Boys Night Out - Capital Ale & The Machine at the National Theatre

When I was younger a major night out just happened. Now it takes weeks of planning, emails back and forth, clarification and re-clarification, quite possibly more time than the actual event. Mid-life and family obligations require the need for setting expectations (yes, I will be drunk when I come home) and communicating contingencies (yes, if it goes too late and I get tired I will be calling you to come get me). In this age of project planning to the nth degree we removed all randomness and scheduled from the first drink to the hangover recovery. That being said, here's the recap...

M and I drove over to Cy's to pick him up. To ensure silliness and start the music bar at the lowest possible rung we listened to Pat Boone singing Van Halen's Panama from his ill-advised album, I'm In A Metal Mood. Finn, a budding music lover, looked horrified. M dropped us off at Capital Ale to begin the pickling of our livers. It had been a couple of years since I had been to Capital Ale but it had been a number of times so thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong.

The initial bartender blamed it on shift change (and actually joked that he would hear about all this on a blog - little did he know...) but the problems went deeper than that. I have never seen so many staff, so many manager types, accomplish so little. Drinks would get made and then sit on the bar while the bartender went off to do something else. Food would sit under heat lamps while a gaggle of waiters would stand inches away chatting. Drinks and food ordered once, twice, thrice... Our group of two swelled to nearly twenty and we moved downstairs. There was no shortage of staff. They just had no clue what to do. Throwing bodies at a staffing problem doesn't help if they don't know what to do. Having a huge number of manager types doesn't help either if they don't lead or direct the action. It was a mess. What they actually need is a senior McDonald's manager who at least knows how to manage a large group and keep things flowing.

I did discover a new gin there. Spruce, from a winery in the Rogue River Valley in Oregon. Very in your face gin. My first thought was that it was like drinking a tree. Very heavy juniper flavour. I actually enjoyed it as both a martini and in a gin and tonic. Good strong flavours without too much alcohol heat.

From there we went over towards the National and bent the law a bit. A little tailgating in the parking deck across the street. In high school that would have meant lukewarm PBR bought with the help of a kind stranger at a mini-mart or from a clerk too dumb to do the math on an 17-year-olds drivers license. Today it means well-chilled Stella Artois from a cooler. Once we were sufficiently lubricated we entered the theater.

This was my first visit to the National since the remodel and I was impressed. This cleaned and restored theater had been opened up to create a music venue that Richmond has been lacking. The lobby area has simple raised Wedgewood-style reliefs. Simply painted the wall has been removed so you can walk right into the main floor area. The chairs have all been removed opening up the main floor for listening, dancing, or getting close to your friends and strangers. Bars upstairs and down serve beer and hard alcohol at slightly inflated prices ($6 for a gin and tonic). I saw a food menu at one point but was unable to focus on it. They kept the seats upstairs, part of which is a VIP area. The four balconies are available for $5k per season, not sure how many tickets that includes.

For those of you who don't know; The Machine is a Pink Floyd cover band. The crowd reflected this. Nearly all 30 and 40 somethings, only a couple of teens with big black X's on their hands identifying them as underage. Quite a number of people had brought their kids (5-10 year olds) and had them upstairs away from the swaying crowd below.

The band took the stage and started playing. With the precision of studio musicians they played Pink Floyd music, from the famous to the obscure. The crowd was fun and I do enjoy live music but at times, if you closed your eyes, you wouldn't have told the difference between the band and a recording. The keyboardist, I believe his name is Scott, brought life to what may have otherwise been a flat performance. Slack jawed and eyes rolled back he swayed back and forth in a kind of fugue state doing justice to the decades old music.

The concert ended rather abruptly, the old and tired crowd ready for bed and unable to muster the energy to get the band back for an encore. Phones came out to alert sober drivers waiting at home to come collect us. The level of inebriation evidenced by the level of laughter when a friend, calling home, dropped his BlackBerry into his cocktail mid-sentence. That should make an interesting replacement report at work this Monday morning... (actually it kept working so no report will probably be filed)

At home, to sleep.

The next morning it was off to RVAFoodies for brunch. Prior planning had allowed for some recovery time so we arrived at noon. Fresh ground coffee and strawberry-banana smoothies from Foodies blender helped take the edge off. Amuse Bouche of grilled nebulsi cheese was a hit, especially with Finn. It reminded me of something but, as my taste buds were fried from the night before, I couldn't quite pin it down. Brunch was homemade tortillas, eggs with special bits and Mexican acoutremont, mole (think chocolate Mexican not the rodent) roasted potatoes, Bayless refried beans, and a colourful fruit salad. All were excellent but you need to go to Foodie for the recipes. Finn ended up not eating brunch as that was the point he finally became friends with Foodies pug, Frankie, and much noise ensued. Foodie, for a moment, questioned his choice to reproduce. Regardless, a nice way to recover from the night before.

