I’ve found the perfect food. It is elemental and primal –- so soulful, so creamy, so sweet and pure, that the first time I tasted it I cried. I know it’s only a pot of curdled milk when all is said and done — but the baked ricotta on the Bar Menu at Restaurant Tallent is much more than the sum of its very simple parts.

I have been waiting for this new bar menu at Tallent for weeks, as antsy as a little kid on a long car trip asking “Are we there yet? Are we almost there?” I am happy to tell you that as of this weekend, it looks like we are there!

I’ve probably made it pretty clear that I think Restaurant Tallent here in Bloomington is the cat’s meow, and not just because I have come to be very fond of the two young people who own it. Dave Tallent is not only skilled and creative but he and Krissy work their butts off to produce a superior product. Their commitment to sourcing their food locally means that they start with fine and tasty ingredients, and what they do to those ingredients is superb.

Dave lets food be food — he doesn’t dabble in molecular gastronomy or anything cutting edge. I am pretty sure that in his dreams he’d be frying chicken and cooking greens, but that’s for another day. Meanwhile Tallent is a lovely and elegant fine dining place in a town that is increasingly becoming a dining destination in Indiana. 

Still, you can’t eat rich multi-course meals everyday – I can’t anyway, my waistline is already showing the deleterious consequences of five years of food writing.  Hence my anxious wait for the bar menu, for times when I would like a hit of Dave’s cooking without the formality of white tablecloths and the full meal, full tummy deal.

Luckily for me, I was at Tallent doing a photo shoot on Friday, the day before the bar menu launched, while Dave and the guys in the kitchen were working out the kinks. When Jerry joined me for dinner, we got to be guinea pigs (pigs being the operative word, I am afraid.)

I was perched at the bar, editing photos on my laptop, when the first installment arrived – an assortment of seasonal dips and spreads with some crunchy, buttery baguette toasts. The current selection includes an explosively delicious caponata, a pungent tapenade, a fragrant and dreamy white bean truffle spread, a spicy romesco, and a tiny pot of duck liver pate -– rich and savory and perfectly accented with Dave’s pickled ramps. You can order just one or two (at $3 apiece) or all five (for $13). We polished off the five, of course, scraping every last bit from the dishes.

Next up was that baked ricotta. Fresh whole milk, house-made cheese, grilled ciabatta.  I may have mentioned that I
thought it was pretty good. Ten bucks for a small pot of heaven.

Then we went from the sublime to the more mundane — chips and dip, to be precise. But oh, what chips and oh, what dip! Fresh waffle cut potato chips with black truffle dip, creamy and tangy. (Bet you can’t eat just one. We couldn’t, anyway.)

Frankly, by now we were stuffed, and we’d already eaten more than we would for a normal, bar menu dinner. But there are also some more substantial choices on the menu, and it looked like we were going to be trying a couple of those too. Like a warm and wonderful casserole of the house orecchiette with a long-simmered pork ragu and fresh house-made mozzarella. Dave’s meat sauce has to be tasted to be believed – it’s magnificent. And the little pockets of mozzarella – sweet and stretchy and creamy. Wow.

Equally wow — a roasted vegetable salad of grilled corn and eggplant and squash and cabbage, all bathed in a cilantro lime vinaigrette. Dave made this for me once before and I blogged it here – it is one of my favorite summer meals. This version had goat cheese for a creamy touch, but I believe I prefer it with the sharp tang of lime, cilantro and garlic It’s hard to believe, but there’s some stuff we didn’t try — Dave’s amazing moules frites are on the bar menu, as-is a grilled herb crusted tuna, a tasting plate of country hams, and an artisan cheese plate that I know I will love as I always love cheese at Tallent. But after sampling everything else I fell off the barstool and had to go home and sleep it off. Been a long time since I’ve done that, but this time it was worth it.

There are only ten seats at the Bar at Restaurant Tallent (and this menu is not available in the restaurant) but if you are lucky enough to nab one of them, you are in for a treat. Lighter snacks are from $3.00 to $10.00; more substantial plates are $11.00-$15.00. Try not to order everything at once.