Everything a chef does causes food to turn out a certain way. Higher or lower heat, more or less salt, length of cooking, balanced or imbalanced ingredients. Every implication, however small and calculated or large and overlooked, causes certain effects on the food. And it’s that causation that correlates with the effect on the diner.
To clarify, causation is the direct influence on the effect. Correlation is the related or coinciding experience or event. For example, the full moon doesn’t cause more crimes, it’s just a better time to commit them because its brighter out (re: correlation). The full moon does, however, cause werewolves to transform (re: science). So, it’s the correlating elements of a meal – the diner in the restaurant eating and experiencing – that has an effect. The chef cooks in a direct, physical world; we eat in an ethereal, emotional world.
The world of Cause & Effect is a sturdy and at times cumbersome one. A large, backlit bar boasting once-in-a-lifetime booze, like Luis XIII, and lined with broad stools, leads onto the back dining room outfitted with booths and banquets all dressed in Valentine’s Day red and black. Outside each window is a large wraparound patio, which, on a recent evening, sat promising in the dimpling December rain.
It’s more so the bar than the kitchen that causes the crowds – specifically speaking, the dry ice martinis. Stemless martini glasses filled with laboratory-inspired coloured drinks (crystal slipper, with gin and blue Curacao achieving a tanzanite blue; Cosmopolitan, with Cranberry and Lime Soda for an effervescent cherry red). Keeping with experimentation, they all billow wispy clouds of sublimated carbon dioxide. Tasty.
It’s not clear whether there’s a demand for it or just a hopeful headline grab, but, along with the first-class booze, there’s a forty-four-ounce Beast of Beverly tomahawk steak for $111. Other pedestrian items (without appropriative names) will satisfy, though.
The menu switched for the colder months, but two mainstays in the salad section include the Hail the Kale Caesar, a classic iteration with a romaine-kale mix in a creamy dressing, and the Fresh Prince Farro bowl, a New Year’s dieters dream, with beats, beans, carrots, arugula, goat cheese and toothsome farro in a tangy-sweet poppy seed dressing.
For a more festive item, try the Dijon panko salmon in a pistachio-panko crust. Or if you’re into fancy street meat (if you’re not, you should be), try the Who Let The Dogs Out hot dogs: all-angus beef dogs loaded with toppings and served with tater tots or waffle fries. If you’re going waffle fries, sweet potato is the way to go – crispy with the perfect amount of smoothness inside next to a honey-dijon dip. Or go all in with the two-foot nachos, including tortilla chips and waffle fries.
Finding something between buns is easy with either the burger or the sliders. The sliders (pulled pork in barbecue poblano-lime sauce and pulled jerk chicken) are the better choice between weightless and fluffy toasted buns.
Here, it’s all for the cause. Next week: affect vs effect…
.mike 