Gayle

Update: no longer open

For my birthday, I was treated to a “fancy” dinner – right after we finished watching the NCAA basketball game between UCLA and KU that ended exactly at our reservation time, and was playing at a bar conveniently located around the corner from my birthday destination. (Hmm, funny how things worked out so perfectly.) The end of March is no longer about the advent of Spring and my birthday, but about KU basketball and their quest to win the tournament. (I'm actually a NCAA basketball convert now, so I was into it.) Their quest was painfully ended on my birthday. Sorry boys. Better luck next year, but it’s off to my birthday dinner at Gayle.

Gayle is a tiny restaurant in Queen Village that serves up creative American dishes by Daniel Stern, the former executive chef of Le Bec-Fin. Crisp, white tablecloths and well mannered wait staff give Gayle a feel of elegance, while the narrow, 35-seat interior with soothing green walls give Gayle a feel of coziness.

Gayle does not take reservations, and serves an ala carte menu Monday through Wednesday. Reservations are required , and a 3- or 5-course menu is served Thursday through Saturday. There is not much to offer on Gayle’s menu for vegetarians, but we called ahead to make sure accommodations could be made for one strict vegetarian, and one vegetarian that eats fish, but no shell fish. They were happy to accommodate.

En route to a sidewalk sale the next day, I stopped in front of Gayle for a shot with light. The interior of was rearranged for a large party.

I do wish I had pictures of the food, if only because I rarely eat at restaurants that serve multiple courses of artfully presented food, but the restaurant was too dim for photography without a flash, and too intimate to annoyingly take out a camera with every presentation of a plate.

We were served a complimentary plate of the tiniest, pinky finger-sized fig and ricotta spring rolls, mushroom spring rolls, and quail eggs. The spring rolls were excellent, but I questioned the quail eggs. Eggs can freak me out, especially if they are not cooked hard, or are wet in any way. The speckled quail eggs were too tiny to dip a spoon in, so I cracked one open in my confusion as to how to eat this thing. Expecting a cooked solid, liquid horrifyingly gushed out over my plate. What was it? Was I supposed daintily pick up the egg and drink from it as if it were a tiny tea cup? Ignorant, unrefined, and a little repulsed, I let the egg juice remain untouched on my plate. Complimentary rolls then came, which I desperately tried to keep from touching the quail egg juice.

My partner and I both started with the Gayle salad of mixed greens listed on the menu. Finely chopped parsley was the dominant flavor of the salad.

For the second course, my partner was able to order the tuna from the menu. I was presented with a vegetarian substitution of a mushroom tasting consisting of sautéed enoki mushrooms, a tiny ramekin of mushroom soufflé, and a mushroom truffle (not “the” truffle mushroom). I enjoy the concept of eating an ingredient in different incarnations, so the mushroom tasting was my favorite course.

Vegetarian substitutions at restaurants invariably mean pasta tossed in a cream sauce and whatever vegetables are on the menu. The third course, eaten by both my partner and myself, was just this concoction – a lovely little twist of fettuccine in a light cream sauce with artichokes.

The forth course was a tasting of three cheeses. Forgive me, for I did not bring a pen and paper to write down the names of the cheeses. My favorite sampling was a soft cheese on a bed of pickled red cabbage and mustard. The second cheese was the driest cheese I’ve ever had. I really wish I had caught the name, so I could do research on its intended moisture content. I wanted to believe it had sat unwrapped in the cooler, but seriously doubted a restaurant of Gayle’s caliber would do such a thing. I wonder what it was? The dry cheese sat on a bed of tart cherry sauce. The third cheese was a blue cheese accompanied by candied pecans.

None of the desserts on the menu called to me. I thought the endive parfait looked intriguing, but I did not bite that hook. Instead, I ordered the ice cream sandwich with pistachio, and rosewater. I was hoping for pistachios in the ice cream, but only three or four nuts sat beside my scoops of cream or vanilla flavored ice cream wedged between crisp cookie triangles. I’m not sure where the rose water was (maybe the squiggle of sauce?), but did not shed a tear, as I find rosewater overpowering. My partner ordered breakfast, a small puck of French toast with a thin white chocolate sauce. He enjoyed the dessert; I thought nothing of it.

I might add that all of our diminutive dishes came with decorative squirts of vegetable purees, reductions, and sauces. Unfortunately, I cannot remember what any of them were or tasted like. I really wanted to be wowed by the little squirts of sauces that food reviewers ooh and aah about, but these were unmemorable. While we found Gayle’s food to be consistently good and “top notch”, the flavors and dishes were mostly unmemorable. (The explanation as to why my descriptions are lacking.) I enjoyed every dish presented to me (with the exception of the quail egg), but there was not a single dish that we fell in love with or gushed over. The neighboring table raved and gushed endlessly, so who knows?

I did feel special eating a five course meal of expertly prepared food on my birthday, but Gayle is not a place that I would regularly frequent. For everyday dining, Gayle is a little expensive for the average person, or, at least, someone like myself. (The two of us left with a bill slightly over $200 after tip and minimal drinks.) I would recommend the ala carte menu for those of us who are cash-strapped, and want to see what Gayle has to offer. The good news is that Gayle will be making the warm weather menu that comes out in a few weeks a la carte all week long. They'll also be opening up an outdoor dining area.

Gayle, 617 S 3rd St., Philadelphia, PA 19147, (215)922-3850
Open House: Tues.-Thurs., 5:30-10pm; Dining Out: Fri.-Sat., 5:30-10pm