ELEVATED DISHES, COMFORTABLE SETTING, SEAMLESS HOSPITALTY
I’ve been eating at Miel for several years now, at least a couple dozen times all-in-all. The vision and commitment of its creator/owner, Seema, at which she succeeds consistently, is to serve great food while seamlessly making customers comfortable. That’s not in any sense by just serving “comfort food;” instead, it’s a very carefully crafted approach to how each dish is constructed, with equal, dovetailed care given to the setting and to each customer’s experience of the food and service in the setting. Food, setting, service, and customer care come together to form an organic whole (and that’s “organic” in its other sense, not USDA Certified Organic.), a whole that is qualitatively more and better than the sum of each of its fine parts.
The menu changes a lot, I’m guessing because Miel starts from their opportunities to source the highest quality ingredients, which has some unpredictability. They seem to start with a star ingredient for each dish, but then also make sure that each supporting ingredient is also fresh and flavorful. The influences are clearly French, Italian and Northern California Nouvelle cuisines, but there are also dishes not cut from that cloth that surprise. The wine list is carefully curated by the owner (perhaps with help from the sommelier who told me about Miel, one of the best sommeliers in town). Nothing has disappointed over the years. Everything ranges from very good to died-and-went-to-heaven good. I've been known to order and eat two different desserts. And that’s just the beginning.
The commitment to customer comfort at Miel means that many dishes are structured so that they can be adjusted to accommodate dietary restrictions, and yet still work. My wife is vegan, and has been well-fed every time we go to Miel.
Still, that’s not the whole story. There are many places in town that will adapt to dietary restrictions, but that’s not front-and-center in other venues’ approach to customer comfort. At Miel, the servers know what all the kitchen can adjust in most instances, and will volunteer it matter-of-factly, without any, “Let me go ask,” and also without any fanfare or theatrics. Customers feel special in a valued way that blends in naturally, with no risk of standing out uncomfortably.
And then there’s the setting, done in warm yellows and browns with lower lighting, that puts you at ease without drawing special attention to itself. I looked closely only recently, and realized that this location may well have been a light industry machining shop in its last life. The walls are cinder block. The floors are that kind of sealed concrete that’s used in shops and in warehouses, the kind that can withstand heavy things being set or even dropped on them. Notwithstanding all those hard surfaces that reflect sound, there are other materials that absorb sound so that, even when packed, hearing each other at the table is not an effort. There are some rectangular patches on the floor where a mill or a bandsaw might have been; and there’s exposed plumbing, with the tables and banquettes cleverly positioned so that the pipes are now foot rests. It’s an artful recycling of an industrial space—and you have to look closely to see that—into a setting for a fine, relaxed dining experience.
In sum, Miel manages to be equally and strongly focused on elevated food and customer comfort, and combines these elements seamlessly, without ever crossing the line into being cloying in any way. They make it all seem very natural; and yet, when you take step back to think about it, there are so many ways restaurants can and do screw that up, as to make Miel, Seema's vision and the team's execution a rare gem. It’s not the kind of comfort where you can count on some favorite dish always to be on the menu. Instead, Miel starts from creating an exceptional, often unexpected pleasure in your mouth, a different one each time, and then works out to enfold the whole person in a delightful dining experience.
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