Polytechnic ON20 In Hartford Offers Dining Of The Highest Order

Although primarily open for weekday lunch, Connecticut’s top restaurant may well be Polytechnic ON20 in Hartford. Few, if any, restaurants in the Nutmeg State serve food that can match ON20’s in imagination, sophistication, ingredient quality and diversity, precision of technique, intensity of flavor, and attractiveness of presentation. Noel Jones is rapidly gaining a reputation as one of the top chefs in the region.

Located on the 20th floor of the Hartford Steam Boiler Building, ON20 has enviable vistas. It looks down upon (literally, not figuratively) the new Connecticut Science Center

and has an impressive view of southbound Interstate 91 and the Connecticut River. (Disregard the magic hands in the upper right hand frame.)

ON20’s service is most gracious, its table layout spacious. Most restaurants would insist on packing in twice as many diners into the same floor space, but ON20 is clearly going for a different sort of atmosphere.

During my last visit, we were treated to a woman playing soothing guitar music.

Because it was lunchtime and I had an eventful day ahead of me, I decided to forego all alcoholic beverages. While food of ON20’s caliber deserves to be accompanied by fine wine, it is testimony to how balanced Jones’ extraordinary cooking is that the food never really needed it. I was accompanied by two of Connecticut’s top chefs, neither of whom had yet had the opportunity to visit ON20. Both came away tremendously impressed.

To start our meal, we were served buttermilk biscuits and squares of focaccia with sea salt.

While the contents of our bread basket were difficult to resist, we did our best, knowing there were many courses to come. How successful were we? I believe our bread basket was emptied and refilled three times.

Our first course was a luscious prawn lounging atop a seared diver scallop with American sturgeon caviar, a mussel saffron sauce and a touch of micro-thyme. Obviously, this was a relatively simple dish, but the freshness of the ingredients and the cleanness of the flavors were immediately apparent.

As for the provenance of the prawn, it came from the island of New Caledonia, which is located east of Australia and north of New Zealand and (with the Loyalty Islands) comprises a French territory headed toward independence. New Caledonia’s main exports are nickel and prawns, and of the two, I definitely recommend eating the prawns.

Our second course was a little more complicated. It featured a New Zealand langoustine topped with a tempura-battered Italian white anchovy and lime air. Flanking these treats was incredibly tender and tasty baby octopus cooked sous vide (meaning it was vacuum-packed and immersed in water, cooking evenly at a low temperature). A kalamata olive, a coriander blossom, edible gold leaf and squid ink paint rounded out the presentation. The flavor in each item had the three of us enthralled. This was elite cooking to which few chefs even aspire.

Our third course was the essence of simplicity, but oh my goodness it was terrific. Butternut squash ravioli were served in a brown butter sauce with pancetta and micro-sage.

Butternut squash ravioli is a classic that many chefs ruin through over-sweetening. Jones wisely restrains the overall sweetness of the dish so that the filling is as thrilling as standing near the glow of an iron stove in an otherwise frigid house. We were almost cranky when we ran out, but we knew it was a tasting course, not a main course, and that another surprise lay around the next bend.

Surprise turned out to be an understatement. Our fourth course showcased a Spanish anchovy resting atop an artichoke barigoule with a mustard-tinged sauce and delicate edible blue flower petals.

Served with this fish dish was a stainless steel bowl containing Fruttato extra virgin olive oil frozen in nitrogen, which one spooned over the anchovy.

The crystals smoked like dry ice and liquefied over the anchovy, adding the final finishing touch to the dish. It’s this kind of playfulness that has solidified (pun intended) Jones’ reputation as a molecular gastronomist.

What could this culinary magician next have up his sleeve? How about a fifth course featuring beautiful pink slices of Hong Kong Peking duck topped with seared foie gras and a perfect, sunny-side-up, fried quail egg. Beneath these items we uncovered a potato gaufrette, carrots, oyster mushroom and grilled fig. This amazing dish led me to exclaim that “Jones’ cooking is just so tight,” my two chef companions nodding their assent.

We had been building toward something, and that something proved to be our sixth course, a petite filet mignon with a mushroom ragoût, a potato-and-leek terrine and asparagus spears. The beef was stunningly fresh, tender and tasty, the ragoût intensely flavorful.

If this dish doesn’t appear quite as pretty as the others, it’s because it was so enticing that I forgot to photograph it, started eating it, and then had to put it back together again. It requires a lot of discipline to do what I do.

Our seventh and final course was a dessert of flourless chocolate torte wrapped in phyllo and served with four-spice ice cream and mandarin caramel sauce.

While a relatively simple treat, it was absolutely delicious, the contrasts in flavor and texture working to perfection.

During the special offer under which I visited, the Connecticut Restaurant Association’s “Connecticut Restaurant Week,” four courses were available for just $20.09. Three extra courses were sent to us to try out. So for just twenty dollars, one could have had the New Caledonian prawn, the butternut squash ravioli, the filet mignon and the phyllo-wrapped flourless chocolate torte, an unbeatable price.

The elite chefs that accompanied me to ON20 were as dazzled by Jones’ cooking as I was. Nothing happened that could budge the editorial staff at restaurantsCT.com from our earlier award of our top five-star rating (see Jonathan Braverman review of March 16, 2008) or dissuade us that ON20 is one of the finest restaurants not just in Connecticut but in the Northeast. Maybe the James Beard Foundation folks will get around with a nomination one of these days.

Polytechnic ON20, 20th Floor, Hartford Steam Boiler Building, 1 State Street, Hartford, 860-722-5161