A true tasting menu comes to Allentown
By Jessica Keltz
photos by Jim Bush
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A sampling.
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But if you’re looking for somewhere new and different where the decor is among the best in town, the noise level is just right, the drinks are delicious and you’re in the mood for a few hors d’oerves and a spot of dessert, give Sample a try, and bring all your friends.
Sample gets its name from its portion sizes, usually only a few bites. The main menu has twelve items, so if you’re really hungry and there are no specials served that night, you may need to order everything on it. It includes a portion of pasta served on a clam shell topped with one clam, a mini beef-on-weck sandwich, clear plastic shot glasses of soup, and a bit of fish served atop a spoonful of coleslaw and one “chip.” Menu items generally cost $2 or $3.
On a recent visit, the most impressive menu item was the “cappuccino,” mushroom broth topped by rosemary foam. This was not your average salt-water soup broth but rather the essence of porcini and shitake mushrooms heated and concentrated. The taste and smell of the rosemary foam combined with the broth added up to a divine sipping experience.
Fellow diners also raved about the “linguine” with clam (actually angel hair pasta), served on a tiny half shell atop a bed of salt. The dish’s many elements were shrunk in a perfectly proportionate manner. Other favorites included the “steak and egg,” a nicely cooked pepper strip steak topped with a poached quail egg whose creamy center complemented the peppery meat and crisp toast underneath, and the sausage and onion, which paired spicy chorizo sausage with caramelized peppers, onion, and a silver dollar-sized arepa, a South American corn cake with a great chewy texture. After dinner, a thankfully regular-sized French press pot of coffee made for a nice touch.
Items that could use work included the mini beef on weck (which was mostly roll and had nearly enough salt for a full-sized sandwich) and, from the dessert menu, the chocolate ravioli, which too nearly approximated the experience of eating normal ravioli with its rubbery shell (with very little chocolate flavor) and cheese filling. The cherry sauce helped, though, and it also didn’t hurt that this dish shares a plate with a chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate-dipped strawberry.
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Sample exterior and interior.
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In addition to its mini food, Sample offers desserts (a flight of mini crèmes brulées, or, a special, a flight of mini candy bar recreations), several wine choices and featured cocktails of the evening. And there are no oh-so-over cosmos and appletinis here. On our visit, the featured cocktails were an Unbloody Mary, a Raspberry Bellini, Orange Chocolate with Vanilla Vodka Marshmallows and a Chocolate Kumquat Martini. More in the mood for wine, we settled on a very nice Sauvignon Blanc and a bartender-recommended Beauzeaux-Bozo, a blend of seven red grape varietals. Sample offers four reds and four whites by the glass, each priced at $5 or $6, and several more by the bottle. Basic mixed drinks are well made and artfully presented as well.
The best way to experience Sample is probably the option listed at the bottom of the menu—have a “cocktail party.” For $19 per person, each guest can try six items or, for $24/person, each guest can try nine items. This includes a glass of wine or champagne, and will really give diners a chance to sample what Sample has to offer.
Sample, 242 Allen Street, 883-1675
Jessica Keltz is a former journalist and recent graduate of UB Law who works as Downtown Living Coordinator at Buffalo Place, Inc. In her spare time, in addition to freelance writing, she tutors Somali refugee children, skates with the Queen City Roller Girls, and explores the city on foot.
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