Comments (0) Best Small Plates - 2004
Cortez - CLOSED
The small plates served here aren't tapas, but exquisitely prepared appetizers and entrees just a touch on the small side (and at somewhat lower prices than you'd expect in a place of such ambition). The menu encourages sharing, but you could just as easily dine satisfyingly by ordering a traditional three-course meal. The sophisticated cooking of married chefs Quinn and Karen Hatfield is well suited to this plush, modern, dinner-only restaurant tucked into the Hotel Adagio: foie gras terrine; fris?e salad with smoked trout; lavender-honey-glazed duck breast with chestnuts, pears, and celery root; rare beef loin topped with coins of marrow; lamb crusted with dates and mint. The fanciful desserts (a tart of chocolate ganache and peppermint cream topped with a saillike chocolate wafer, another tart of lemon with a crisp cap of meringue, citrus sections, and ginger ice cream) are just as assured. Perfect for a pre- or post-theater supper.
