Read Drink & Be Merry

It all started with dinner one night with Mr & Ms In Vino Veritas with the thought of grilling ‘big ol’ honkin’ pieces o’ meat’. Compounded by an email from Veron about her Hungry Hubby having grill envy. The idea was simple. Fire up the new infrared grill and throw open the doors to a few foodies and allow them to bask in the 700+ degree heat with whatever food stuff they cared to play with. Emails flew back and forth for a few days and then the preparations began and the players arrived. Joining us were Mr & Ms In Vino Veritas, the Sketchy’s with little Aidan, Veron & Hungry Hubby, as well as our non-blogger friends Cy-n-Ide (with C4 still on board – so to speak). RVA Foodie was invited but decided to blow a gasket in a futile attempt at aioli instead.

Once everyone arrived, and Finn greeted Aidan (see above picture), martini’s were made and the grill fired up. To get things rolling I threw some fillets of grouper (marinated in a Japanese inspired liquid) on the grill. For this dish I used my grilling basket to avoid the fish sticking to the grill. Four minutes later we had juicy grouper for people to nosh on.

Next up to the grill was Hungry Hubby. After a few minutes instruction on the grill itself, HH pulled out a sword and measured the grill. Off to the kitchen he went threading sword after sword with chunks of meat daubing them with some sort of melted butter concoction. The smells that came off the grill were heavenly. The meat came out moist and juicy, the extreme heat having seared all the juices inside. After years of dry, overcooked kebab meat this dish has ruined all other possible attempts at kebab making. HH decided then and there that he was getting an infrared grill and Veron, after tasting the results did not seem inclined to argue.

Next up to the plate was Mr Vino. The Vino’s are on a cleansing diet for a short time so they were consuming no animal products. This made for a few adjustments for the evening. I had decided to make my faux mashed potatoes (actually made with cauliflower) for the evening so I had to adjust to make it vegan. Substitute Veggie Stock for Chicken, Soy Milk for cream, Smart Balance for butter, and I actually found a vegan parmesan substitute. The result was pretty good, I think I under salted but no one seemed to agree with me, so there you go. The Vino’s had also brought kebab’s, but of the veggie variety. We lowered the heat on the grill a bit, didn’t want the skewers to burn (they did anyway), spritzed with a bit of olive oil and on to the heat. While this was cooking I added a piece of cedar board and threw on a hunk of salmon with a bit of white wine and dill. Once again all came out well (except for the burned skewers). The veggies stayed moist and, since we kept them moving on the grill, they cooked all the way through without getting too charred.

The next guest chef was Sketchy. He had brought some skirt steaks. The heat on the grill went back up and wrapped pieces of corn added to the upper rack. As skirt steak is so thin these had to be cooked quickly but with lots of contact with the grill to encourage proper charring. Sketchy’s steak was a success. Perfect MR, juicy, and lots of flavour. The Sketchy’s had also brought tow kinds of homemade marshmallows. One was infused with lavender, the other peach. Great snacking items. Stopped eating marshmallows years ago because they were too sweet and just really didn’t taste of much. These were wonderful, especially the lavender. Sketchy mentioned maybe posting the recipe on his blog….

To finish on the grill I had planned a NY Strip tasting. I had got 4 NY Strips – One from Fresh Market and from Belmont Butchery a regular CAB, an organic CAB, and a Wagyu. All were cut basically the same, allowed to come to room temperature and sea salt applied. While they all cooked the same amount of time the Wagyu may have got a little more heat as the amount of marbling caused the grill to flare up a bit. Once cooked they were allowed to rest and then sliced thin. The results? The cheap one from Fresh Market was ok flavour, nothing special, but was a bit tough and had some gristle. The organic had really good flavour but had so much gristle that it was tough to cut and to chew. The regular CAB from Belmont Butchery was a winner, great taste, tender, and no tough spots. The Wagyu was excellent, buttery, tender, melt in your mouth. I would, however, give the ribbon the regular CAB based on the relative little damage it did to my pocketbook compared to the Wagyu.

Veron stepped up to the plate for desserts. Cupcakes, Financiers (little teacakes), and, of course, her macarons. All were delicious and the way we attacked them would make one think we were a bunch of 19th century orphans in London. Yum!

Of course with all this we had copious amounts of adults beverages. Martini’s, too many different kinds of wine to count, and akvavit. As the liquor flowed so did the volume on the side porch. My favourite neighbours across the street, the ones with the dead body a few weeks ago, seemed to have their illegal activities interrupted by all the noise and activity. Although there has been change. The drug dealers seemed to have been moved out by the owners and new people moved in. The new profession is not dealing but prostitution. Oh joy.

I have to admit I never really ate at Franco’s. I phrase it that way as my only visit was for a corporate Christmas luncheon and restaurants are rarely at their best when serving a banquet. It was good but I would be hard pressed to remember anything special about it. People have given high praise to Franco’s and I’ll take their word for it. A couple of years ago Franco’s gave birth to Sensi, down on Tobacco Row in the Bottom, and, with M’s birthday in a few days, that’s where we found ourselves. M was actually a little hesistant to go. She likes to look at menus in advance but Sensi has no web presence. Odd in this day and age. The web can be a great, inexpensive, selling tool for a restaurant considering the fragmented advertising world. It also means I have no online menu to reference, so all ingredient errors are mine.

