You could almost call me a card-carrying fan of chef Jose Salazar, whose first two Cincinnati restaurants — Salazar, which opened in 2013, and Mita’s, in 2015 — occupy high ground in my ranking of the area’s very best places for an excellent meal. Given that track record, I was thrilled when construction started earlier this year on his new place adjacent to Findlay Market. Goose & Elder opened its doors a couple of months ago with Sydney Fisher as chef but Salazar himself greeting patrons and putting finishing touches on just about every plate coming out of the kitchen.
Goose & Elder is quite different from his first two restaurants, which serve up rather elevated, somewhat pricey fare that makes them once-in-awhile treats for most of us. And yet as executive chef, Salazar’s creativity comes across just as clearly at Goose & Elder as his team works with less rarified ingredients.
Memorable, signature dishes have become a Salazar trademark. At his namesake OTR restaurant, Salazar, it’s hard to get past the King Salmon “everything” crust entrée, his brilliant take on a bagel with cream cheese and lox. His fabulous pozole verde at Mita’s is, as my most recent dining companion there quipped, “seafood stew as it should be.” The unusual pairing of shrimp, calamari and lobster in a dish usually made with pork caught the attention of New York Times’ food writer Melissa Clark, who published a more home-kitchen-friendly version of his recipe last summer.
I thought perhaps he had done it again at Goose & Elder with savory, fall-off-the-bone duck leg confit over grits ($17). It was the first dish I tried within days of their opening and it was marvelous. But upon a later visit, the meat was so tough as to be almost inedible, and near impossible to cut from the bone with the knife they gave me.
Since their late summer opening, I’ve eaten brunch and three evening meals at Goose & Elder. It was only at my most recent visit did my friends and I leave unhappy with the food and service.
I’m a regular shopper at Findlay Market and knew almost immediately when Goose & Elder had opened its doors. At that first visit, with two friends, we enjoyed not only the duck leg but also an innovative, deceptively simple and refreshing side dish of sliced watermelon with flaky sea salt, lime and powdered chili ($5) we ordered as an appetizer. Watermelon is seasonal, of course, and that dish won’t be on the menu much longer (if it’s still available), but it’s a fine example of the taste combos the kitchen is capable of.
A couple weeks later, we went to their weekend brunch. Although the market opens at 8 a.m. on Saturdays, the restaurant doesn’t start serving until 10 a.m., which doesn’t accommodate the early birds — like me — who hit Findlay for breakfast or coffee. My friends and I were there when the doors opened.
At brunch you can get chocolate-chip pancakes, buttered grits with eggs and bacon, goetta hash or a berry-themed French toast, among other egg-based offerings. We split an order of avocado toast ($11) while sipping drinks and loved the two thick slices of multigrain topped with thinly sliced radishes, soft scrambled eggs and jalapeño jam. The French toast ($10) was a delight, lighter and less sweet than some versions. The house omelet ($10) with figs and goat cheese featured a nice combo of savory with a bit of sweetness from the fig.
During BLINK, I stopped at Goose & Elder when it and everything else in the market was slammed. Even so, we received prompt attention from an overworked server after we found a just-vacated table in the back. We had the Royale Goose burger ($8.25; $12.50 double). One thing I love about this place is the retro cocktails, like the Harvey Wallbanger, White Russian and Tequila Sunrise. Any of these go well with burgers and fries, although I opted for a glass of cabernet sauvignon ($11).
My most recent meal here, dinner with three friends, was disappointing. There was the duck fail — which the server apologized about but did not offer to replace or take off our tab. And despite the many empty tables on an early-weekday night, we felt mostly ignored by the staff, who let our wine and water glasses sit empty for long stretches.
But even with those lapses we enjoyed most of the food, from an appetizer of bone marrow with grilled bread ($8) — rich and delicious — to an entrée of chicken schnitzel with perfectly-cooked, buttered noodles ($17) and a special dessert, cherry bread pudding ($7.25) with drizzled caramel sauce and whipped cream in a portion large enough to satisfy the four of us.
You might wonder at the restaurant’s name. While the front door is on Race Street, it’s at the corner of Elder Street and backs up on a little lane called Goose Alley. Thus, Goose & Elder. The sidewalk on Race is roomy enough for a few tables, nice during the warmer weather when the main dining room can be quite noisy. There’s extra seating and a full bar in a quieter room down a back hall.
That duck entrée still has the potential to become my go-to meal here. The meat rests in a pool of buttery grits alongside a generous portion of bacon-braised Southern greens — flavors that complement each other beautifully. Perhaps a little more quality control on the duck itself or its preparation would do the trick. But Goose & Elder fits in nicely with the burgeoning Findlay Market neighborhood where apartments and condos are multiplying like proverbial rabbits. No doubt, many of these new residents will congregate at Salazar’s latest addition to good eats in Cincinnati.
Goose & Elder, 1800 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, gooseandelder.com.
This article appears in Oct 16-29, 2019.