Friday, December 1, 2000

New chef brings panache to Cypress Street Station
By Pamela Percival
Special to the Reporter-News

Cypress Street Station’s new chef is combining his classic French culinary training with his Cajun heritage to bring a delectable new flair to the downtown restaurant’s fare.

Since chef Don Touchet signed on as Cypress Street’s executive chef in early November, he’s been testing customers’ taste buds with diverse daily specials such as Acadian-style Louisiana gumbo with his signature “black” roux. A roux is a mixture of flour and fat that, after being slowly cooked over low heat, is used to thicken soups and sauces.

On the evening I visited Cypress Street, Touchet’s dinner special was an excellent grilled, fresh grouper with a crawfish cream sauce, served with wilted spinach atop a wild mushroom pilaf ($21.95, including green salad).

The fish tasted and smelled fresh and had a nice, slightly-firm texture. The sauce, dotted with chunks of crawfish meat, added just the right amount of flavor, but not too much spice. Chef Touchet said he likes cooking seafood because he was raised on the coast where he had ready access to fresh fish. He also enjoys cooking game meats and plans to continue testing a variety of daily specials to see what goes over well with Abilene diners.

“As I get to know what the people here like, we’ll see where we’re going with the menu,” Touchet said. “I love to cook Southwestern, I was trained classical French and I was raised Cajun, so that’s where I come from – my food is a hybrid of all that.” Some daily specials he plans to offer in the near future include trout with habañero mango vinaigrette, Shrimp Creole and crawfish etouffée, a thick, spicy stew of crawfish and vegetables served over white rice.

For dinner, Cypress Street also continues to serve several beef dishes, including Veal Scallopine Parmigiana, roast prime rib and a Filet Mignon Portobello ($21.95, including a green salad), which my dinner companion tried on our visit. The large filet was perfected cooked and accented with a grilled portabella mushroom covered with a slightly-sweet huckleberry sauce.

For dessert, we enjoyed Touchet’s moist bread pudding topped with a sugary rich praline sauce and a generous sprinkling of chopped pecans ($4.95).

Cypress Street’s lunch menu is a bit lighter and less pricey, with entrée salads for $6-$8, wraps (about $5), sandwiches ($6-$7) and such “old favorites” as a very spicy Thai chicken salad and buttermilk fried chicken ($6.95 each).

Proprietor Brian Green opened Cypress Street Station in 1993 in the restored Compton Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The restaurant has an upscale yet warm and inviting feel, with white tablecloths, excellent service and a fire burning in the fireplace during cold weather. Although it’s a great special occasion place for adults, the restaurant has a children’s menu featuring such kid-pleasers as cheese pizza and fried chicken strips with French fries ($3.95 each).

Pam Percival is a contributing food writer to the Abilene Reporter-News. For previous restaurant reviews and a complete directory of Abilene restaurants, visit www.EATabilene.com.