On Being Bookstore Piet...

A bit of confusion seems to be surrounding my online moniker. Several people have stopped by the store and are at a bit of a loss as how to address me.

Mr Hammond sidestepped the issue and made a joke about free books to start the conversation and then did a formal introduction. Mr RVAFoodie (Jason G) shopped for a bit in my store before asking if I was the one with the blog. He had actually addressed the situation prior to meeting in an email by asking if 'Bookstore Piet' was name, noun, or verb. Mr J's Notes (another Jason) also shopped for a bit before asking if I was the one with the blog (must be a tactic particular to those named Jason), avoiding my name altogether (in retrospect I also think that during our conversation I never actually clarified it for him). So, I am assuming everyone here knows what 'Bookstore' means, let's address the 'Piet' part (pronounced - 'pete', just looks difficult).

The name Piet is, in my case, Danish, although it is somewhat common around the world. In Holland and in those of Dutch descent in South Africa it is very common. Perhaps the most famous Dutch person with this name would have been Piet Mondrian, an early 20th century painter who painted in the neo-plasticism school (his terminology). From South Africa you might have heard of P.W. Botha, one of the last aparteid presidents of that country.

My parents named me after the Danish poet/mathematician, Piet Hein. He became most famous for his super-ellipse egg designs and his mathematically inspired poetry called, grooks:

A Toast by Piet Hein

The soul may be a mere pretense,
the mind makes very little sense.
So let us value the appeal
of that which we can taste and feel.

The nickname 'Bookstore Piet' was given to me by T at Belmont Butchery as a way to know instantly who I am. When I recently started blogging it seemed like a good name to use. So there you have it. Let's try and avoid a repeat of what I went through the first day of school every year and think 'Piet' but say 'Pete'...

Can Can-Can Brunch? - Kind of....

During my sister's visit last weekend we decided to take her someplace new, for her anyway, Can-Can. Typically we hit Can-Can a couple of times a month but, for some unknown reason, had never tried brunch. We were actually pretty excited as we have always enjoyed their baked goods and a morning of tasty treats sounded good.

M made reservations well in advance, a good thing as they were packed when we arrived around 11. Once seated and coffees and mimosas ordered we started narrowing down our selections and finding things to share for the table. A quick recap...

Madeleines - Rather larger these tasty bites were a treat. Rich with almond flour they were great with or without butter.

Beignets - Again large but these were fairly heavy. Dusted unevenly with powdered sugar they were actually a bit bitter and a bit of a disappointment.

Raw Clams - The raw clams dipped in mignonette (red wine vinegar and shallots) were so refreshing and just what my slightly damaged (from the dinner the night before with the Foodies and Cy-n-Ide) body craved.

The Entrees - M's quiche (bacon, ham & caramelized onion) was a hit and the fresh fruit was great. K's crepe du jour (nutella) was a required order for the nutella fanatic. Finn's cocoa waffles were too dry and he barely ate them, instead licking the chocolate sauce off them. My poached eggs with crab on toast was nice but the eggs were overdone, a bit cool, and really didn't need the Bobby Flay inspired touch of corn.

Service was scattered. Many restaurants don't always staff their 'A' team for brunch and many servers can be a bit worse for wear on Sundays, but Can-Can waiters should know better then sending out entrees 5 to 10 minutes apart, forgetting to order items, ordering wrong (yes, there is a child's listng for the cocoa waffles on the menu...) and on and on. Disappointing. It's hard for a restaurant the size of Can-Can to avoid staff turnover and you can have wildly different experiences based on the randomness of waiter assignment but the basics of service should not be this far off.

We also found another case of on-line menu not matching actual offerings. C'mon, online may be one of your best ways to attract diners but if someone makes a choice based on something that catches their eye on your online menu and then it's not on your current menu.... Sure fire way to annoy people.

We love dinner, lunch, and even the light menu they offer in the middle of the afternoon when your only other choices are the microwave chains, but brunch doesn't seem to be their strong suit.

Broken Rice & Crispy Noodles - Mekong

Years ago, living in Atlanta, there was a great Vietnamese restaurant named Cha Gio right around the corner from our hugely overpriced apartment. The menu was descriptive enough that neophytes to SE Asian cuisine could order with confidence, the service was friendly, the space clean and inviting. We dined there often, my favourite dish being their Cha Gio Special Shrimp - crsipy fried shrimp in a spicy batter. I was fortunate that the first Vietnamese restaurant I went to was so good and use this place as a benchmark for all other Vietnamese restaurants.

