Mar 31 2009
Blades’ Bistro – Placitas, New Mexico
Blades' Bistro in Placitas, New Mexico
“Ask three Placitans what they like best about living in Placitas and…
one will say it is being so far from everything, another, being so close to everything–and both will be right.”
- The Placitas Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of Commerce not withstanding, the distance from Placitas to fabulous gourmet restaurants has spanned both great mileage and the healing passage of time for residents. When hungry, the mileage between Placitas and either Santa Fe or Albuquerque seems interminable. When fondly recalling a glorious meal within its doors, time is the sole comforter for residents still missing their beloved Cafe De Las Placitas, a magnificent shooting star which faded away much too quickly but left an indelible afterglow.
Most residents will agree the distance to fine restaurant dining is a small price to pay when you live in an idyllic haven back-dropped by the reddish Sandias and surrounded by panoramic views of hills dotted with dessert flora, weather-worn mesas and verdured mountains. Compared to its bustling, burgeoning, boisterous neighbors, Placitas is a serene harbor of refuge and respite.
Blades' Bistro in Placitas (Photo by Sergio Salvador)
The village of Placitas (in Spanish, literally “places”) was formed by the San Antonio de las Huertas (Saint Anthony of the Gardens) Spanish land grant in 1745. While many descendants of the original land-grant families still reside in Placitas, it has in recent years blossomed as an affluent bedroom community for residents employed in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Fewer than a dozen non-realty businesses call Placitas home, most of them ensconced in the Homestead Village shopping center, home of Blades’ Bistro.
Blades’ Bistro, which opened on March 19th, 2009, has greatly narrowed the distance to fine-dining for Placitas residents while rekindling fond memories of fabulous gourmet experiences at the long defunct Cafe De Las Placitas. For diners who frequent the former, comparisons to the latter will be inevitable–and they will be favorable. In fact, Blades’ Bistro might soon be a standard by which restaurant greatness will be measured. It’s that good!
Chef Kevin Bladergroen
Within a week after Blades’ opened, an excited Bruce Schor shared the news of its launch with me. ”My first impression was I’m not in Placitas any more,” he related. ”It has a sophisticated ambience, very big city feel and the food is terrific.” Bruce’s glowing descriptions of what he ate were the inspired impetus for our first visit.
Had it not been for Bruce, we might have thought the name “Blades” had to do with Rio Rancho’s multiplex arena by that name expanding into Placitas and into the restaurant business. Apparently several people have made that mistaken assumption. Blades’ Bistro is actually named for brothers Michael and Kevin Bladergroen. Their name is Dutch, while their restaurant is a veritable melting pot of European and American culinary influences.
Baked Mushrooms (escargot style) / white wine, garlic herb butter, fresh parmesan
An exhibition kitchen is the domain in which Kevin Bladergroen plies his chef trade as he has now for three and a half decades. After years of opening, working in and managing the kitchens of several restaurants in Europe and America, he has set down roots in Placitas. No stranger to New Mexico, he started his professional career in 1975 at Casa Vieja, a Corrales institution. He has also worked at the Prairie Star and before partnering with his brother to launch Blades’ Bistro, was executive chef at the innovative Standard Diner.
The chef is classically trained, having attended the prestigious “La Varenne” cooking school in Paris. His curriculum vitae also includes a unique professional odyssey by motor home. To broaden his culinary edification, he traveled across the country to work in several restaurants with chefs he admired. The journey included stops at a small coastal resort town in Maine; Aspen, Colorado, the glitzy playground for the rich and famous; and Pebble Beach, California, home of the national pro-am, one of golf’s most important events.
Beautiful plating at Blades' Bistro (Photo by Sergio Salvador)
Chef Bladergroen’s menu is a culmination of his vast culinary training and experience. His cooking philosophy centers around using high quality ingredients to create a “melting pot of taste” with an innovative yet surprisingly unpretentious and simple menu influenced by the European and American culinary cultures from which he learned.
