Dining
The Incredible Mr. Lim New owner brings sushi to Parco.
There’s an old country conundrum that goes something like this: If you replace the blade and you replace the handle, do you still have the same old ax? Greek philosophers asked a similar question about a ship that had been repaired plank by plank until every aspect of the boat was new. Was it still the same old ship? At Parco Style Cafe, where new owners have introduced a new menu, in a relatively new location, is it still the same restaurant?
In short, the answer is no. Parco Style Café today is a far cry from the beloved Farmers Market lunch counter founded by Chun and Tsuo Chuan Fu.
Nestled in a tiny interior stall in the food court, Parco of yore drew a devout and patient noontime crowd to the compact counter, where Mr. Fu—the owners referred to themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Fu to streamline the pronunciation of their Taiwanese names—labored painstakingly over specialties such as grilled salmon sandwiches on Tuscan bread drizzled with olive oil; seafood salad studded with shrimp and baby octopus; mango panna cotta; and tea-flavored truffles.
In 2005, the Fus relocated to a subterranean dining room just across Printers Alley from a club that advertises nude karaoke. There, in a mustard-yellow bunker crowded with mauve-and-blue upholstered chairs and white-clothed tables, the perfectionist Mr. Fu launched an exquisite dinner-only menu that somehow managed to eclipse his restaurant’s estate-sale-meets-funeral-home decor.
But the daily grind of julienning so many Granny Smith apples to adorn tea-smoked sea bass and embellishing decadent domes of chocolate mousse with gold leaf eventually wore on the Fus. The couple often threatened to throw in the dishtowel, and they frequently flirted with retirement, locking the basement doors for a month at a time while they visited family and Mr. Fu, a master of European cookery and pastry design, taught culinary classes across Asia.
PARCO STYLE CAFE
207 Third Ave. N.,
259-7863
This fall, the beleaguered Mr. Fu put his retirement money where his mouth was. After searching for a worthy successor to carry on the business, he turned over the keys to the bunker to Jung Min Oh and Danny Lim. He also passed on his signature recipes for European- and Asian-inspired delicacies such as tea-smoked sea bass, lamb with peaches and baby bok choy and several exquisite desserts. The new owners rechristened the business “Parco Style Cafe” and began shuttling between downtown and Madison, where they own and operate Sapporo Japanese restaurant.
Perhaps the most visible change under new management is that the pastry case at the front of the restaurant sits empty. Where Mr. Fu’s gemlike confections once hinted to guests of the artisanal meal ahead of them, the unplugged refrigerator now stands as a somber reminder that the Fus have left, taking with them the precise culinary artistry that was the hallmark of their quirky cave-like enclave. An equally discouraging metaphor is the selection of oil paintings on the walls: landscapes in the style of artists such as Cézanne and van Gogh that fall far short of their original inspirations.
LUNCH: TWO ROLLS OF SUSHI AND SOUP $7.95, VEGGIE BURGER $7, SEARED SALMON SALAD $10, DINNER: GROUPER STUFFED WITH EGGPLANT $19, FRENCHED LAMB RACK $25
To their credit, Lim and Oh delivered an admirable rendition of Mr. Fu’s exquisite tea-smoked sea bass, pan-finished, topped with a fine hay of julienned Granny Smith apples and plated on a bed of baby bok choy. (Our one criticism was the excessive pour of rich Pernod sauce. While it tasted like Mr. Fu’s version, in such volume it drowned the other delicate flavors in a sickly licorice wash.) To our delight, Parco’s renowned dome of chocolate mousse covered in ganache and leafed with gold was faithfully exquisite. But when we ventured into some of the new menu items, it was immediately clear that the new chefs are, well, nobody’s Fus.
The hotate—stir-fried scallops baked with mushrooms, white-pepper sauce and cheese served in a large flat shell—was uniformly pale, and the heavy cheese topping overwhelmed the seafood. A similarly heavy-handed use of Italian cheese suffocated the entrée of baby artichokes stuffed with shrimp and scallops. Another disappointment arrived with the mango panna cotta, a gummy and flavorless rendition of the pretty dessert.
But while the memory of Mr. Fu’s refined balance of flavors and textures lies buried under a molten blanket of cheese, Oh and Lim have brought two welcome things to the table: lunch and sushi. If our lunchtime experiences were any indicators, these two additions could be what Parco needs to lure the downtown traffic that so long eluded the Fus.
Eight dollars buys two generous rolls of sushi—slightly heavy on the rice—and a bowl of miso soup. For the same price, we particularly enjoyed the combo of one sushi roll with two skewers of grilled shrimp basted in a rich paste of Japanese mayonnaise, garlic and chili. We could only assume Mr. Fu would approve of the light hand used in grilling the plump shrimp. Similarly, the grilled salmon salad, cooked just enough to warm the fish throughout and served with ponzu and citrus vinaigrette, recalled the gorgeous salmon sandwiches of the bygone days at the Farmers Market. Fans of the superlative Parco veggie burger will rejoice in the revival of the flavorful patty made of mashed potato, mushrooms, celery and tofu and served on lightly grilled Tuscan bread.
If we could have changed one thing about the Fus, it would have been to speed them up. From the early days of the market lunch counter, Parco always promised a wait, and loyal diners with a limited lunch hour were known to skip it altogether if more than a couple of people were waiting ahead of them. Under the new ownership, lunch service has improved, though the legacy of sluggish service lives on at the labor-intensive evening meal. But without the consistently exquisite cuisine to compensate for inconsistent service and windowless environs, there’s little at Parco to merit the top-dollar dinner prices in bomb shelter digs.
So, no, it’s definitely not the same old ax, boat or restaurant. But as the new owners get their basement bearings, they just might be able to deliver an affordable, satisfying lunch alternative to the fast food, the hustle and bustle, and the nude karaoke going on in the world above them.
Parco Style Café serves lunch 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
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