so yesterday, mr. happy stuff forwarded me information about “restaurant week.” i hadn’t heard about it before, but apparently, for one week in january, restaurants across town (and generally pretty high end ones) offer a 3-course meal for $25 per person. the menu is usually limited, but we were both thrilled to see the best restaurant in town was listed as a participant. now, you might be adding this up in your head and thinking, “hmmmm…. that’s not really that cheap, especially once you add in drinks and a tip” and normally i’d agree with you, but meals at said best restaurant can easily normally cost 2-3 times that much so we jumped at the chance. by the time i called to see if there were any available reservations, there was only one–at 9:00 on tuesday night. the weather was forecasted to be “bitterly cold. colder.” with strong winds and blowing snow and ice all over, but we decided it was worth it. so, we snacked a bit when we got home from work at 6:00 to tide us over (we don’t normally have dinner at 9:00), then, when it was finally time to go, we put on slightly nicer clothes than we’d worn to work and headed out into the cold. and it was cold. very cold. bitterly cold. colder. and so worth it. here’s the prix fixe menu for tonight:
Appetizer
Cherokee Farm Bison Bresaola “Involtiniâ€
with Pickled Mushrooms and Arugula topped with Shaved SarVecchioor
Sweet Onion Soup
with Pleasant Ridge Reserve Croutons
Entrée
Black Earth Valley Exotic Mushroom Crêpes
with Winter Root Vegetable Ragoût and Red Currant Gastriqueor
Artesian Farm Pan-Roasted Rainbow Trout
with Snug Haven Spinach, Willow Creek Farm Bacon Lardons, Toasted Pine Nuts and Balsamic Reduction
Dessert
        Ela Orchard Apple Crisp
with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
we also got an “amuse bouche” (a new phrase for us–we are such newbies to this fancy food thing–which apparently means “an extra little thing the chef gives you as a bonus to whet your appetite”) which was a tiny espresso cup full of parsnip soup with a honey and balsamic reduction drizzled over the top and some bacon. it was sweeter than i’d expected parsnips to be (not sure what i was expecting, actually) but the saltiness of the bacon was a delicious contrast.
i ordered the top appetizer and mr. h-s got the soup. i didn’t know what “bresaola” or “involtini” were, but the waiter was kind enough to explain it to me and i enjoyed the dish greatly. it turned out to be three little rolled up bundles of thin, matchstick cut veggies, wrapped in a thin slice of cured bison meat and a little pile of fresh greens with a delicate and simple but surprisingly yummy dressing (oil, vinegar and fleur de sel?)
for the entrees, we chose different meals as well (can you guess who picked which?). i got the mushroom crepes which were much nicer than any crepes i’ve made at home. so many different and yummy flavors! like a happy dance in my mouth.
and, of course, mr. happy stuff was thrilled to pieces with the dessert (i thought it was tasty too, but apples+caramel+crumbly topping+ vanilla ice cream is pretty much his favorite dessert ever–how lucky can you get?).
the staff there made us feel so comfortable. they took our coats and were friendly and chatty with us and didn’t make us feel foolish for asking things like “what’s a bresaola?” we also learned that apparently they do a $35 prix fixe menu every week tues-thurs all year round! since their menu is based on what’s in season, we’re looking forward to going in the summer sometime for a completely different kind of meal.
if we’d been seated somewhere other than the exact center of the restaurant, i might have felt comfortable enough to take some photos of our food to show you, but as it was, i thought that the photos i’d get with the cell phone might not have done justice to the food anyway, so (sorry) you’ll just have to imagine it.
we barely managed to make it back to our car without getting blown off of our feet by the wind or slipping on the ice (a small miracle!) and now we’re home, warm, cozy and very well fed. hooray for spur-of-the-moment splurges!
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