New Town's new face
Freta 33ul. Freta 33/35WarsawHours: Open daily: Noon-midnightTelephone 635-0931Reservations and credit cardsaccepted
The tulip vendors have arrived, and that means only one thing in Warsaw: winter hibernation is almost over.
No more scraping ice off your windscreen for 15 minutes each morning, or putting on six layers to walk down the road to buy a loaf of bread. Beautiful fruits and berries aren't far away from the grocers' shelves and everyone will be longing to sit outdoors with friends in the balmy twilight, sipping a cold beer. And there could be no finer place to indulge than Warsaw's New Town.
Sometimes considered to be the poor cousin of the Old Town, this area has grown up over the winter. Just through the red-bricked barbican, the New Town's main street, ulica Freta, has suddenly sprouted a new generation of groovy bars and restaurants. Leave the Old Town to the tour groups and sellers of crappy craft the New Town has real credibility.
The newest addition is Freta 33. It opened in early February and already business is booming: On a Thursday night, a few tables were free. This place is of cosy proportions, but the decoration is mind expanding. In the entrance alcove, wine glasses and plastic fruit are inexplicably stuck on the ceiling. Inside, whitewashed walls are decorated with pencil and charcoal sketches of nudes from students at the nearby academy of art. On closer inspection, for practical purposes, they are actually photocopies.
Two torn white umbrellas are suspended from the roof, and a bicycle hangs on the wall. Color is provided by great vases of fresh tulips, while the bar and kitchen areas resemble a submarine all gray metal and great big bolts. It might sound like an odd combination, but somehow it works and all evening, as people strolled by, they stopped to peer through the big windows at this strange tableau.
The menu is concise just six entries under the heading of male (small), four duze (large) options and four dalej duze (extra large). The dishes have a passport that could be from anywhere in the world, but are definitely influenced by Freta 33's owner, Marta Gasinska, who recently returned home after spending 20 years in San Francisco, California.
Gasinska, a florist by trade, employed designers Marcin Stajewski and Marek Lewandowski to create a restaurant that says "artist's loft," and the menu choices sound just as stylishly conceptual sweet potato with nuts, raisins and dates; white bean salad with balsamic vinegar; sage ravioli with ricotta cheese and brown butter; and veal with Chanterelles, lentils, parsley and pepper sauce.
The wine list is small, but there's enough to keep everyone amused. We had the Casillero del Diablo 1999 Chardonnay (zl. 85) and David enjoyed what he thought was one of the best glasses of draft Zywiec he's come across in Warsaw.
My starter was simple and sublime two buckwheat blinis the size of saucers, with a grilled sardine tucked in between and a pot of light herb dressing on the side. The blinis were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside, so I all but inhaled them. They were a perfect accompaniment to the plump, subtly sweet sardine.
David had the soup of the day a heart-warming vegetable and meat broth with sour cabbage.
"That's the best cabbage I've ever tasted," David said. "I think it's the only way I want to eat cabbage." And this is coming from a man who all but passes out whenever he nears a giant tub of sauerkraut at the local grocery store.
Freta 33's lone waiter, who discreetly patrolled the room with the efficiency of a German train timetable, served our main dishes with aplomb. They came on rectangular plates, which made them look a bit like TV dinners, but they tasted nothing like them.
David's baked duck with raspberry sauce, Brussels sprouts and potatoes garnished with walnuts was tender and full of rich flavor. For duck, it was surprisingly nonfatty. While the dish was certainly no gourmet spectacular, it was simple food done well.
The same with my osso buco. It came with plump grains of barley and a wonderful feel-good vegetable stew of carrots and parsnips. The three pieces of veal shank were delicious, but just ever-so-slightly tough. I like it best when this Italian stew has been cooked for so long that the meat just falls off the bone. The shanks were sliced through and I extracted the creamy, rich bone marrow with great relish. The only thing lacking was a sprinkling of gremolata the mix of chopped parsley, garlic and lemon zest that is the authentic accompaniment to osso buco.
With a meal so good, how could we resist sampling the dessert menu? There are just three choices I had the lemon tart, and David the chocolate-cinnamon mousse. The ice cream will have to wait until next time.
The chocolate-cinnamon mousse was a two-tone wonder: on the bottom sat a circular piece of chocolate mousse filled with so much rich cocoa, it was delectably salty, but it was tempered by the sweeter flavors of the cinnamon mousse that sat on top. It came without cream or ice cream just a glace cherry and a sprig of mint. Why spoil something so perfect?
My baked lemon tart was also served solo, except for a cutely petite poached pear. The tart was light and so deliciously tangy, it made my mouth water. It was marred by a heavy-handed sprinkling of Demerara sugar on top that grated on my teeth, but it's a small complaint to what was a fabulous, simple, and remarkably light dinner. And for a change, it was also incredibly good value.
My advice is, if you want to go to Freta 33, book ahead. It's a small venue and this place will only get busier as word gets around. And come summer, with outdoor dining looking across to the pretty New Town Square, there will be even more reason to head back that and Marta Gasinska's plan to start serving weekend brunches in spring. Dinner for two, including drinks, came to zl. 179 ($43).
On the menu:
Blinis with sardines and light herb dressingzl.16Soup of the dayzl. 6Lettuce with goat cheese, nuts, dates and citrus dressingzl.15Wild rice risotto with wine, porcino mushrooms and parsleyzl.18Osso buco with barley and vegetableszl.18Baked duck with raspberry sauce, and potatoes with walnutszl.26Salmon baked in bell pepper with white beans and snap peaszl.26Lemon tartzl. 9Chocolate-cinnamon moussezl.12
