We know the many river towns with waterway histories dotting the Hudson River. Beacon, Hudson and Coxsackie, to name a few, are thriving, drawing downstate weekenders and new residents into restaurants, waterfronts and revived main streets. Goal Waterford? It hasn’t had quite the renaissance of Troy or Cohoes. You might know the annual Tugboat Roundup and Canal Festival, the Erie Canal towpath and the village’s visitors center, but beyond McGrievey’s Irish pub and Corcoran’s Towpath Tavern, both popular with locals, there’s been only minimal culinary draw.
Until now. It’s a total surprise to find a casual French bistro nested in a former diner on Broad Street, where surrounding buildings could use a little love. Not only has Le Quai Bistrot Francais already been open for seven months, it boasts a veteran chef serving up French classics and a former investment banker turned general manager running the show.
All traces of the former diner have vanished under striped wallpaper and pale yellows and blues; a Matisse painting holds one wall, and French music tinkles in the air. At first glance, the white tablecloths and a quiet crowd suggest something more formal, but casual banter between new arrivals and those seated at the bar dispel the idea. By phone, general manager Robert Lizardo later says they welcome informality and suggests that if someone wants to grasp the braised lamb shank and gnaw it off the bone, they won’t be judged. We didn’t see anyone attempt it, but I get the point.
A three-page wine list has nearly doubled in recent weeks thanks to their nifty practice of buying closeouts and end bins. It means there are some magical finds priced competitively from $50 to $100 and even rotating wines by the glass include a beautiful Picpoul de Pinet, and a current rosé, from a boutique producer in Corsica, is the third rosé carried until sold out since their February opening. Even a short beer list makes me smile at the sight of Kronenbourg 1664, Old Speckled Hen and Fuller’s London Pride. Lizardo is remarkably conversant in wine pairings, not only from his keen interest but because he briefly owned Madame Jumel’s restaurant in Saratoga during the early 2000s. He returned to the world of finance but notes he “learned his lessons well.”
Le Quai French Bistrot
Address: 49 Broad St., Waterford
Hours: 5 to 9 pm Thursday through Sunday, closed Monday through Wednesday
Prices: Food, $12 to $44; wine by the glass, $9 to $15; by the bottle, $32 to $170
Info: 518-874-1047. Search by name on Facebook.
Etc.: Street parking. ADA-accessible.
Perhaps surprising is that chef-owner Mo Malih has sprung for no advertising at all. Word-of-mouth recommendations have brought guests as far as Schoharie, but 85 percent of the weekly business is from locals living within a mile, according to Lizardo.
Malih, a native of Fes, Morocco, is a veteran chef and certified grand sommelier whose resume spans gigs with Jean-Georges Vongerichten in Manhattan and Thomas Henklemann at the Michelin-starred Homestead Inn in Greenwich, Conn. But as his wife works for New York state, you might know him as a server at Schenectady’s French restaurant Chez Nous in its original incarnation, where he met Lizardo. It’s hard to imagine such culinary skill limited to front of house but, as Lizardo explains, “He’d done everything except own his own restaurant. And now he has.”
That’s lucky for us. A tight menu of French classics fine-tuned by Malih pits chilled leek-and-potato vichyssoise against a roast asparagus salad dressed in fragrant vinaigrette with orange blossom water and a pile of crumbled dry kalamata olives as salty counterpoint on the plate. It feels simple, Moroccan in spirit and ideal for summer. Housemade baguette is served with a smooth, pureed ratatouille slicked with peppery olive oil; the coarse pork-and-duck country paté comes as two great slabs with pickled vegetables and Dijon and grain mustards, while escargots leaking ubiquitous garlic butter are folded in phyllo pastry and floated over mushroom fricassee and cognac cream. It’s flaky and rustic — an improv interpretation with no “slippery suckers” to tug from their shells.
Malih and Lizardo aren’t hung up on farm-to-table, though it so happens that the tomatoes in the gazpacho grow in abundance out back and local cherries were inspiration for a recent clafoutis dessert. Some ingredients are from customers like husband-and-wife bosses who raise ducks and might provide eggs for oeuf en meurette, a Burgundian dish of poached eggs in a rich sauce of red wine and bacon.
Madeira-macerated cherries stain a gastric deep chip under juicy roast duck legs with sweet poached apple and sliced Anna apples; the fish during a recent visit was fluke with brown butter and capers like a classic sole meuniere. Some dishes change while others defy efforts to remove them, including the lamb shank, which customers demand to keep on all summer long. The Moroccan chicken (a favorite of Malih’s wife) shows off his Moroccan tagine with slow-stewed chicken, olives and homemade preserved lemons. Steak on the menu is likely to be hearty beef bourguignon in colder winter months.
The Coquille St. Jacques seared scallops have been popular since opening. Five plump moons seared a crusty gold rest on a rough potato and artichoke hash — the recipe was borrowed from Homestead Inn — with Malih’s preference for old-school soubise over the traditional, and heavy, mornay sauce. It’s subtle and light, perfect with crisp sauvignon blanc, while Lizardo also brings out a pineapple-scented Alsace to try and marvels that scallops were the size of hockey pucks when he stopped at the fishmonger that day.
We don’t really need dessert, but it’s hard to argue with Vacherin for two, the double-stacked meringue nests interspersed with whipped cream and strawberry compote. We take the pear tart with almond crust too, though its sweet glaze crystallized into sugary clumps. Unfazed, we sip dark coffee and scoop leisurely bites as though dining late into the evening in a Parisian bistro. It’s no hard sell to tell you to go — and yes, with only eight tables and six seats at the bar, reservations are recommended.
