Restaurant review: the Crown And Goose
I've been looking forward to trying out Knoxville's new gastropub, the Crown & Goose, ever since it opened in the Old City a week ago. I had my first taste of it tonight, and if they can maintain the quality and momentum I saw this evening while overcoming some of the inevitable growing pains, I'm confident this will become one of my favorite restaurants.
My cousin and I met for an early dinner; unwisely and against everyone's advice, we didn't have a reservation.
I should have listened. I should have made reservations last week.
The place was packed; both dining rooms, both sides of the bar, and the beer garden out back were all stuffed to the gills by 6:00 PM. By some lucky stroke of fate, we landed a table for two at the last minute. Someone must have canceled.
After reading Katie's review from last week, I had some concerns about the quality of the beers on tap, so I tried a couple of them just to see for myself. Katie was right; the New Knoxville beers they serve are lifeless, dull, and almost completely devoid of flavor or character. For an establishment with the syllable "pub" in its name, the quality of the beer should be one of the star attractions. As Katie said, I hope and expect the quality of the beer will improve over time. I should have stuck with the tried-and-true Guinness, Bass, or Newcastle.
The lackluster beer was more than redeemed by the food. We started with the English cheese board, which held an assortment of Stiltons, cheddar, claret, and brown ale cheeses served with walnuts, marmalade, and a simple bread that was light and buttery. The cheeses were outstanding, complex, and very fresh, and they were perfectly matched with the selection of nuts and fruit served alongside them.
Our main courses were scallops (served with foie gras, haricot vert, and saffron cous cous) and sugar-cured duck legs (served with cheddar/potato mash, grilled celery hearts, and a Bosch pear reduction). Both dishes were expertly prepared and artistically presented; the scallops were seared just to the point of being done, while remaining tender, flavorful, and lively. The duck legs, as my cousin said, actually dared to taste like duck. The crisp skin formed a slightly crunchy envelope surrounding succulent, medium-rare dark meat with all the rich flavor good duck should really have. Both entrées were sublime.
The wine list is pedestrian and disappointing. It relies too heavily on the mass-market appeal of wines like Bogle, Sebastiani, and Black Opal; a good wine list should venture a bit farther afield, it should express some creativity, and it should actually strive to match the wines with the food on the menu. Instead, it seems to me that the Crown and Goose has decided merely to stock its wine cellar with whatever the local distributor has available in bulk. That's a shame. With the availability of inexpensive yet great wines growing more prevalent with every passing year, it is nearly a crime for any restaurant to fill its wine list with such mundane, ordinary, and disappointing choices.
Having fully trashed the wine list as I just did, I will readily admit that I had an excellent glass of tawny port with dessert; the chocolate and pecan tart was a simple yet karmically perfect marriage of dark chocolate ganache and pecans. The nutty earthiness of the port blended well with the chocolate and pecans, and the marriage of those flavors was the perfect cap to a wonderful meal.
The Crown and Goose needs some improvement in the beer and wine departments, but the food more than makes up for those deficiencies. I'm chalking up the lackluster libation choices to growing pains for now, and I'm anxious to visit again, just to watch the place evolve.
This one's a keeper.