Some facets–moderately priced culinary fare and pleasant service–of Blades’ are true to the Parisian bistro concept, however, it could be debated that the setting is not exactly casual. It’s very well appointed and stylish, certainly more upscale than your typical bistro (albeit without being overweening). It’s a restaurant in which you’ll feel right at home and have fun while being inspired to be on your best behavior.
Roasted Fresh Beets
Although the bistro doesn’t have a formal “chef’s table” per se, you can still feel like like a VIP by sitting in an area directly adjacent to the exhibition kitchen. Only a plexiglass sneeze guard and an extended countertop separate you from the kitchen. You’ll be close enough to converse with the chef, an amicable gentleman with a good sense of humor. Chef Bladergroen is very well organized and purposeful in every motion. He is a treat to watch.
As enlightening and inspiring as sitting in close proximity to the kitchen might be, even better are the intoxicating aromas emanating from the panoply of pots and pans perpetually sitting atop high flames. Watching every appetizer and entree in every phase of its preparation, unfortunately doesn’t make it any easier to decide what you want to eat. Everything looks and smells absolutely fabulous. My advice–let the chef pick something for you. Don’t even let him tell you what it is so you can be surprised when it arrives at your table. That’s what I’m happy to have done.
Shrimp Melanaise
Blades’ array of appetizers is impressive, but not because of sheer numbers. Including daily specials there are only about a half dozen appetizers available, but if our inaugural choices are any indication, they are of four-star quality.
Fans of fleshy and fabulous fungi will fawn over baked mushrooms served escargot style. Blanketed by a light, flaky puff pastry, rich, mellow mushrooms are baked in a light white wine broth with garlic herb butter and parmesan. Mushrooms, it turns out, are the ideal vehicle for soaking up all the buttery goodness (which even Gourmet magazine believes is the best best part of escargot).
It’s not easy to sop up any remaining broth with the hard-crusted crostini which accompanies the mushroom dish, but the crostini is lightly toasted and provides a nice counterpoint to the starring attraction’s richness.
Con Frutti de Mar -- (The Fruit of the sea) Shrimp-Scallops-Lobster with white wine garlic cream sauce over linguini
Beauteous, blood-red beets roasted so they retain a soft inside and a firm exterior are the center point of a second appetizer, roasted red beets with toasted goat cheese and a Balsamic glaze drizzle on a bed of Arugula and Radicchio. The fresh red beets are moist and tangy, a flavor complement to the smooth, creamy texture and mild flavor of the goat cheese and both are a perfect counterbalance to the savory salt and pepper flavors of the Arugula and Radicchio salad. Red Beets are unique for their high levels of anti-carcinogens and their very high carotenoid content. It’s also heartening that they’re so delicious especially at the hands of a skilled chef.
The entree chef Bladergroen prepared for me during our inaugural visit is a dish he started preparing while serving as chef in a Fort Pierce, Florida restaurant overlooking an Atlantic waterfront. It’s Shrimp Milanaise, an entree named for the Italian city of Milan. For the most part I’ve equated breaded shrimp with disdained restaurant chains that tend to serve them in all-you-can-choke-down quantities. I had also assumed initially that the breading would be similar to the breading used on steak Milanesa, a Mexican favorite. Blades’ Bistro has forever changed those conceptions.
The breading is light and very well seasoned, adhering like a second skin to the perfectly prepared, sweet and succulent shrimp without dominating their native sea born flavors. Appropriately–being this entree is prepared by a Dutch chef–the shrimp are served with dollops of smooth and creamy Hollandaise sauce which imparts a rich, buttery flavor with a mild tang. Also served with the dish are rice and carrots, green beans and fennel served al dente. There are only two things wrong with the entree: it doesn’t come with a dozen or more of the crusty crustaceans and it’s not on the daily menu.
