Nonstaurants

Portrait of a Pop-Up: Dux at the Summit

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We mentioned a couple weeks back that Summit chef Eddie Lau was launching an ambitious-sounding restaurant-within-a-restaurant at The Summit. It’s called Dux, and the plan is to do a series of menus throughout the year, with one seating a week, at The Summit’s bar, on Sundays only. For those who follow the underground dining scene, this is already a tough reservation to get (the inaugural series is currently sold out through the end of June, though there is a waitlist), but we managed to score one off the waitlist to check out what Eddie’s been up to. The inaugural menu is all about duck, from eggs to foie gras and everything in between, and the flavors across the five dishes were varied, balanced, and in some cases refreshingly original. See our full slideshow, including our favorite dish: the Dux poutine.


Earlier: What to Eat at Dux, a New Dining Club From The Summit’s Eddie Lau

Dux - at the bar at The Summit, 780 Valencia Street - Sundays, promptly at 7 p.m. Seating is extremely limited, and you will want to get on Eddie’s mailing list and/or make a waitlist request by emailing duxworkshop@gmail.com.

Lau’s first course – paired with a tasty cocktail amuse with raspberry, soju, Dolin blanc, and mint – featured a fried sous-vide duck egg served atop a tart shell filled with ramp-duck bechamel, English peas, and baby carrots.
The second course was a Japanese inspired cold meat course, with cherry-wood cold-smoked duck, smoked pears, and an aged shoyu citrus gastrique. This was paried with a delicious 2008 Petit Syrah-Petite Verdot blend by Michael David.
Our favorite of the five courses was this riff on a foie gras poutine dish from Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal. It featured duck confit on a bed of baby rapini with a traditional pomme dauphine – which Lau compared to the most high-end tater tot you’ve ever tasted – partly filled with goat cheese curds. This was all glazed with a combination of foie gras and balsamic, and it was pretty goddamn good. It was paired with a delicious Tripel Reserve beer from Allagash in Portland, Maine.
 The final savory course was a deconstructed ramen course, or tsukumen, with “00” tagliatelle pasta standing in for the ramen, and the richest, most gravy-like of duck broths. This was served with various garnishes including a delicious pickle salad, a sous-vide duck egg, seaweed, a “duck butter” made from duck scraps, and a fromage de canard. We didn’t totally get all the combinations and the dish seemed a little hard to eat, but the broth/gravy was fantastic and we wish we could pour it over some fries.
Perhaps the most inventive item of the night was this dessert featuring compressed smoked strawberries, a compote made from those strawberries, as well as a small strawberry genoise cake topped with a lightly whipped bit of foie. Across the plate was a smear of light, Meyer lemon mascarpone. The cake was a little on the dense side for a genoise, but on a whole a delicious and unique dish.
Portrait of a Pop-Up: Dux at the Summit