Eddie V's 5th Street

Eddie V's Executive Chef Chris Bauer (Photo by John Anderson)

Eddie V's 5th Street

We walked in at 7pm on the Monday night after Valentine's Day. The bar (called the V-Lounge) was crowded, bustling, and filled with beautiful sounds coming from a good jazz quartet. The big draw is Eddie V's happy hour. Several huge appetizers that could substitute for a full dinner are on sale for half-price, and the generous drinks get a $1 discount.

The size of the crowd means the word is out about this happy hour. It took us a few minutes to snag two seats at the bar. The service was just slightly slow, but the compensation was that when our turn came up, the bartender paid careful attention to our requests and got us exactly what we wanted: a huge ice-cold Manhattan ($9.50 regularly/$8.50 at happy hour) and a glass of Masi's delicious Masianco ($12/$11) from a freshly opened bottle. The music was great, the seats were comfortable, and the drinks were delicious.

Unlike most bars, everyone here was having food. The most popular dish was Tartare of Pacific Ahi ($12.95/$6.48), a big plate loaded with chunks of fresh raw tuna with sliced avocados, a delicate sesame-and-curry oil, and toasted sesame crisps. Where were deals like this when I was in graduate school?

My wife is from Maryland and very picky about her crab cakes. We had tried the house version here years ago, and it was terrible – overcooked, rubbery, and loaded with filler. This time, the Maryland-style all lump crab cake ($14.95/$7.48) was flawless with a delicate crunch and nice, fresh, sweet crab aromas. I also tried a half-dozen gulf oysters (50 cents each during happy hour) that were accompanied by true, fresh-ground horseradish. That's a nice touch.

The dining room is a much more subdued, classy affair. The front of the house has obviously been trained with military precision. Whatever the customer wants happens instantaneously, and it's delivered by gracious servers anxious to please. Knowledgeable wine lovers should ask for assistance from the wine-savvy manager. It turns out the buyers bring in wines that never make it onto the list. We were able to wangle a bottle of Vintage Tunina ($44), an Italian IGT wine made from Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and the exotic and fragrant Malvasia. Since the wines aren't on the list, they aren't in the computer. Consequently the manager has some leeway in how much is charged. We were charged less than the normal retail price for the wine. So, be nice and you may get a bargain.

Dinner went from strength to strength. One of the reasons I was interested in retrying Eddie V's was because it had recently hired Chris Bauer as its executive chef. I've followed Bauer's career in Austin (Finn & Porter, Mizu) and know that he's a formidable presence in the kitchen. Even working with corporate recipes, you could sense his monomaniacal attention to detail.

We started with salads. The hot goat cheese and wild mushroom salad ($10.95) was a delicious idea presented impeccably, with a nice addition of just-bitter endive. I was just a little disappointed with the Fuji apple and golden beet salad ($6.95). Not from the execution, which was faultless, but, based on the description, I was hoping for more apples, beets, and candied walnuts and less salad greens. If the menu description had made it clear that it was a green salad, all would have been fine.

Most of the folks around us were ordering a $60 steak special that featured a ribbed hunk of beef worthy of Fred Flintstone. One table had four people and three different orders on doneness, and all were completely satisfied – not an easy task with a piece of meat that size. But we were there for seafood. Snapper, salmon, sole, shrimp, scallops, sea bass, and swordfish all had tempting preparations.

We ordered two fish entrées. The special of the night was New Zealand bluenose sea bass topped with fresh Jonah crab and a caramelized mango butter sauce ($29.95). The preparation was very simple, depending on the quality of the fresh ingredients. We also had the lemon sole in Parmesan crust ($26.95), which was sautéed to crispy perfection, topped with a tomato and herb concoction, and surrounded by a buttery sauce redolent of lemon and garlic.

The dessert was a berry cobbler ($7.95) featuring just barely macerated blackberries with a crispy topping and Amy's Mexican vanilla ice cream. The combination of extremely tart blackberries with the sweet ice cream was delicious.

My last Eddie V's experience, long ago, was not very positive. But both the front of the house and the kitchen are now operating at a near-perfect hum and doing it without seeming to break a sweat. Add to that the very good deal available seven nights a week at the V-Lounge's happy hour (and real jazz!), and my opinion has completely turned around. Highly recommended.