Cypress Grille, Tulsa, OK

An interesting twist of events tonight allowed me finally to visit and eat at the now not-so-new Renaissance Hotel down at Highway 169 and 71st Street. About a year ago or so when they opened, I was supposed to have sung at a huge charity reception they held, but I had way too much musical stuff going on that weekend, and I didn't do the job. Anyway, my friend Jake's business brought him back into Tulsa this afternoon for a meeting that had been scheduled for nearly a month. Then tonight, the other parties were mysteriously silent and absent. I didn't want him to have to dine alone, so I threw my tie back on and then Tony and I drove down to join him.

The John Q. Hammons Renaissance Hotel is a large hotel and convention center which is touted as one of the most luxurious in Tulsa. It is, fortunately, three times as tall as any of the shopping centers and stores in the vicinity, so we always had our goal in sight. The problem was figuring out how to get into the parking lot! It appears to be right on the highway, but there is no ingress from the highway access road. We ended up driving all around the Super Target, then touring the scenic back side of Target with its huge collection of trash and box dumpsters, before we accidentally happened upon a small street that led us into the parking lot. The complex is sprawling. The hotel is a tall tower, with a pool and fitness center extending out on one side and a promenade and multi-ballroom conference center spreading out on the other side. Rather than valet park, we found a slot near the building and entered, but managed to enter the conference center. That was ok, since it gave us a chance to do a mini-tour.

The decor is typical expensive hotel faux-luxe, and the decorator made the interesting decision to do a cowboy country French theme in the public areas. We saw several shocking sofas with the backs and sides upholstered in cowskin, and then large coral-orange leather cushions were used in the seating areas. I'm always amused when outsiders decide that a "Tulsa theme" requires cowboy decor—don't they realize the cowboys are in Oklahoma City, and Tulsa is just Indians and oil men? Anyway, I digress. As we made our way towards the hotel lobby, we noticed that the hotel was built around a central atrium, and the floor level was so thoroughly filled with trees and plants it was like entering a jungle. Straight ahead across the atrium was the hotel bar, which was completely open to the atrirum area.

We met Jake at the bar, where he was waiting on us as he sipped a sweet vermouth on the rocks. We took bar stool seats by him, and eventually a bartender/waitress type person came by to give Jake some change. She talked to us a little bit, but did not take our drink orders! Then, she disappeared for quite a while before finally returning to see if we wanted to drink anything. For such a supposedly high class hotel, I was getting quite unimpressed with their service and style! I was also rather appalled to note the attire of the hotel patrons sitting in the bar. Several men were in blue jeans and polo-style shirts, but what really took me aback was a gentleman sitting at the bar clad in a white undershirt! While we waited, I procured a menu from behind the bar to see what they offered, and it was kind of interesting that a bar called "Merlot's" did not offer anything other than house wines by the glass! When the bartender finally took our orders, I ordered a Dubonet, but not only did she not have any Dubonet in the bar, she didn't even know what it was! Tony ordered a manhattan, and she asked him what kind of bourbon he wanted, totally ignorant of the fact that manhattans are made with rye, not bourbon or canadian whiskeys. We both settled on glasses of Dry Sack sherry, and by this time, I was totally not surprised that the sherry was served in regular generic wine glasses.

Finally, we wandered into the "good" restaurant, a place called the Cypress Grille, located just a few steps away from the bar. It appeared to be a nice hotel restaurant, with a maitress d'hotel and an elegantly appointed dining room with white tablecloths all around. We were led to a nice corner table with a good view of the entire restaurant. Menus were presented in oversized western-style leatherette folders and the wine list was similarly displayed. There was also a small printed menu which appeared to have seasonal items.

I was rather surprised at the wine list. It was lengthy and used rather small print, but only took up the two inside pages of the folder. Nevertheless, it took a while for me to look through all the wines; I was struck by the fact that not only was I not familiar with most of the vintages, but over 90% of the wines were from California, with the remaining 10% having one Italian wine, two high end French champagnes, two or three Australian wines, and then the rest from Oregon and Washington. I also thought it odd that the list did not name the vintage years, especially since similar wines from the same vineyard can vary widely, even from adjacent years. Anyway, as a tablewide wine compromise, I selected for us a Frei Brothers Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, which turned out to be the 2002 vintage when it arrived at table. It was a nice little wine with a beautiful deep ruby color and a lightness that segued into a surprising complexity of aftertaste.

Now, on to the important stuff: food. We started with crab cakes. Two average sized crab cakes came on a large dinner plate, surrounded by a fan-cut half avocado, a bouquet of watercress dressed in an orange olive oil aioli, and some very intriguing pink grapefruit and mango "salad", also dressed in the aioli. The crab cakes were nicely done, though a little bit breadier inside than I would have preferred, and I also think the entire dish would have benefitted from a little cayenne in the mixture.

