs it, not because he really wants it. Before the opening of The Sandbar, the raw bar and seafood market Weissman and his wife, Maureen, recently created adjacent to their critically acclaimed restaurant, Le Rêve, he used to get by on even less.
Driven, some might say obsessed, Weissman turned Le Rêve into one of the best restaurants in the state by virtue of total dedication to craft — and no small amount of talent. But nevertheless it would be tempting to suspect that any chef who spends his daylight hours behind the counter of a casual seafood bar and his evenings in the confines of a compact, Frenchfocused kitchen where every move must be carefully choreographed would experience burnout. Not so Weissman; the challenge, as a recent reverie at Le Rêve proved, only appears to have energized him.
For those of you who have been following the search, this was, at last, the occasion of the wearing of dining companion’s black and rhinestone-trimmed strapless — if not here, then nowhere else in San Antonio was the theory. And though Le Rêve’s elegant interior is just informal enough to admit of less glamorous gowns, it also accepts them with aplomb; there were sparks on both sides of the opening linking kitchen to dining room.
A complimentary amuse bouche of cold corn bisque and a tiny, toasted gruyere “sandwich” began the evening with eclat, and the trajectory was upwards from there. Le Rêve’s wine list, short but well-considered, plays into the fireworks by proposing not only wines by the glass in addition to full and half-bottles, but also offers flights of several wines, both still and sparkling. We landed on the flights without hesitation, beginning with a series of three American whites (sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio and, inevitably, chardonnay), and three American reds (pinot noir, zinfandel and a meritage, Bordeaux-like blend), playing them for all they were worth against first courses. (We had selected the $85 four-course prix-fixe option, a three- and a five- also being available, as is a tasting menu, with or without matching wine.)
First to arrive was a Maine hard-shell lobster tail in green sauce with an accompanying “petite,” fresh herb salad, all presented on one of Weissman’s characteristically quirky (and handsome) serving pieces. Two comments: as good as the also-petite lobster tail was, the herb salad nearly stole the show with its exhilarating freshness and zing (a little more green sauce might have made the presentation slightly less minimal and the taste of the lobster perhaps a little more highkey); and — though I know full well that having six wine glasses on the table is unwieldy in the extreme — I’d prefer to have all the wines of the flight in front of me at one time, just for comparison purposes. That, however, is it in the way of criticism (well, there’s one more minor observation to follow — see if you can find it); those of you who cloy easily might want to stop here. Though, of course, I don’t really suggest it.
The lobster was classified as a salad in the Le Rêve scheme of things; our actual appetizer was the one item we simply couldn’t resist: the seared Hudson Valley “hamburger” with mango and fig chutney. You’ve neverhad a burger like this baby(meant to be taken literally as well as colloquially); it’s Lilliputian in size but Brobdingnagian in taste, the foie gras being unctuous in the extreme and the “chutney” (a deconstructed model, with mango and fig each singing separately) playing the contrasting sweet and sour role. Pick up the baby bun and have at it. And though palate cleansing as such is hardly required chez le Rêve, it will follow next, ours in the form of a pink grapefruit and dry vermouth sorbet — not a bad thing in its own right.
We continued — slowly, as one is both required and happy to do—with two contrasting entrées, a tournedo of Black Angus beef with a wild mushroom ragout, and poached black bass with “fluffy” quenelles and a New Zealand spot prawn. The spot prawn was spot-on in this plate – almost lobster- like in taste and consistency, and the quenelle of bass,lobster and shrimp was spectacularly delicate, yet full of flavor. All of which left the bass with little to do but be competent — which it was to a fault.
 The beef and the ragout, on the other hand, duked it out to a draw; we loved them both, with the mushrooms each having a distinct flavor and the beef so perfect – crusty yet reassuringly rosy — that it reminded us why we continue to eat it, concerns of ethics and efficiency aside.
Two new wines, a 2000 Dr. Berklin Wolf Estate Riesling and a Kunde Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon 2001, weighed in at this point, and the Riesling proved the flexible fighter of the evening; it went with everything, including several of the cheeses on the not-to-be missed cheese course.
You’re on your own here; many choices will be presented, and the problem is to limit your selection to a reasonable number — trying all the while to experience a full range, from soft to hard, cow to sheep and goat, mild to pungent. An unusually assertive (for the South) Virginia cheese got our attention, as did a sheep/goat/cow combo. The presentation, with honeycomb, balsamic glaze and dried fruits, only enhances the experience. And if you’ve been seduced by the idea of Riesling, the story simply gets better.
We’re into our third hour by this point, but dessert beckons, and the hours simply melt away — right along with a spectacular panna cotta limned with lapidary fragments of fruits such as fig, raspberry and mango.
The high point of the evening, however, might also have been its most modest: the glass of milk served with a chocolate-coconut cake scented with curry. “You can’t have chocolate cake without milk,” claimed our attentive maitre d’— and he was right. Not even a chocolate cake with amazingly friendly curry accents. Haute and homey can co-exist in the right environment.
Le Rêve
152 E. Pecan, (210) 212-2221
Dinner, Tues.-Sat., 5:45 - 8:30 p.m.
Jacket required/major credit cards
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