It is always hard to know what to make of prestigious awards. Iraq war-enabler George Tenet has the Presidential Medal of Freedom after all, while Ku Klux Klan-loving Woodrow Wilson, war-criminal Henry Kissinger, and brutal-dictator coddler Mother Teresa all won the Nobel Peace Prize. My sole contribution to world peace is to drink to it from time to time, and I intended to do so at Five Fifty Five’s newish “Point Five Lounge” while trying out the lounge menu. We unexpectedly found 555 in a self-satisfied mood in the wake of chef Steve Corry’s inclusion on Food and Wine’s list of the ten best new chefs in the country.
Corry has probably never coddled a corrupt dictator (they favor personal chefs), though it would help to be one to afford many of the wines on 555’s extensive yet rarified list. Food and Wine’s list of chefs is rarified too. Along with Corry this year it featured Sean O’Brien at Myth in San Francisco, where I had my most memorable meal last year, as well as April Bloomfield at The Spotted Pig in New York, where I recently added my name to a three-hour waitlist (they don’t take reservations) before giving up. A few years back they recognized Rob Evans of Portland’s Hugo’s — which should have a three-hour wait for their strangely intriguing and surprisingly affordable bar menu, but somehow there is never a crowd.
Though Food and Wine knows its stuff, 555 has never sat entirely right with me. It’s a touch more expensive than some of Portland’s best, and you get the feeling that they justify the price with overly self-conscious style. I don’t love that the waiters give you the bullet on all the ingredients when they give you your plate — behavior usually reserved for a tasting menu. At one meal a waiter pushed an expensive wine without probing our preferences, and a pork loin tasted too hammy. But I have had some great dishes there, and another waiter pointed us to the terrific Tohu Pinot Noir.
While the service was fine, with the exception of a salad that never arrived to pacify a famished vegetarian, we had a mixed experience with the food in the lounge. The menu is mostly an abbreviated version of what you get in the dining room, which matters little since they give you the full menu as well. On two visits we were greeted with a complementary amuse bouche — a seared halibut with avocado that resembled fish guacamole, and a more successful salmon with chile oil and fennel, which offered a mild but complex heat. Among the starters there was a minimalist crostini with a single strip of candy-sweet pepper and another of anchovy — which looked more interesting than it tasted. A blended sunchoke soup tasted about as tan as it looked.
Smoked scallop cakes were more successful, if a touch too bready. The red-brown pucks looked great on top of a smear of thick green onion aioli that captured the essence of the vegetable. It came with a great pea-shoot salad that made me wish more for the salad that never arrived the other night. The braised meat in the lamb pie was just the right amount of tender, and I would have loved a little more of it on the petite puff pastry. The hanger steak was fine but unremarkable. Ordered medium-rare, each strip was rare on one side, and medium on the other. It came with fries cut so thin and cooked so crisp that they were essentially rendered a crunchy way to convey grease (their own and an iffy curry aioli or very good parmesan aioli) to your mouth. Our waiter helped us find a few very nice cheeses to end our meal.
So the strengths and weaknesses of the Point Five Lounge are typical of 555 itself. It’s a nice-looking room, warm despite cool colors. The white table clothes of the main space have been traded for copper tables that match the clipboards that hold the menus. Moving the bar into the lounge allowed 555 to gain a few tables, but that main room is less cozy now, and patrons will prefer the balcony more than ever. Moving the entrance over is also meant to help them manage the main room’s temperature. That became a big problem thanks to sub-par air conditioning during last summer’s heat wave. This is probably a wise move. When Al Gore wins the next Nobel Peace Prize it will serve as a useful reminder that there is more where that came from.
Point Five Lounge | 555 Congress Street, Portland | 207.761.0555 | Visa, MC, AmEx | Full Bar | Mon-Thurs 5-10 pm; Fri-Sat 5-10:30 pm; Sun 5-9:30 pm
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Brian Duff: bduff@une.edu