Tiramisu
Seafood lovers in land-locked New Mexico have rarely had the quality of succulent shellfish and mollusks available in one dish–Blades’ Bistro’s Con Frutti de Mar, literally fruit of the sea. This entree features shrimp, scallops and lobster with a white wine garlic sauce over linguini. It’s an inspired entree in which the richness of the sauce is a concordant marriage for the sweetness of the seafood. It will not only sate your lust for protein and carbs, it may leaving you swooning in appreciation.
Portions are right-sized–large enough to quell your appetite, but so tasty you’ll crave “American-sized” quantities. Other menu options include Steak Frites with Bearnaise, an entree Bruce Schor called “perfection.” The menu includes two soups, four salads and including daily specials, about ten entrees. Carnivores, herbivores and omnivores alike will find something to love.
What many will love most is dessert and Blades’ Bistro doesn’t disappoint here either. An ethereal option sure to please one and all is the tiramisu. Blades’ rendition is served in a large goblet but the cake’s component parts are certainly present: ladyfinger biscuits dipped in espresso layered in a whipped mixture of mascarpone, sugar, egg yolks topped with cocoa. The distinct addition of a liqueur is also discernible. It is a phenomenal dessert and that’s selling it short.
Decadent and delicious desserts at Blades' Bistro (Photo by Sergio Salvador)
In time, what may seem like a great distance will be felt by Albuquerque and Santa Fe residents headed for a great restaurant find in a city heretofore not known for restaurant fare. Blades’ is that good.
Blades´ Bistro
221 Highway 165 Suite L
Placitas, New Mexico
505) 771-0695
Web Site
LATEST VISIT: 31 March 2009
# OF VISITS: 1
RATING: *
COST: $$$$
BEST BET: Baked Mushrooms (escargot style), Roasted Fresh Beets with toasted Goat Cheese @ Balsamic Glace Drizzle, Con Frutti de Mar, Shrimp Melanaise, Tiramisu
Gil
We took a friend to Blade’s Bistro for his birthday dinner last night. Like most Placitians
we were anticipating the opening of a good restaurant here in town after a longish dry
spell. We were very impressed with the quality of the food. The baked mushrooms were
excellent, as was the calamare. The fruit de Mer was excellent as was the steak frites
entree. However….
Considering that it was Saturday night, and that the room was nearly full at six-fifteen
( and filled up rapidly after that )…the service was impossibly haphazard. Hungry, thirsty
patrons gesturing wildly in the hope of attracting the attention of one of the rather
stunned looking ( As in ” What am I doing Here ? ” ) waitstaff, grew increasingly
desperate as the time ground on at a rather glacial pace. For a table of three (with two
entrees being the same ) there was no possible excuse for me to be brought steak
frites when I had ordered the other steak dish on the menu. The Maitresse d’ gamely
struggled to brace up the woefully confused waitstaff who ( I might add )
mis-functioned in full view of the Exhibition Kitchen where the real magic was being
made. I also have to add that Blade’s, like many Bistro styled restaurants, is no
stranger to nearly ear-shattering noise levels which make dinner conversation
virtually impossible without benefit of of some antique silver ear-trumpets. I know
that the stained concrete floors in vogue these days are considered painfully chic, but
dining in a six-sided cube comprised of six hard surfaces makes for a less than peaceful
experience. Some carpet might be in order.
I know we’ll go to Blade’s again…perhaps after a long enough wait to hope the
service comes somewhere near the elegance and precision of the kitchen.
in full view
We returned to Blade’s Bistro in Placitas. As Before the food was flawless…..as good as it gets in NM. This time the service was absolutely up to snuff, prompt and precise. Apparently the opening week was a muddle…which is quite usual. But Blade’s is now an important venue in Alb………very few of the Ritzy Outfits in Santa Fe can hold a candle to the silky, fine quality of cuisine at Blade’s. We are completely dazzled
We have eaten at our neighborhood restaurant twice now. Here are my impressions:
PROS: Very upscale ambiance. Perhaps the nicest in NM. A nice touch are the handsome paintings by Wayne Mikosz and Riha Rothberg, owners of Lunatique, the predecessor to Blades.
