Review Preview: Bar Artisanal

Record to date: 4–2

Tomorrow, Frank Bruni reviews Bar Artisanal, Terrance Brennan’s cheese-themed brasserie that replaced the doomed Trigo.

The Skinny: We have to admit it up front: we’ve really taken a shine to this place. It’s on the way home, it’s a cuisine that we love, and the menu is perfect for grazing, as often suits our mood after work. Oh, that and the food is very good. We haven’t had a bad dish yet.

All of our visits have been relatively early, before the crowds arrive. Many other reports have complained that as the restuarant gets busy, service starts to slip. We’ve heard it often enough to believe there must be some truth in it.

Other data points? Bar Artisanal’s slightly more ambitious sister restaurant, Artisanal, carries two stars from William Grimes. Bruni visited there in Dining Briefs, finding “some consistency problems.”

Our own rating of Bar Artisanal is 1½ stars, but Bruni doesn’t use half-stars, and in the absence of them I am inclined to round down.

The Prediction: We predict that Frank Bruni will award one star to Bar Artisanal.