Slim Pickins: Great dinner spot starts lunch

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

By Tyler Alford

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-The restaurant Trio, a personal favorite, is changing its game by adding lunch. It makes sense - there’s barbecue at Bubba’s, pizza at Mountain High and cold-cuts all around, but if you’re looking for something more unique, like lobster salad, you can now find it at Trio.

It’s no surprise that the people behind a hip dinner restaurant want to ramp up business ahead of the busy summer season. For culinary enterprise though, this comes at a cost of high overhead and the fear of not getting enough seats filled to turn a profit. And for a small operation, like a chef-owned bistro, it means a great deal of extra work, but Trio has an ace in the hole. Co-owner/chef  Will Bradof says that he and partner Paul Wireman have the staff to pull a venture like this off. Trio has served lunch before, but it has been more than a year and required Bradof and Wireman to be in the restaurant at all times.

During this second week of lunch service though, Bradof came in sans uniform to check on things and then skipped right back out the door.

With menu items like gourmet fire-roasted pizzas, lobster salad and Moroccan lamb pita, it won’t be hard to convince patrons that this is a fresh approach to lunch in Jackson.

“I mean, it’s white linens,” said Bradof, describing the atmosphere and approach. Adapting from a great dinner menu and streamlining it to be a quick-prep, high-flavor, power-lunch listing, the food served between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. is just as good as when the dinner bell rings, at 5:30, but with lighter fair.

The classics are still there, like waffle fries, but on my visit I had a cup of BLT soup and a crispy duck salad. The soup, a staple on the dinner menu, was pleasantly smokey. Small chunks of applewood smoked bacon and crispy croutons added the right amount of texture to balance the rich and velvety tomato broth. Next was my crispy duck salad: a healthy portion of confit duck leg, arugula, orange, goat cheese, toasted almonds and a blood orange vinaigrette.

Duck confit is a personal favorite, and I was happily surprised to see that this salad came with the leg still intact with crisp skin glistening on the plate along side the mix of fruit, greens and nuts. The leg was cooked perfectly, with a golden exterior and moist, rich, dark meat underneath. It took more time to build the salad bites myself, but I was rewarded with each bite. An appropriate balance of fatty duck, acidic citrus fruits and just a touch of spice and earth from the arugula made this dish an excellent daytime meal.

Service was business as usual with quick and efficient wait staff who are easy on the eyes, as well. I paid about $30 for soup, salad and a glass of wine, but you could get away for a fraction of that. I was able to get in and out with enough time to go home and walk the dog before my lunch break ended. Bradof says that business is slow right now, but there is already a buzz around town over this trendy bistro’s new lunch.

Trio is located at 45 South Glenwood Ave. The lunch menu is served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  $5-$17, 734-8038; www.bistrotrio.com. JHW

photo by TYLER ALFORD
Trio’s daytime menu includes a crispy duck salad and BLT soup.


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Slim Pickins: Great dinner spot starts lunch | Planet JH News Article: Restaurants And Dining

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