At Bar Boheme, the new French restaurant from chef James Trees in downtown Las Vegas, the French fries — the frites — are like custom loafers, like a perfect little black dress. Which is to say the easy pleasure of the experience belies the underlying craft and construction.
Bar Boheme, which opens in April on South Main Street, harnesses Kennebec potatoes that are sliced into batons five-eighths of an inch thick. The strips are rinsed in very hot water to remove the starch, then steamed, blanched at low heat, and fried in Canola oil, “until they are perfectly shatteringly crunchy on the outside and mashed potato on the inside,” said Trees, who also owns Esther’s Kitchen up the block.
To finish, the fries are tossed in dry-aged beef fat, garlic, herbs and French sea salt. “Getting the right salt is so important. I want that ‘just a side of fries’ to blow your mind. You really have to care about the details. When people don’t care about the details, you can tell.”
You might say that Bar Boheme, which lies next to Petite Boheme, its bar sibling that debuted in December, is the chef caring about the details to create a high-minded bistro-meets-brasserie. And that seems entirely appropriate, given Trees’ culinary background and the fact that French technique is still the foundation for culinary training in the West.
“I’ve been wanting to open this restaurant for years,” the chef said.
More French than Italian
Because of the success of Esther’s and its modern spin on Italian cooking, “everyone thinks I’m an Italian chef,” Trees said. “But Esther’s is the first Italian restaurant I’ve worked at. My background is pretty much French and new American.”
The French part of that CV includes an internship at Café Boulud in New York City while he was at the Culinary Institute of America, time at Le Bernardin in New York following graduation, and stints at the old Alizé in the Palms and André’s on South Sixth Street, both from chef André Rochat, whom Trees called the “godfather of French cuisine in Las Vegas.”
When Bar Boheme debuts at 1401 S. Main St., the launch won’t be like the reopening of Esther’s in its new space last March, with almost 400 people served on the first evening.
“We’re going to ramp it up very slowly,” Trees said. “Because this is a new concept, this is not about doing a ton of covers. This is about getting our reps in and our team together and nailing everything from top to bottom.”
Real baguettes
The menu, served daily for dinner, with walk-ins at the bar, leads with Parisian-style baguettes, bread service being a particular love of Trees. The baguettes — made with T65 French flour to endow an airy crumb and a crisp crust — might be swiped with Échiré butter, often called the finest butter in France.
“The baguettes are very special — they bring you directly back to getting a warm baguette at a Parisian bakery,” Trees said.
Croquettes de brandade, fashioned from salt cod and potato, are dredged in rémoulade. For a salade fines herbes, the chef makes his version of green goddess dressing: a thick mayonnaise base mixed with garlic, tarragon, chervil and parsley; tinted with puréed watercress; then jabbed with champagne vinegar and maybe anchovies.
Soup à l’oignon — French onion soup — is built on a reduction of beef stock and two blond beers. Rounds of Esther’s sourdough are floated across the broth. Stretchy Emmentaler and nutty Gruyère top the sourdough. A collar of the bread encircles the base of the lion’s head soup bowl.
“When your soup spills over, which it always does, it spills onto the sourdough and makes it more delicious,” Trees said. “It’s taking a dish that you’ve had a million times and making it better. It’s asking: ‘What if you put a little more thought into a classic dish?’”
Remaking the classics
That approach flavors elsewhere on the menu, too.
Roast chicken, another standard, is reimagined with free-range jidori chicken that is air-dried to produce a crisp skin. The dish features a deboned chicken leg stuffed with forcemeat and truffles, along with a luxuriant albufera sauce mingling chicken stock, Cognac, butter and a bit of cream.
Dover sole Veronique was among the signature dishes of chef Rochat, “so I want to pay homage to him by executing it as well as it can be executed,” Trees said. His sauce Veronique blends reduced chicken stock, verjus (juice of unripened wine grapes), browned butter and lemon, with a garnish of grapes for a pop of acid and sweet.
The splendid fries join three steak cuts and three sauces for steak frites. Boeuf Bourguinonne is traditionally prepared with a shoulder cut; the chef uses a short rib instead. “I love that piece for braising because of the gelatin content,” he said. Goat cheese and chive mashed potatoes cut the richness of the dish.
Neapolitan ice cream flavors, macarons, bananas, strawberries, peanut croquant (similar to brittle) and chocolate sauce poured tableside unite for a French take on a hot fudge sundae. Trees even does a tarte Tatin retake with roasted Fuji apples caramelized in their own juices.
“We’re putting foie gras ice cream on it, too,” he said. “We have to nail that.”
The look
Bar Boheme encompasses a 3,600-square-foot former auto repair shop, a 1,000-square-foot terrace and a lawn shared with Petite Boheme. Inside, the restaurant seats about 120; outside, about 40. Plush teal and mauve pink banquettes line the perimeter of the dining room. Tables are draped with white cloths and set with sparkling crystal.
Wall arches frame vibrant floral wallpaper. Large-format floral paintings brighten the dining room. Light fixtures incorporate Indonesian fishing baskets and curled metal palm fronds. Images of classic French moments — a Josephine Baker poster, the Eiffel Tower in black and white, a promenade scene from the South of France — line restroom walls.
Bar, wine, service
Cocktails appropriate to the restaurant, like a boulevardier twist on a negroni, issue from the bar. The wine list offers only French releases, leaning toward Burgundy and Bordeaux. Is all-French a brave decision?
“A lot of thought has gone into it,” said Keith Bracewell, Trees’ business partner in Esther’s and the Bohemes. “Even though it is very French forward, you’ll find something for everyone, even people who thought they didn’t like French wines because they mainly drink American wines.”
General manager Alina Deleacaes runs the front of the house. Her goal for service?
“Elegant, refined and very detail oriented. A team of genuine, kind and warm people. Nothing intimidating or pretentious. We want automatic graciousness. If you feel like this place is stuffy, we’ve missed the mark.”
Le Hamburger, with a Prime brisket and chuck patty, caramelized onions, American cheese and Dijonnaise, keeps away the stuffy. “Everyone deserves a good burger,” the chef said. Pair it with a heap of the fries.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.
