ness. It’s just a powerful savory elixir to drag slices of tender, mineral-bursting duck breast through. The leg is cooked to a sublime fall-apart state, almost like great barbecue, bringing a wallop of the darkest, dark-meat glory you can fathom. At some early point in the meal, well be- fore the entree course, the meal stops to become a meal. It becomes an experience. You just happen to be eating. It becomes an escape, but not to some dusty past era. The way Gross has cali- brated the experience — relentlessly cus- tomizing, laboriously building a space nothing like the white-tablecloth simula- crum you might think of when you think of fancy French food — he shatters the mold. It’s classical French with his own refinements. And yet it feels fresh and electric. I think our modern food culture is too Jacob Tyler Dunn French from p 25 ness of the service (constant and helpful without feeling intrusive), Gross has con- sidered every detail. And you can tell he’s considering them as you eat, watching him kindly direct the spacious open kitchen highlighted by a wood oven and grill. Gross floors the gas pedal for the entree course. At this point, you can really glimpse what he can do with food spiritu- ally and technically. Gross grills a faultless fish that varies by day, skin beautifully crisp, flesh plump and fragrant, marine goodness enhanced with a delicate salsa vierge. You can choose from scallops and roast chicken, and a smoked truffle-infused fillet. It’s time, though, to forget all of that and talk about the duck. The duck two ways is an example of how a supreme technician can go abso- lutely ham fine-tuning tiny detail dimen- sions that your average chef never even enters. The plate is duck breast and duck leg teetered over a shallow pool of dark sauce. There are probably other compo- nents, but the duck has completely erased them from my memory. Jacob Tyler Dunn Gross cooks the breast first by sous vide and then over the wood-fired grill. He con- fits the leg in the classical style, with thyme and garlic, slow-cooking, and then re- roasting. The sauce on the plate, slick and thin and brown, gains its unbelievable Top: The view from Christopher’s. Above: Chocolate souffle. depth from veal consommé made using veal breast and pig’s feet. The sauce has a sultry smoke and surprising animal rich- obsessed with the new. We tend to exalt new openings, new foods, new faces. People flock to vogueish, flash-in-the-pan coffee styles, ingredients, and anything colorful and excessive that can be giddily plastered online. The way food culture evolves is essential. But I think in so many of the recent developments, “recent” refer- ring to both months and years, we’ve lost our way. I would like to see a return to celebrat- ing food, technique, thoughtfulness, and stories. Here’s a good story: celebrated Valley chef opens an unconventional restaurant in a new dining era in the bright twilight of a long career. It follows its own dreamlike drumbeat and hits every note from the yel- low Chartreuse spritz to the unholy bite of coffee cake that comes, unasked, with your cappuccino in a brutally simple gray cup designed by the chef. Expectedly yet unexpectedly, the res- taurant is a 10/10. Christopher’s at the Wrigley Mansion 2501 East Telawa Trail 602-522-2344 wrigleymansion.com/christophers Open 5-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday Yellow Chartreuse spritz Smoked salmon Fish of the day Duck Chocolate souffle 26 JAN 6TH– JAN 12TH, 2022 PHOENIX NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | NEWS | OPINION | FEEDBACK | CONTENTS | phoenixnewtimes.com
