sardine

[this picture was taken in paris on our trip three years ago.  i’m posting it in honor of our french-esque dinner this evening.]

tonight, mr. happy stuff and i treated ourselves to dinner at a restaurant we’ve been wanting to try for ages–sardine.  we arrived a few minutes before our reservation and were told that they were running a few minutes behind schedule, but we were invited to wait at the bar if we liked.  there were two seats open, so we sat down and the bartender came over and took our orders.  i sheepishly told her that i don’t tend to like alcoholic drinks and did she have any non-alcoholic suggestions?  (it always feels strange to order non-alcoholic things at the bar.)  she thought for a second and suggested a virgin mojito and so i ordered that.  oh. man.  was that a good call, or what?  tasted just like early summer mixed with a twist of spring.  so fresh and garden-y tasting.  it was perfect.

as we sat at the bar, we got our first good look at the restaurant itself.  it’s got a very welcoming, cozy industrial chic (if such a thing is possible) vibe with rectangular “subway” tiles along some of the walls and frosted glass and exposed ducts and warm wood tones…  beautiful lighting…

we were seated very soon at a small table for two with a vase containing a small purple iris and a tight yellow ranunculus (my favorite!) that picked up on the yellow in the iris.  the napkins at the tables were tidy rolls of what looked like french linen toweling with two thin blue stripes near the ends.  they were soft and rumply in the best sort of way.

i had a very difficult time choosing what i wanted to order, but i finally started with a salad of asparagus and prosciutto with sauce gribiche and watercress and mr. happy stuff had the “house salad” which included mixed greens and bibb lettuce with shaved shallots, crispy chick peas, roasted beets and sieved egg in a tarragon champagne vinaigrette.  the “gribiche” sauce was rather mustardy which went well with the asparagus and prosciutto.  i tried one of the “crispy chick peas” from the house salad and they were pretty yummy.  when the waitress asked, i ordered a second virgin mojito (unheard-of extravagance!).

for our main meals, mr. happy stuff went with the steak frites (tasty, but standard fare, according to him) and i went for something a little more unusual:  grilled lamb chops, sauteed dandelion greens, pearl pasta, mint, artichokes with roasted tomato-veal sauce.  wow.  those dandelion greens pack a bitter punch!  they were a nice foil to the savory meat flavors in the rest of the meal, but i don’t think i could eat a whole salad of them.  so many interesting and unusual flavors and textures (pearl pasta!) and they all went really well together.

i was feeling stuffed, but… i can’t not order dessert at fancy places like this.  plus, i’d had a sneak peek at the desserts on other tables and when i realized that one of tonight’s specials was a rhubarb custard tart with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, well, there was no other choice for me.  mr. happy stuff and i had already decided to share dessert and he isn’t normally a huge fan of rhubarb (like i am), but he graciously agreed to split the tart with me.  i think even he liked it.  the pastry bottom was soft and chewy (the way i like it!) and the custard offset the sourness of the rhubarb and it was warm enough to melt the ice cream just a little and there was some sort of red sauce on the side (sour cherry?  more rhubarb?) and, and, and…. it was heavenly.  the perfect end to a perfectly delightful meal.  we really must try out their brunch sometime too.