Unmooring a restaurant from its secure and cushy position inside a luxury hotel chain can prove challenging, even for one as famed and highly regarded as Norman’s. After a 16-year run at the Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes, Norman Van Aken’s legendary eating house was set adrift for three and a half years before it found a new berth this past March at the Dellagio Town Center in Dr. Phillips.
Fans of Van Aken’s “New World” cooking couldn’t get to the corner of Sand Lake Road and Della Drive fast enough but, when they did in those opening days and weeks, receptions were surprisingly cool. Many lamented the muted aesthetics of the space. “It doesn’t feel special,” someone said to me, while another similarly grieved, “It doesn’t feel special enough.” Harried servers appeared to be playing catch-up and just when they got into a rhythm, longtime general manager Yusuf Yildiz left to go to the very restaurant that replaced Norman’s inside the Ritz-Carlton. Ouch.
It was a rocky start, no doubt, and without the support of the Ritz, the pressure was on for Van Aken and business partner Kim Wood to right the ship. So they, along with director of sales Laura Fletcher, set out to do just that: Everything from lighting adjustments to hiring a new general manager (Sean McKnight from Ava MediterrAegean) to introducing a tasting menu helped stabilize things. Carlos Robles Molina, the former sous chef who was appointed chef de cuisine, embraced his new role and, along with his James Beard Award-winning mentor, steered Norman’s dishes to a familiar heading.
Yes, the menu’s Latin-Caribbean DNA is still intact, but flavors from Japan and Southeast Asia expand on Van Aken’s “New World” view. Blue crab beignets ($24) dressed with hearts of palm slaw come cemented in a yuzu aioli, while chilled beef tenderloin ($17) is given a “tataki” treatment along with a splash of ginger-soy dressing and sunchoke chips. The starters and first plates all fit nicely into the Van Aken ethos, and consciously so. Tamarind-glazed octopus ($22) crowned with “glass potatoes” — gossamer cracklings made from potato stock and potato starch — are just as seafood-worthy as shrimp and mussel chowder ($22) styled like Brazilian moqueca, with its coconut milk base and flavors of saffron, orange and star anise adding depth.
In fact, Molina doesn’t veer off course in search of uncharted flavor combinations like some sort of culinary Jacques Cousteau, but rather, sticks to the proverbial script. In three visits to Norman’s, I’ve noticed a consistency and reliability to the offerings which will likely have me indulging in French toast ($38) fashioned from griddled brioche, stuffed with fattened Curacao-scented foie gras, and embellished with passion-fruit caramel and candied lime zest when I dine there a fourth time. But while an American wagyu strip “a la plancha” served with pommes puree, cipollini onions and white asparagus ($145) and double-cut lamb chops “adobo” splashed with chimichurri ($67) were expertly prepared, their ties to “third culture” cooking seemed cursory at best. Same goes for the gorgeous plating of house made pappardelle with braised short rib, morels and English peas in a red wine reduction($56). Salt wasn’t all that was missing from the dish; so was the dish’s roots to “New World Cuisine.”
When it comes to stories mere food on a plate can tell, it’s Norman’s tasting menu ($155; $220 with wine pairing) that serves as a depository, as well as a reminder of why Van Aken is as relevant a chef today as he’s been at any point in his career.
“What we seek is to showcase the breadth and diversity of where we live,” reads the intro to the monthly-changing menu, and that includes the ingredients as much as it does the people who work with those ingredients. As we all indulged in a bevy of Gloriann Rivera’s post-meal delights — the sopapilla cheesecake bar ($16) and vanilla “flancocho” cake ($16) show off her skills as pastry chef — a friend of mine looked around and said, “This place looks like a cruise ship from the 1920s.”
“One with a 4,000-bottle wine list,” I managed to add through a mouthful of chocolate crème brûlée ($18) that was unlike any crème brûlée I’d ever enjoyed. But he was right. It did have the feel of an ocean liner of yore and, in that context, I saw the space in a different light: classy, sturdy and capable of navigating through the roughest of seas.
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This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2023.