0At the beginning of this year, DMN dining critic Bill Addison wrote:
Aurora may be Dallas' most expensive restaurant: You should probably double-check your Visa's credit limit before dining here. But when chef Avner Samuel and his dapper troupe of servers present you with sensual, lavish paradigms of European-minded dishes that can't be found anywhere else in the city, you might consider starting a separate savings account just for the occasional, memorable meal.
In the past five months, however, big changes have been afoot, and the Aurora dining experience now is not so out of reach. The restaurant's new concept -- focused on local, regional and domestic sourcing, with an emphasis on organic produce -- is the brainchild of Avner's daughter Atali Samuel-Carr, who is working with her dad before heading off to culinary school this fall.
The new Aurora menu took effect last Monday, and we checked it out last night at a media dinner. (Ten tasting courses, plus dessert! I may never need to eat again.)
Appetizer prices range from $9 to $12 at lunch, $12 to $14 at dinner. Main dishes are $13 to $21 at lunch, $24 to $36 at dinner (they used to soar to $50-$60). There also are two 3-course prix-fixe lunches ($16.95 and $21.95), and 3-, 6- or 9-course chef's tasting-menu dinners ($55 to $145).
In short, Aurora's not just for special occasions any more. The food is still rich, gorgeous and fabulous -- it's just not imported now.
Until recently, Aurora imported many of its ingredients from Europe, such as Dover sole and Black Sea caviar. Now Avner has gone domestic, using lemon sole caught off the East Coast and American osetra caviar. He's bringing in Sonoma County Poultry's Liberty Ducks (from Penngrove, Calif.) for a dish of crispy duck rolled with medjool dates and foie gras in a cassoulet of flageolets, beans, lentils and duck jus.
He's finding top-quality ingredients closer to home, too. Of course Avner must look outside of Texas for the huge diver scallops and Maine lobsters that he favors, and he has always used domestic foie gras. But now he's also going to area farmers' markets and buying things like the J.T. Lemley family farm's tomatoes for his gazpacho.
He uses JuHa Ranch's free-range, Cornish-cross chickens, which have proved extremely popular on the new lunch and dinner menus. In addition, JuHa's brown eggs now go into making Aurora's signature amuse-bouche of custard in a farm-egg shell.
Add "locally grown" veggies for consommé, Diamond H Ranch quail and quail eggs, and Texas organic shiitake mushrooms, and it amounts to a seismic shift in everything except quality. There, Aurora is still Aurora. We're betting you'll never be able to tell the difference -- except, happily, in your pocketbook.
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Sounds great! I'll have to try it. I love the idea that there's an organic place to eat!!