| While the smoke-free workplace
laws have certainly improved air quality inside area restaurants,
it’s had quite the opposite effect on al fresco dining.
Smokers, by necessity, have gravitated to outdoor seating,
while non-smokers have headed indoors for relief.
But there’s at least one local restaurant that’s
managed to make room for everyone.
Rumrunners, the hot new restaurant in Cape Coral, has separate
outdoor seating for smokers and nonsmokers. Oh happy day!
The restaurant is the creation of Todd Johnson and Jeff Gately,
former co-owners of Bistro 41, along with a lot of other staffers
who followed them across the river to go where no restaurateur
has gone before – into upscale, waterfront dining in
western Cape Coral.
Rumrunners looks great and has a great view of a fairly busy
canal. Dine on linen tablecloths inside or have a more casual
meal on the patio (which has excellent heaters). You can even
come by boat and tie up right at the restaurant (look for
marker 92).
The menu resembles that of Bistro 41 but it’s been tweaked
to include some new items while keeping favorites such as
Todd’s meatloaf and the Bistro salad.
Prices are reasonable, too, considering the high-quality ingredients
and artful presentation. Some dishes are priced lower than
they were at Bistro 41. (The seafood paella, for example,
is $3 less at Rumrunners.)
The only aspect that didn’t quite measure up to my Bistro
experiences was the service, but problems were minor considering
the place has only been open for about seven weeks. More on
that later.
The wine list has a wide range of interesting selections,
including about a dozen by the glass.
We sampled a very nice Cartlidge & Brown ’01 pinot
noir, that had lots of chocolate and tobacco notes as well
as a delightfully fruity but not too sweet Rudi Wiest riesling.
The Anchor Steam clam pot appetizer arrived in fairly short
order, although our other appetizer, Ralph’s killer
shrimp, was MIA.
The former consisted of 14 tasty littleneck clams in a garlicky
beer broth. It was a simple but satisfying starter.
We shared a Bistro salad, which was as good as ever –
baby greens, portobello mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, lots
of pine nuts, red onion and chunks of gorgonzola topped with
pesto-balsamic dressing.
We’d managed to flag down our very busy server
|
just before the salad arrived
to let him know that only one appetizer had arrived.
He apologized and quickly arranged for the shrimp to show
up shortly after we finished the salad.
The dish consisted of five good-sized shrimp that had been
cooked with garlic and Dixie Blackened Voodoo lager then served
with a lively Cajun barbecue sauce and a cheddar biscuit.
The shrimp was fresh, the sauce bold and the biscuit was a
nice touch.
I don’t remember the last $16 bouillabaisse I had, but
this one was quite good. It had lots of shrimp and scallops,
some mussels and diced veggies in a saffron-scented broth.
We saw no fish medallions, which were mentioned on the menu,
and assumed they had disintegrated into smaller, less obvious
bits.
The traditional rouille – French for “rust”
– spread on a piece of bread was the only disappointing
part of the dish. Instead of being a creamy sauce full of
garlic and chiles and such, it was very mild in flavor and
pasty in consistency.
The crispy Thai chicken, an update of Bistro’s classic
rotisserie chicken, was superb. Although I normally eschew
chicken skin, I couldn’t leave a bit of this golden,
crisp version on the plate. The chicken was moist and juicy,
nicely complemented by the light glaze of spicy-sweet Thai
chili sauce.
Beneath the chicken was a generous mound of stir-fried vegetables.
Overall, it was a very satisfying dish.
For dessert, we shared Todd’s Southern bourbon bread
pudding. There may be alcohol in this dish but I couldn’t
taste any beneath the rich dark chocolate pudding that was
served warm.
It was a fine meal all the way around.
All Rumrunners needs to do now is iron out the service.
Besides the appetizer snafu, we had to ask for bread and used
plates that sat on the table longer than they should have.
The most glaring problem is the auctioning that occurred when
each course arrived. “Who gets the clams?” the
server assistant asked as he held the plate aloft between
us.
That happened with our entrees, too, and with dishes served
at nearby tables. This shouldn’t occur in a restaurant
of this caliber. It’s simple enough to standardize the
seating chart so that everyone can figure out who ordered
what even if they didn’t take the order.
Nonetheless, Rumrunners’ motto, “escape, dine
and unwind,” is quite fitting for this lovely new oasis.
It may be off the beaten path right now, but it won’t
be for long. |