The staff are responsive and welcome every guest and thank every guest for coming.
The acoustics are excellent and even when crowded it is easy to hear a conversation at your table.
The wait staff are knowledgeable, attentive, and helpful.
In short, a class operation all the way.
The wine list is good and the prices for wine by the glass are comparable to less expensive restaurants. There is a good selection of mid range wines.
CONS: I have had the chicken in a lemon and caper sauce and the special pasta with smoked salmon. The sauce for both was too heavy to the point of being almost congealed. This may be a style thing, but for my money, a lighter sauce would be more appropriate.
The soup du jour was served luke warm as was the coffee after the meal. The chef may have wanted the soup to be warm and not hot, but there is no excuse for luke warm coffee.
Finally a nit pick. Where so waiters learn to speak of the specials in the future tense? “Tonights special is going to be trout which is going to be served with rice and is going to come with broccoli!” At least our server was consistent.
We really want this restaurant to do well in this food challenged area and I hope the staff at Blades sees these comments.
No tiramisu on my visit but mascarpone cheesecake with lemon curd? Quite tasty.
second visit: mushroom appetizer…fantastic
bread: awful
caprese salad: less than ordinary
chicken entree: acceptable
twice baked potato: awful
apple tart: great
hoping this potentially lovely spot doesn’t go downhill; I could not believe how ordinary the entree and sides were. too bad.
can’t wait to try this one; i truly miss Cafe de la Placitas!
After a third and a fourth dinner at Blades the brilliant quality from the kitchen equals extraordinarily fine dining no matter how you cut it anywhere in New Mexico and many other places where people appreciate fine dining.
The service has become careful and appreciatively precise…without being overly fussy. The standard from the kitchen is un-flaggingly lovely…..it is quite obvious that Blade’s has rapidly grown up to be one of the very best fine dining venues in the Southwest. Subsuming all the long years of European& American excellence training of it’s owners…………..we are delighted to have such a charming little boite so close to home. We have driven way many more miles for purportedly great food, only to be disappointed. Blades is absolutely the Real Thing.
We suggest you make reservations. Blades is very much in the top rank
Bon Appetit
DH
We made our 1st vist to Blades Bistro this past Wednesday evening.
Heard lots of good things – I’m just sorry we waited so long to make the drive up to Placitis from Corrales.
The quality of the meal, the ambiance and level of service were all exceptional. A combination not easily – nor consistently found in the Albuquerque metro area.
The diverse menu was a delight!
I agree – the wine list prices are not outragous – unlike many other venues in ABQ.
And I must say “The 1/2 price bottle of wine night” is something more restaurants should consider in this tight economy.
They are featuring Milagro Vineyards at a Winemakers Wine Night on Dec 7 – Nice to see they support the local industry!
Since my last rather unfavorable review, shortly after the restaurant opened, my wife and I have been back to Blades Bistro at least a half dozen times. And I am happy to report that with each visit, we have liked the restaurant more and more.
The food has steadily gotten better and better and the service is professional and excellent. Even on the nights when they are busy.
Kevin, the owner and chef is very creative and inventive and the food now first rate. Anja, the owner/hostess could not be more welcoming and charming. And the ambiance is more San Francisco than Placitas.
Blades features the artwork of local artists and is displayed in the manner and style of a fine art gallery.
My wife and I celebrated our 36th anniversary at Blades last evening. We started with a glass of wine and shared the spinach salad which was served with Gorgonzola, beets, and grilled peaches. It was excellent. I had the special pork chop and my wife had the trout amondine. Both were well prepared and delicious. For desert we shared the strawberry shortcake over a cup of really fine coffee.
Blades is now serving lunch on Friday and Saturday and has a Sunday brunch.
I’m happy to say that Blades has become our favorite restaurant. I highly recommend it for the excellent food, friendly atmosphere, and elegant ambiance.