Omaha Forums

Dario Schicke, former chef at the Market Basket, is the owner of the new Dario's Brasserie in Dundee. The restaurant specializes in Belgian and French cuisine. We talked to him about brasseries, beer and working in his own neighborhood.

Q. What is a "brasserie"?

A. Brasserie is a little larger in scale than a bistro, and more home cooking. There's more of a fixed menu; stews, duck, shepherd's pie, roast chicken - nothing too extremely creative. I used "brasserie" because "bistro" and "cafe" are overused. I think if I were to say "Dario's Bistro," it really wouldn't mean anything anymore. And in Belgium, with the same spelling, "brasserie" means brewery.

At both lunch and dinner there’s the French favorite Croque-Monsieur at about $10. “It’s a classic ham-and-cheese sandwich,” Schicke said, “done Parisian Style with béchamel sauce and melted cheese on top, so it’s a sandwich you eat with fork and knife.”

Nebraskans and Europeans share a love of a dish that the French call Steak Frites. On Dario’s menu it’s Ribeye with frites and Maitre d’Hotel Butter, but the effect is the same. As Schicke put it, “It’s a great dish that’s all about meat and potatoes.”

From Belgium comes Carbonnade a’ la Flammande, chuck steak marinated in beer. “Beer ingredients out price everything else that goes in the stew,” he said. “You have to use high quality beer.” A batch may contain $12 worth of meat, but $22 worth of beer.

“That’s one of the main reasons I don’t serve mass-produced beers or grocery store type of beers,” he said, “because I cannot take chances that people would order stew like that, which has high-quality beer in it, and then they accompany that with Miller Lite. It would just break my heart.”

Dario’s extensive beer selections range from Abbey-made ales, to Strong Blonde ales, to Trappist brews. Trappist is a name that can only be used by half a dozen breweries where beer is made under the supervision of monks using methods dating back to the 10th century.

You can even get a beer float for dessert. “I do mix beer with ice cream, since we get those beautiful Belgian lambic beers,” Schicke said. “They are spontaneously fermented beers so you get that very champagne-y effect and then they are steeped with fresh fruits and you get this beautiful sweetness and tartness.”

Omaha World Herald wrote:On the menu: fancy-sounding fare that's not too much so. Printed in tiny type on paper placemats, the menu is heavy on comfort food: French onion soup, cheeseburgers, a souped-up ham and cheese (croque monsieur), rib-eye steak and roast chicken. There's a variety of sweet and savory crepes; pheasant ragú; mussels; soups, terrines and quiches du jour; and a float made with raspberry lambic (a champagne-like beer).

Based on four meals and two visits:

The warm goat cheese and caramelized onion tart comes with a side salad topped artfully with curls of carrot and red beet. The soft onions have a sweet, smoky flavor that's wonderful with the creamy tang of goat cheese, but I wished there had been more cheese to compensate for a slightly too-dry, square pastry bottom.

The tenderloin stroganoff crepe is stuffed with tender beef tips and a savory meat sauce laced with sour cream, pepper and parsley - a simple, homey dish that satisfies, particularly with a big wheaty glass of Rochefort 6. The delicate crepe is skillfully prepared, especially considering its size. It arrives folded in a quarter circle, but must span 13 inches when fully opened.

The roast chicken is tasty - a delicately herbed au jus half-chicken in two pieces with a nicely browned crust. It's served with a quarter-cup of sautéed zucchini and yellow squash and a pile of pommes frites. The salty, hand-cut, twice-fried french fries are made fresh each day and are definitely crave-able.

Mussels a la Provencale arrive in a black enameled mussel pot. It's a portion best left for sharing - perhaps eight cups including shells - in a briny sauce with lemon, thyme and tomato chunks. Schicke later informed me that you're supposed to eat them straight from the pot and discard the shells in the lid, but digging in any way you choose is fine.

My first bite included a one-fourth-carat rock of grit from the inside of one mussel. But the others were grit-free and so engrossingly good that I forgot where I was for a few minutes.

The carbonnade a la flamande is like a gourmet beef stew: thick chunks of roast beef in a dark beer-laden roux with a garnish of sautéed vegetables. The sauce has a seductively rich, nutty flavor. And, like many items, the dish comes with pommes frites served in a tall paper-lined metal cone with ketchup and an herbed mayonnaise.

Coyote wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 11:19 am Dario’s Brasserie? Does this include Avoli Osteria?