3 pavāru restorāns
Restaurants
By Howard Jarvis.
09.03.2013
Every day is different at the innovative new 3 pavāru restorāns. But what often happens if you sit at the bar encircling the open kitchen is that one of the chefs on duty paints you a picture. Not with oils, but with dipping sauces.
The brightly colored, delicately flavored sauces and jams are daubed in blobs and sweeping strokes on a big sheet of baking paper – redcurrant, tomato, peppermint, sea buckthorn, pesto and hemp. Humus and cress are added to give the painting a three-dimensional aspect. Then you mop it all up with herb-flecked toasted focaccia.
This memorable experience reveals the obvious. The restaurant name means 3 Chefs’ Restaurant, and the three cooks who opened the restaurant – TV celebrity chef Mārtiņš Sirmais, restaurant chef Ēriks Dreibants, and architect-turned-chef Rūta Rietuma – and their beaming staff are all food enthusiasts eager to experiment a little with their guests. There’s no menu to speak of – just the overriding aim of sliding a little closer to the client.
Dishes are rustled up with panache using whatever fresh local ingredients are to hand in the well-stocked kitchen. The emphasis is on a leisurely evening of slow food, not a quick bite before the opera or movie starts.
You may be offered juicy duck breast or an excellent chunk of lamb (“New Zealand lamb is particularly good at the moment,” we were told), different kinds of oysters and prawns, Latvian perch with a rich carrot sauce, flounder or sea bass, veal chops and carpaccio of deer, pureed parsnips, sweet potatoes, artichokes, fennel mash. A “thermomixer” whizzes any veg into a smooth puree at high temperature.
Needless to say, the bill at the end of the evening isn’t small. But what you pay for is a memorable evening’s dining experience.
Starters come artistically arranged on a heavy slab of stone. This could include, for example, a combination of fois gras pate from France, olives, apple puree, and caramelized onion. Combine this with a locally made juice of sea buckthorn with honey and rum, cranberry and apple, strawberry and apple, or redcurrant.
Warm up on a chilly evening with a hot juice flavored cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. If you prefer wine, call over the resident sommelier who is wandering between the tables.
One intriguing after-meal treat comes courtesy of a “chemical reaction” between juice, milk and dry ice. A fast-moving froth cascades over the side of the glass onto a plate, leaving you to spoon up the milky bubbles. Who needs a trip to the theater when you can get this kind of entertainment at your local diner?
There are sixty seats downstairs plus a fifty-seat banqueting hall upstairs. Enthusiastic word-of-mouth recommendations mean you should reserve ahead if you’re coming in the evening. But even on busy evenings the staff are friendly and attentive, with one or more of the “three chefs” supervising.
