Restaurant review: Hexagone
By David Nelson
The correct answer, not unexpected at a French restaurant, was “snails.”
Among the many San Diego eateries that call themselves bistros, one of the few that qualifies for the name is Hexagone, restaurateur Patrick Halcewicz’s pretty corner eatery at Fifth Avenue and Laurel Street. The entrée list includes plenty of French culinary classics, such as the similar coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon, both of which are very well executed, as well as top sirloin with sauce béarnaise (all three priced at $20). The list also features such contemporary but nonetheless French-style offerings as a pairing of Alaskan halibut and lobster in a vermouth sauce ($32), and roasted scallops with grapefruit sauce ($25).
Not much could be more gastronomically Gallic than bouillabaisse, including Hexagone’s rendition, titled “Pacific Coast Bouillabaisse” ($27) to reflect the variety of fin and shellfish that swim through rich, lusciously fragrant lobster stock scented with fennel and tomatoes. These include meaty chunks of halibut and sea bass, large but tender shrimp, and mussels and clams in the shell. This selection varies considerably from that employed by cooks in Marseilles, which claims the dish as its very special creation, but to use anything other than local seafood wouldn’t make sense. To complete the presentation, the kitchen adorns the bowl with a couple of toasts spread with rouille, the peppery garlic mayonnaise whose flavor brings a bouillabaisse to perfection. Softened in the broth, the toasts should be eaten a bit at a time with spoonfuls of soup.
French cuisine observes a very precise logic, and while Americans tend to think that salad makes a happy first course on just about any occasion – except when something like Cobb Salad will be the main event – the French see things otherwise. This partly explains why Hexagone’s appetizer menu offers nearly as many items as the entrée list. Thus when a guest considered how best to open a meal that would star bouillabaisse, the escargots a la bourguignonne ($10) seemed the most logical answer, despite the siren songs of preparations like crispy sweetbreads with wild mushroom ragout ($11), an assiette de charcuterie ($10 for this cold cut plate with choice Rosette de Lyon salami, country pate and rustic ham), and a phyllo dough-crusted crab cake in a bell pepper sauce ($10).
With the waiter’s endorsement, the snails were chosen, and served their role successfully. Each of the five was hidden beneath a green blanket of herbs and butter in an individual little pot that, while probably quite a bit smaller than Shawne Merriman’s thumbprint, is larger than the usual snail shell, since genuine shells are not designed to accommodate plush cargoes of garlicky herb butter. The snails were just a tad chewy, as is normal, and the flavor was pleasant. The miniature ponds of butter remaining in the pots justified emptying the bread basket of most of the baguette slices, and while American etiquette advises against dunking bread in this manner, it’s standard practice in France.
For dessert, the crepes Suzette beckoned ($7.50), especially since Hexagone adds Grand Marnier to the sweet, buttery sauce. Consulted yet again, the server instead suggested a Grand Marnier souffle (chocolate was the alternative; both soufflés cost $9). An ambitious, extravagant and rewarding construction, the soufflé was just air encased in a sweet nothing, an evanescent delight no more substantial than a dream, but a delight that will linger in memory. The standing dessert list veers to the American with Bananas Foster cheesecake buried beneath sauteed bananas in caramel rum sauce ($6.50), but returns to Hexagone’s French roots with blueberries cooked in crème de cassis ($7), and a honeyed apple Tarte Tatin served with crème fraiche ice cream ($8.50).
The restaurant, which borrows the nickname given six-sided France, follows the usual bistro rule of relying on reproductions of Toulouse-Lautrec and Art Nouveau advertising posters. Both bring a lively, cheerful motif to the L-shaped dining room, which looks through handsomely curtained windows across Fifth Avenue at the new Cucina Urbana. In San Diego restaurants, décor is half the battle, and Hexagone charms with Art Deco table lambs and linen-draped tables. Paris-born proprietor Halcewicz, who managed La Jolla’s landmark La Valencia hotel for some years before moving on to open French Market Grille in Rancho Bernardo (and Hexagone in 2008) is a stickler for doing things right, and service consistently ranks among the best in town.
Hexagone is located at 495 Laurel St., San Diego, 92101. Phone: (619) 236-0467, Web site: http://hexagone.thechamberworks.com.
Open seven days a week. Lunch 11 a.m.-4 p.m., happy hour 3:30 p.m.-7 p.m., dinner 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m.
