Vichyssoise @ Antoine's
The cold potato-and-leek soup that's considered a French bistro classic is hard to find these days. The last restaurant that offered it on a regular basis is Antoine's. Even there you can't always find it on the menu, not even in the ninety-plus-degrees we must suffer through for the next three or four months.
As much as I love Antoine's, it has ceased to serve vichyssoise the way it once did. In the glory age, the soup came out in a cup resting on a bed of ice held up by an ornate utensil used for nothing else. Fortunately, the flavor remains appealing. This was an unusually rich version of the soup, including a bit of sour cream in the recipe. A little bit of blue cheese crumbled over the top adds further deliciousness. Vichyssoise was for a time a victim of the paring-down of Antoine's formerly 130-dish-plus menu following Katrina. But they haven't forgotten it. It's currently on the new summer lunch menu.
