Vox Populi's food speaks volumes, and recipe

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun
Vox Populi, a Latin phrase that literally means “the voice of the people,” is an apt name for the Boylston Street restaurant of the same name. It gets pretty vocal during a late night scene with upscale ambiance competing with one of the more glittery singles scene around Boston.
The 755 Boylston St. restaurant used to be the Back Bay Brewing Company, from 1995 to the end of the brewpub phase, around 2000. The owner, Joe Quattrocchi, picked up a full liquor license and converted the restaurant to Vox Populi. The move was smart, because the spot turned into a trendy hot spot known for its lively social scene as well as martini-fueled hookups. For the glassy-eyed regulars wondering what all those words are along the bar top, it’s from one of Cicero’s speeches to Congress, an inspiration of the architect, Steven Sousa.
On top of that bar, award-winning bartenders serve many a martini, and perhaps you’ve been there when you needed to absorb some alcohol with their late-night snacks. Yes, they have food.
It’s good food, too, as the after-work crowd and the business-and-tourist lunchers have discovered. A lot of comfort food –- pan-roasted maple salmon, blackened shrimp, black angus burgers – but executive chef Ryan Murphy would steer you toward the Tuscan braised pork shank, an osso bucco that falls off the bone, with saffron potatoes laced with an earthy thyme; or his Cajun seafood stew, with sauteed shrimp, lobster, scallops, mussles and clams in a spicy broth, served with dirty rice.
Audrie Lambert, a friendly waitress who lives on Beacon Street, strongly recommended for lunch the New England Fall Salad, mixed greens with fresh blueberries, goat cheese and candid walnuts with cranberry vinaigrette. She’s right -- topped with salmon, and it becomes an antioxidant dream far too tasty to be called a salad.
Like most Back Bay restaurants, they are also serving simple entrees with a la carte sides, which many customers appreciate because they can choose what they want. The sharable portions include creamed spinach, lyonnaise potatoes, haricot vert, and truffled parmesan or sweet potato fries.
But its their new lineup of organic beef and local-farm fruits and veggies that the restaurant is especially proud of. “There’s probably only two or three other restaurants who are featuring Brandt beef,” says Yasmin Saleh, marketing and events coordinator for Vox.
It’s all part of Vox’s mission to go green. “We’re more aware of what’s going on around us, environmentally. We’re the only bar in the City of Boston who is recycling its beer bottles, and we’ve started doing liquor bottles. We’re going to start doing away with water bottles. We have some of the cleanest tap water in the country. People are going to have to get used to water from the tap. We’re really lucky to have great water and great regulation.”
But in the end, what people want is good food. Their Brandt beef is from well-treated cows fed vegetarian, corn-based diet without antibiotics or hormones. The ala cart beef menu includes New York sirloin, bone-in rib eye, and filet mignon. Murphy, a dad of two young girls in Taunton, is especially sensitive to providing quality food to families. “Everyone wants to eat healthier,” he says. “We are showing our kids how to eat.”
Chef Murphy also likes to watch his customers eat, which means going downstairs from his second-floor kitchen to talk to diners to see what they like and don’t like. “I like seeing people happy when they’re eating.”

How Chef Murphy makes a New York Sirloin:
This recipe is a special, served with a ragout of local and organically grown vegetables and fingerling potatoes, finished with a sherry lobster glace. The meat isn’t officially prime, but it’s buttery and fork-tender, full of flavor further enhanced by the sherry sauce.
First, he recommends chopping up and preparing all of the ingredients ahead of time, for “mise en place,” which he says is French, literally "put in place." He also recommends a really sharp French knife – at home, he uses a $600 JA Henkels knife.
He also came up with a recipe that uses local ingredients, which for this time of year means a colorful array of root vegetables. Less transportation means fresher veggies with more vitamins.

Sirloin:
10 oz. "Brandt" NY Sirloin
Kosher salt & freshly cracked pepper to taste

Season well with salt & pepper, atop a hot grill, without oil, to your liking. “Don’t touch it! The more you touch it, the more uneven it cooks,” says Murphy. For medium rare, 3-4 minutes each side; medium, 4-5 minutes each side; medium well, 6-7 minutes each side. Don’t flip or touch the meat until the time is up. When done, let the meat rest while you cook the rest of the food.

Vegetable & Fingerling Ragout:
Canola or soybean oil
6 Pearl Onions, whole
6 Baby Button Mushrooms, whole
3 Baby New Carrots, Blanched
1⁄4 Leek, Julienned
2 Fingerling Potatoes, Blanched & Quartered
1⁄2 Roma Tomato, Quartered
1⁄2 c. White Wine (use a wine you’d drink, nothing fancy)
2 oz. Demi Glace
Salt & Pepper

To blanche carrots, boil carrots in a pot of salted wter, and cook until fork tender or to taste. Shock in icewater so they’ll stop cooking.

On medium heat, lightly season and saute onions and mushrooms in some oil until brown. Add carrots, then leeks for a few minutes, then add potatoes and tomatoes for approximately 3-4 minutes.
Remove vegetables, and deglaze pan with white wine and simmer and reduce by half. Add demi glace, and toss vegetables in sauce. Season to taste.

Sherry Lobster Glace:
1 Lobster Claw
1⁄2 c. Sherry Wine
1/8 c. Lobster Stock
1/8 c. Demi Glace
1 tbls Unsalted Butter

Allow pan to get hot and burn off sherry wine, reducing it by half. If you’re feeling brave, light it on fire, letting the alcohol burn off before it self-extinguishes. Add lobster stock and demi glace and reduce by half again. Add the butter and lobster claw and remove from heat after about a minute.

Demi Glace:
You can use any reduced beef stock; specialty stores like Whole Foods may have some already made, he says. Murphy likes to take beef or veal bones, roast them until they are nice and brown, add a mirepoix (50 percent chopped onions to 25 percent chopped celery and 25 percent chopped carrots) and peppercorns to the pot, add bones, and cold water, and simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain, let it cool down, then transfer to a different pot and reduce it by half. You should have about a half-gallon of demi glace.

Lobster stock: use leftover lobsters and shell, and boil a few hours in water. Or you can buy lobster base at many stores. He has also used lobster powder for the base, to good results.

Plating:
Place sliced sirloin on one side of the plate and the ragout on the opposite side of the plate. Top sirloin with the lobster claw and drizzle with the glace. Garnish with fresh chopped chives & a rosemary sprig.

Serve with a nice bottle of Organic Halter Ranch, a 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon from Paso, California.