Acacia Reviews
Montgomery Journal
Acacia's cuisine wows at brunch timeALEXANDRA GREELEY
There are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of very good reasons to make Acacia restaurant in Frederick, Md.,
a destination. But I can definitely point out at least one reason that would bring me back for follow-up
visits: the blueberry crumble coffeecake served at Sunday brunch, one square per person, and a chocolate
scone alongside to share.
And this after I had just complained that the waiter hadn't brought a bread basket at all. Bread, as it
turns out, would have been slighting the elegance of the chef's Sunday brunch table. As it turns out, in
this former farming community going upscale, Frederick residents and folks in the area are obviously ready
for the kind of sophisticated big-city fare that Acacia produces, a kind of food the restaurant calls "new
American cuisine."
Take the lobster bisque ($6), for example, one of a handful of appetizers that launches the Sunday meal.
With a creamy tomato base, the soup is more about lobster essence than a chunky chowder, yet it carries just
enough of the lobster meat to convince you that seafood really did make it into the pot. What the chef has
done is to distill down the essence of lobster, enrich the liquid backdrop with cream, and serve it with s
nippets of chives.
As for main-course offerings, the menu sticks to traditional components, such as a three-egg omelet ($9),
eggs Benedict ($10) and French toast ($10). But he offers several specials, such as the vegetable frittata
($11), a baked egg dish filled with peas, tomatoes, scallions, green peppers, mushrooms and melted goat cheese.
And even the chef's idea of eggs with sausage ($10) gets a boost: At Acacia, the meal is comprised of two very
plump, slightly spicy lamb sausages grilled to a crisp perfection, two fried eggs, sunny side up, and a side of
pan-fried potatoes.
The brunch also has its own dessert menu (all priced at $6 each), which includes clafouti, a French-inspired,
countryish fruit custard; the always-yummy flan; and a chocolate mousse. Often a sticky, gooey, overly sweet cliche,
this chocolate mousse is a towering cone of chocolate calories, topped with a disk of sweetened melted chocolate and
bottomed with a thin layer of sponge cake.
For dinner, you are apt to have your socks knocked off with such dishes as iron-roasted escargots with cremini
mushroom duxelles to start ($8), leading up to such choices like bronzed Peking duck breast ($18), salt-roasted jumbo
scallops ($22), slow-braised veal cheeks with broccoli rabe, and tomato fettuccine ($17).
On top of that, Acacia offers an impressive wine and dessert wine list four pages long. That adds up to upscale
cooking in anyone's book.
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