There were three soups on the menu, a tomato basil, a lobster bisque, and the seasonal scallop and butternut squash soup, so I opted for the scallop and squash, whilst Jake and Tony each ordered the lobster bisque. A little later, our waitress came back to report that the scallop and squash soup "wasn't up to Chef's standards," so I had to pick something else, and sort of acquiesced to the lobster bisque. The soup presentation was quite entertaining! We were each presented a large soup plate that was artfully garnished with a little miniature garlic chai creme brulée, chunks of lobster tail meat, whole fresh corn kernels, tiny green onion sproutlings, and minced fresh herbs. The waitress then used individual gravy boats to pour the soup over the creme, lobster, and vegetables. I found the soup itself to be rather ordinary, but I was quite entertained with the additions, especially the garlic chai creme brulée.

While our waitress was doing her tableside presentation, I told her that out of curiosity, I would love to have a little spoonful of the scallop-squash soup, just to taste. Of course, the "not up to Chef's standards" line usually means they are out, or they didn't make it that day, so I didn't expect to get anything. Soon after, though, the waitress returned with another soup plate and gravy boat, and, without mentioning the fact that she brought the tomato basil soup instead of the scallop and butternut squash soup I'd requested, served me a complementary bowl. It was also interestingly presented. A drizzle of basil and olive oil painted designs on the bottom of the bowl, and a bird's nest of fine threads of merlot-poached pear sat in the middle. This tomato-basil soup was excellent. It had a nice acidity and crispness to it without being sharp, and tomato flavor was full and rich. Next time I'm at the restaurant, this is definitely what I would order.

After the soups, we moved on to salads. Jake had the "signature" house salad, which looked like mixed greens with feta cheese, poached pears, and nuts. Tony had a Caesar, which was artfully presented with layers of crostini and large thin shavings of parmesano reggiano amid the romaine. I had a Moroccan tuna salad, which featured lightly seared sushi-grade ahi tuna rubbed in surprisingly mild "Moroccan" spices, then sliced and laid on a bed of curly endive and watercress, and drizzled with green goddess dressing, a dressing I'd not had in years!

Finally it was time for the plat, or "entree" as the menu called it. There were so many tempting choices, from a planked salmon with Israeli couscous to a lamb osso bucco to a fresh grilled monkfish, I had a hard time choosing. Tony had the ribeye steak, which must have been good, since he nearly licked the plate clean. There was a base of what appeared to be roasted fingerling potatoes capped with a large grilled portobello mushroom. The medium-rare steak rested atop this, and was garnished with a tangle of deep fried potato threads. I couldn't tell if it was sauced or not.

Jake and I both opted for the house signature dish, paella. Now, while nothing compares to some of the fabulous paellas I've eaten in Spain, I have had quite a few good paellas stateside, too. This version was an interesting submission. In keeping with the luxe atmosphere of the restaurant, there were quite a few pieces of lobster tail in the mix, along with quartered slices of an unusual Portuguese sausage. There was also a good representation of large shrimp and probably more than a dozen mussels in each plate. The odd thing, though, was the rice. Usually, a saffron rice is made for paella, with distinct, tender, individual grains of long rice, and the saffron gives the mix a bright yellow color and delicate flavor. The Cypress Grille version was made with arborio rice, which is the short grain rice traditionally used for Italian risottos. This was an interesting choice, because arborio rice is very starchy and gives a risotto or other dish a "creamy," almost gruel-like consistency, but with the interesting characteristic of having a chewy "tooth," since the inside of the rice grain never gets quite completely done. I didn't like this. It was more like a seafood risotto than a Spanish paella. I also didn't taste or see the presence of much saffron, and I noticed a lot of diced yellow tomato in the rice, perhaps to add more yellow color. So, I ended up picking out all the seafood from the paella and leaving the rice on the plate. Never fear, though, I'm not going to starve or get malnourished! I daresay, though, that for a restaurant's featured "signature" and most expensive ($30 a serving) dish, I was rather disappointed with it.

While we waited for our dessert course, the waitress served Tony and Jake espressos with natural sugar crystals on a stir stick. I ordered regular coffee, and the waitress brought a big French press to the table. The other guys both had creme brulées (a pumpkin version was on the menu, but neither was brave enough to try it). They were given their ramekin of brulée on a large plate, which was side-by-side with a large French nut cookie molded into a bowl shape and filled with kirshwasser-macerated fresh berries. I asked for a cheese plate, and was brought a big plate full of way too many cubes of cheddar, cubes of Swiss, and a cracked pepper rolled mini-brie, all atop a liberal sprinkling of snipped fresh chives. I ate all the brie, but didn't even dent half of the cheddar and Swiss cubes. Along with dessert, Tony and I both savored a Fonseca port, which had interesting anisette-flavored overtones.

And, keeping with our theme of interesting twists during the evening, as we were being served our desserts, Jake's cell phone rang, and his truant business contacts were on the line. I never did hear what the problem was, but they arranged to come to the hotel and meet Jake in the bar as we left the restaurant. We had a brief handshake with them, and then Tony and I left, leaving Jake and his colleagues to conduct their belated business. I don't mean to be tacky, but I think Jake, who's a man of impeccable taste and gourmet appreciations, got the better end of the deal with Tony and me as dinner companions, cause those guys he met did not impress me as the type to know which fork to use, let alone enjoy such a lovely meal as we had.