Dessert at Mistral Kitchen:This picture above is the Meyer lemon mousse with pistachio pain de genes–one of the standards on the Mistral Kitchen dessert board. There’s also the pineapple-maple baba with bacon ice cream, the mascarpone mousse with coffee granita, the kitchen’s Ultra Brownie. All of them are excellent. So why is dessert here essential? Well let me tell you…The regular menu at Mistral Kitchen is a wonderland of restraint and technique–a mix of modernism and classical chops in service always to the food first and ego second. The short rib is one of the most amazing things I have eaten at Mistral. The potatoes Robuchon equally so. Even the charcuterie is drop-dead awesome.But it is on the dessert side of the kitchen that the crew takes the most risks and shows off their artist’s vision for plating and design. As incredible as dinner might be, dessert here–rather than being just another dishwater creme brulee or molten chocolate torte–is a fully realized course in and of itself; a fully considered and refined cap to an evening of eye-opening food. That is a rare thing these days. And since Mistral has lavished so much love on its pastry department and gone to such pains to make it equal in talent and execution to the already inspiring kitchen, I see dessert here as the must-have course–both for the rarity of its excellence and because, hey… Who doesn’t love dessert?