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The view. If you do nothing else, take a look out the window. Down below, the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers come together to nourish the Ohio River at Point State Park, a national historic landmark commemorating the strategic and historic heritage of the area during the French and Indian War (1754 -1763). It also has a nice fountain. This is Pittsburgh. On a clear day, your perch on Mt. Washington provides superb views of the stadia where the Steelers triumph, where the Pirates struggle and where many of Allegheny County's more than 2,000 steel bridges lay. (Comparative fun fact: Venice, Italy, has only 409.) All of this you can do while dining at Le Mont.
Le Mont, a recipient of the AAA Four-Diamond award, is ostensibly a French or "continental" restaurant. When you walk in off Grandview Avenue, however, the first impression might be that you've walked into a period movie starring mostly mirrors and chandeliers. Venture a bit farther into the rather large restaurant and you'll refine your view to include the possibility that Le Mont was designed by Versace or someone who bought one of the designer's trademark gold, gray and black ties. Once you've determined that you're not at a bar mitzvah or wedding reception in South Orange, New Jersey, walk in and you'll be warmly greeted by a gentleman in a tuxedo. (So, right here you might double-check that reception thing.) He will seat you at a table that has that aforementioned view and assure you that someone will be right over to take your order. You have only a moment to scope out the surroundings. Penguins hosting the Devils on the plasma TV over the bar. Check. (Being from New Jersey, this interests me, and I assure the staff that the Devils will prevail. The waiters take umbrage.) Cigar "lounge" beyond the big bar. Check. What seems like that suede-textured Ralph Lauren paint on the ceiling. Check.
I order a house Pinot Noir ($8.50) and keep looking out the window. I'm having an early dinner and there's still some daylight. The waiter, also tuxed, explains a few things about the menu.
"The soup du jour is cream of asparagus," he says.
I like that, but it's not a soup kind of day. Bread arrives. I examine the dinner offerings and find there's great variety. Creole fried calamari ($10.50), baked bries ($11.95) and portabello en crute [sic] ($9.95) show the range of the appetizers. There are five salads, all appealing. Some of the entrées seem terribly complicated. There is steak Diane ($35.95) prepared tableside, and Chateaubriand for two ($72), but the candied apricot chicken ($24.95) is described as a "moist free-range chicken breast sautéed with kiln dried apricots and golden delicious apples, served over a bed of ginger risotto and naped with a tangerine coulis." Naped? Shrimp and crab Romano ($32.95) is promised as "classically prepared in an imported Parmesan cheese and egg batter, topped with jumbo lump crabmeat and capers, glazed with a sherry lemon buerre [sic] Blanc." Not every main course has this much going on, but you get the idea that the ambitions expressed in the descriptions might be hard to pull off. In any case, I'm not venturing into that territory, if only for fear of being naped.
This evening there is a winter prix fixe menu ($29.95) that has enough choices to suit me. Leaning to the lighter side, I'm deciding between the tangelo halibut and the Siciliano shrimp and scallops. I settle on the latter, "lightly tossed with Sicilian bread crumbs, broiled and served on a pool of corral brandy sauce." The deal comes with that asparagus soup and a "mescaline" salad. The menu's typos or misspellings are somewhat amusing, but if the representation being made about the salad is true, the DEA will want to know, though, in fairness, that the word "mesclun" is often butchered.
Did I mention the view?
Let me cut to the chase. The salad was great. The vegetables carrots and asparagus that accompanied the shrimp and scallops were perfectly steamed. The seafood was just OK. I didn't taste the brandy in the sauce. The bread crumbs kind of got into everything, especially since the grilled tomato on the plate was topped with more. Dessert was included; the tiramisu recommended by the waiter was very good and very large. I asked if I could move to the cigar "lounge" and have a double espresso. Certainly.
There is another TV and I happily set fire to a Fuente Fuente OpusX Double Corona, 2005's top cigar according to this web site's print version. I want to watch the last three minutes of the hockey game, which the Pens are leading 2-1, then leave.
The cigar bar area at Le Mont was put together a year ago. The "lounge" is nothing more than a second horseshoe-shaped bar with about 15 seats. In the cabinet, there are six boxes of mostly mild cigars. There doesn't seem to be much care given to them. When I sat at the bar, I was offered a cutter, single-bladed, which had the name of another restaurant on it. This is all odd. Le Mont clearly has the setting. The room, once you get past the initial assault on the senses, is rather elegant. If you use some care, the menu can work for you. Being able to smoke a cigar, get a drink and watch a game all speak well for the place. You just get the sense that the management is missing a great opportunity to do a little better after having made the commitment to allow cigar smoking.
Needless to say, the Devils tie the game with five seconds left. They win halfway into overtime. Check.
Le Mont
1114 Grandview Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
412-431-3100
Open Monday to Saturday at 5 p.m.
Opens Sunday at 4pm
www.lemontpittsburgh.com
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