Char No. 4 Visited 7/3/10 3.75 Forks

Char No. 4  196 Smith St, (between Warren St & Baltic St), Brooklyn, NY 11201

I've been to Char No. 4 before for drinks and snacks before but never for dinner. I always kind of thought that it was a bit expensive food-wise, so when Blackboard Eats had a $38 3-course prix fix meal plus whiskey tastings I thought that I would finally give the food a go (although I will say that I've had their pork nuggets and fried cheese curds before and they were delicious).  The set menu came with a cold pea soup with shrimp to start, a choice of jambalaya, hot sausage link or gnocchi for an entree and a key lime pie with marshmallow topping.  Each course came with a 1 oz whiskey pairing.

Priced separately the total meal would have been around $50ish, so the $38 gives you around the standard 30% discount.  The soup, as described, as chilled with bits of shrimp and chunks of avocado.  It was good to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of cold soup in general.  There was an element of spiciness to the soup...I'm not sure if that came from the shrimp or that added something to the soup.  While I love avocado in general and would eat it in any form, I'm not quite sure they it was in the soup.  It didn't really add much to it.  The whiskey pairing for this was the Rittenhouse Rye, which was pretty good.

For an entree, I got the jambalaya and Dan got the hot sausage link.  Both entrees were pretty big in size.  The jambalaya was served with manilla clams and 3-4 big,de-shelled shrimp (I thought it was a nice touch to have it completely de-shelled).  I thought it was flavored well and all the seafood was prepared to the right consistency.  The hot sausage link came with crispy shallots and potato salad.  The potato salad was pretty good...it was the yellow mustard-kind and not the white mayo base.  The sausage could have been cooked a bit warmer...strangely the plate was extremely hot but the meal could have used a few more minutes on the oven.  The whiskey pairing was the Eagle Rare 10 yr, which was a substitute from the listed Elijah Craig.  The Eagle Rare was very good. Extremely smooth and easy to drink.

If this wasn't a prix fixe meal, I would have stopped eating and drinking here.  I was pretty full by the time dessert rolled around, but I couldn't say no.  When the pie came out, it was way bigger a slice that it needed to be.  And damn it, it was really good too. The graham cracker crust was really yummy and the pie was the right amount of tartness and sweetness.  The marshmallow top didn't really need to be there, but who's going to say no to marshmallow?  Unfortunately, I couldn't finish my piece even though I really really wanted to.  The whiskey pairing here was the George Dickel No. 12.  At this point, all my senses were in overload and I think I liked this whiskey? Even though I didn't drink a lot of alcohol and I ate a heavy meal, by the time I got home I seriously felt like someone had drugged me. I couldn't stay awake past 11pm.

The total bill plus tax and tip was $98 for two.  Not too bad when you factor in each person got a 3 course meal and 3 1 oz. pours.  I would always go back for the whiskey as they really have an awesome selection.  While I enjoyed my meal too, I definitely don't think I would order a 3 course meal there. I might just stick to the snacks.