People frequently walk into the restaurant located at 208 N. Walnut St. expecting to find Restaurant Tallent, said Jordon Jaques, manager at Restaurant Monet.
However, Restaurant Monet has taken its place in the building and as the New American fine dining restaurant on the square.
After accepting a job with IU Tradition’s Catering, David Tallent, owner and executive chef of Restaurant Tallent, sold his business on New Year’s Eve. Restaurant Monet opened in January.
Monet is focused on providing organic, local ingredients and maintaining an extensive wine list, Jaques said. The goal was to improve on what Tallent did.
“Tallent provided a lot of great service and great food,” Jacques said. “The new owners wanted to further that.”
Though Tallent has sold his restaurant, much of his staff has stayed on to work at Monet.
Michael Blagg, who worked under David Tallent for over four years at Restaurant Tallent, is now the executive chef at Restaurant Monet.
When Monet first opened, Blagg said he would go to the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market to meet with farmers and personally find the best produce possible for the restaurant.
“We use as much local produce as possible,” Blagg said. “I’d say we do a better job at it than any restaurant in town.”
The only thing that isn’t from local farmers is the fish, which is overnighted to the restaurant every day, Blagg said.
Jacques said separating Monet from Tallent is something they are working on.
“We’re all young, and Tallent is old,” Jacques said. “The oldest person who works at the restaurant is the chef, and he’s 30.”
Unlike Tallent, who generally utilized traditional cooking methods, Blagg said he is focused on using modern techniques at Monet.
“Chef Tallent is a great chef, but he was much more old school,” Blagg said.
Blagg said he would try to bring in new techniques and ideas while under Tallent, but it often wasn’t well received.
However, now that Blagg is the executive chef, he is able to experiment with molecular gastronomy, which is applying scientific principles to food preparation, and en sous vide, a technique which cooks meat and vegetables in a vacuum-sealed pouch in water.
“It’s a very precise cooking technique,” Blagg said about the latter. “You can cook something for two hours, and then leave it for 24 hours and it tastes like it just finished cooking.”
Blagg also uses liquid nitrogen to make foams, gels and ice cream.
The future is bright for Restaurant Monet, Jacques said. Monet plans to hold to an advertised grand opening when the spring menu is released, but for now, the restaurant has been drawing in customers by word of mouth.
Since the restaurant has only been open for two months, Blagg said the restaurant and its staff are still trying to figure out where they want things to go. However, they do know they want to continue the tradition of farm to table dining and keep the restaurant young, Blagg said.
“We want to keep it affordable,” Blagg said. ”We want to create food you can’t get anywhere else in Bloomington or Indiana.”