We arrived early in the evening (Finn being a toddler has made us early birds as he no longer falls asleep in a carrier) and started in the bar. The space is very minimalistic. Bare concrete with burgundy accents, link curtain separating the bar and dining area, and,thankfully, no TV. We ordered our usual martinis and I got my first hit of sticker shock. I really have gotten used to spending $10-$12 for a martini, especially when they are oversized. $14.50 for less than a supersized was a little excessive. Add to that M sending hers back as the lipstick on the glass didn’t match hers… We were off to a bit of a rocky start.

Before we went to the table Finn and I ventured into the bathroom. Kinda scary. Big patch of peeling paint and crumbling drywall by the sink. Dirty with random puddles of liquid in bad places. What you would expect a nightclub restroom to look like towards the end of a busy Saturday, not in a fine dining establishment at the beginning of the evening. M later told me the ladies room was fine.

The shakiness continued once seated when I noted the large piece of dried green vegetable matter on my fork. The staff was very apologetic.

The wine list was a bit daunting. I know the different Italian wine varietals but not Italian vineyards well enough to make an informed decision on a top heavy wine list. I prefer to experiment at home. Dropping large bank on a shot in the dark is, as Finn would say, scary. We played it safe and went with the Penfold’s Cabernet/Shiraz.

M chose the Grilled Portobello Crostini to begin. The mushrooms were grilled and seasoned perfectly but I really enjoyed the prosciutto wrapped mozzarella. It had been heated just enough to soften the cheese but not melt it. I was starting to feel better about our dining destination.

I wanted to try a number of different items and got my wish with their Seafood Quatro. As it was slow that evening, only three other tables, I requested the replacement of the oyster shooter with…. anything. Just not a real fan of oysters.

~RVA Foodie took me to task recently for not having any links on my blog. So this would be the point I would send you to read his great post on misguided gourmands run amok trying to pair oysters and ice cream…~

The waiter seemed to have no problem with my request and the chef added a little crab cake to my Quatro. I would highly recommend that as a starter, almost like a crab hush puppy but delicate enough to allow the crab to shine. Other items on the plate included chilled shrimp with a remoulade (the shrimp were firm and moist, not overcooked, the sauce just strong enough add flavour not cover the sweetness of the shrimp), seared tuna with soy reduction and wasabi (nice but I believe it was cooked in advance then chilled and sliced to order) and finally a rather tepid baked clam with breadcrumbs and bacon (more on this later…). Two hits, one grounder and a miss.

We also had a cup of the lobster bisque to share. Being a superfan of bisques I held out high hopes for this and I was not disappointed. The pink soup was drizzled with chive (?) infused olive oil and had a healthy amount of lobster meat in the soup. The meat had been added prior to serving as it wasn’t mushy and had probably been heated. A mound of lobster or crab on top of a bisque looks pretty but the meat is typically cold and takes your soup from piping to room temp in no time flat. Kudos to the chef for thinking this through.

The infused oil did have an unintended effect. With the setting sun shining through the window it now looked like my glass had lipstick on it. From the earlier missteps I was fast becoming hyper-critical and jumped to a conclusion. Turned out it was from the infused oil on my lips. My bad. Chastised by M I went and had a time-out.

Per our request Finn’s entree arrived while we were having our appetizers. The menu offers all their pasta dishes at half size for an app – or the perfect size for a little foodie. We ended up ordering the potato gnocchi. Served with mushrooms and a meat ragout Finn went to town on this. I tried it, got a dirty look from Finn, and had to agree it was outstanding.

M went shellfish for dinner, lobster that is. A de-shelled, one and half pounder, over a bed of orzo style rice. This plate was pretty to look at and lived up to the presentation. The rice was nearly a risotto, mild and creamy, the lobster meaty, not stringy or overcooked. Just a great combination.

I went with a special for the evening, Wagyu Beef – a Kobe style beef from Australia. I had asked for guidance on cooking temps and jumped at Pittsburgh Rare (seared to the point of burning on the outside and nearly blue rare on the inside). When the plate arrived I realized I may have made a mistake. The steak (I have no idea what cut, it could have been a slice of untrimmed tenderloin or an eye of round) was less than an inch thick, too thin for Pittsburgh cooking, and was thickly coated with some sort of rub. Sure enough it was cooked unevenly inside from rare to medium, the amount of spices masked the subtle flavours that are the hallmark of Kobe/Wagyu, and, while I know it is supposed to be highly marbled it was, quite frankly, greasy. One entire side of the steak was not marbled, it was gristle. For the price of the dish I would not expect my favourite part to be the whole cloves of roasted garlic (they were really good!).

Desserts and coffee came next. I can always tell someone is paying attention if my espresso arrives hot due to a preheated cup. I am a bit curious as to when restaurants stopped serving espresso with a lemon peel, this has been happening a lot lately, but on request the waiter returned with one peel that may have consumed an entire lemon. The desserts we ordered were excellent. M’s Tiramisu was coated in cocoa and well liquored but not soggy. Finn and I shared a dessert that billed itself as having a beignet (more like a small puff pastry with a light chocolate ganache inside) with a wonderful hazelnut mousse. We were full and happy.

Flash forward to 3 in morning and me hunched over giving homage at the temple of porcelain. We shared nearly all our dishes but I was the only ill one. I could still taste the greasiness of the overpriced Wagyu but I really think it was the tepid baked clam. This morning brought a few more agonies but I am feeling much better now, thanks.

A bad clam won’t condemn a restaurant in my eyes and there were enough good, ambitious dishes that I do believe we will be back. I would really like to try their 7 course tasting menu but a meal that long requires a trip without Finn.