Since moving to Richmond I haven't found a whole lot that was good. Over the years I have been to quite a few and most have been quite forgettable and others must have agreed as they seem to have disappeared or 'evolved' into something else. House of Vietnam, in Short Pump, is one exception but it's quite a drive in increasingly nasty traffic and falls into the 'good but not that good' category. This Tuesday last, with nothing in the kitchen and no desire to go to the grocery store, M suggested a quick bite out. Drawing blanks on the requirements (cheap, quick, and close by), I pulled up the 804's good life restaurant listings and started searching.

A Vietnamese place called Mekong caught my eye and seemed to fit all the requirements, although we weren't sure exactly where on Broad it was except that the street number was fairly close to my store. So, at closing time for the bookstore, off we went. It turned out to be in a building next to a questionable nightclub whose name has changed repeatedly over the year and directly underneath the law offices of an equally questionable politician, Manoli Loupassi.

A few first impressions... Poor signage out front. The coin fountain at the entrance is in desperate need of cleaning as does the carpeting (actually the carpet just needs to be replaced). The chairs and tables look like they were purchased from a cheap hotels going out of business sale. The place needs a fresh coat of paint. The place is much larger than it appears from the outside, room after room after room. It was Tuesday and they were packed and quite a few of the customers were Asian (always a good sign).

Seated quickly we took a look at the menu. It was fairly long and bore some resemblance to their online menu.....

NOTE TO RESTAURANT MANAGERS - Don't forget to update your websites when you update your menus!

.... I had a strange impression, based on the small print of the menu, that the menu was mass produced for multiple restaurants and had been ordered from a catalog, but I could be wrong on that. Oddly, for a Vietnamese restaurant, they had one of the most extensive beer lists I've seen and a separate Belgian beer list that rivals Capital Ale. The beer description are a tad suggestive. Ok, a lot suggestive. If you're easily offended skip that part of the menu.

Drinks and eats were ordered. My gin and tonic came in a large and guady glass and was very strong (happy me!). First course were spring and shrimp rolls. Crispy and fresh tasting they left no impression of being frozen. Finn liked his vegetable roll so much he couldn't wait for it to cool down and kept burning his mouth. The peanut dipping sauce was also a hit.

M ordered a grilled platter for her entree. The very large plate contained grilled pieces of beef and chicken, crisp lettuces and veggies, noodles, and a large stack of rice paper for wrapping it all up in. For me it was crispy noodles with shrimp, scallops, and squid. Finn received a plate of broken rice with shrimp and chicken although he preferred the chicken off M's plate (even though it tasted the same) as well as her noodles. This may have been for the best as we discovered how sticky broken rice is and Finn managed to cover his clothes with it.

Everything tasted fresh. The seafood and the vegetables were all done perfectly. The flavours delicate and enjoyable. A nice change from the heavy handed Chinese sauces one finds in so many places. The only complaint may have been that the chicken was a bit dry but I don't see how one could avoid that with such thin slices. For a little pungent kick I added fish sauce to nearly everything. Finn liked the fish sauce so much he asked for a little pool on his plate that he proceeded to dip his finger into and then lick off. If you've never tried fish sauce you really must. It enhances the taste of a dish without the sodium overkill of soy sauce. I really should stock it at home and make use of it there.

My initial thoughts on service was that we were going to have an issue. The waiter bordered on brusque to the point of rude to start. Observing him it was obvious he had a large table that was running him to death for every little thing. By the time they finished he became much more pleasant and attentive.

Bottom line was that this was one of the best Vietnamese meals I've had in quite a while. Two cocktails, three appetizers and three entrees for less than $50 made it quite the value for such large portions. May have to add this place to our dance card.

Feedin' The Foodies - Pork, Faux Potatoes & Rockfish

With my sister in town the plan for Saturday had been for our mother, whose birthday it was, to come down from C'ville to join us for dinner. Sadly, she came down quite ill. A last minute invite went out and Mr & Mrs RVA Foodie joined us for our feast.

The festivities started around 6 as the Foodies, Cy-n-Ide, and my paint splattered sister arrived. As it had been a very rough week I was desperate for a martini so Cy attacked a lime and I retrieved my Tanq 10 from the deep freeze. Foodie eyed my Talisker single malt and a dram or two was extracted for him. Both Mrs Foodie and Ide are expecting so it was sparkling water and lemonade for the ladies.

We settled into our new kitchen and laid out a bit to nosh. Olives and pickled herring as well as a rather large shrimp cocktail with M's increasingly famous sweet Thai chili cocktail sauce.

A little before 8 the activity in the kitchen increased markedly. For the entree a pork shoulder had been braising all afternoon and my faux mashed potatoes (suitable for people like me on South Beach and Mrs Foodie who is also avoiding carbs).

BRAISED PORK SHOULDER

7lb boneless shoulder of pork (provided by Belmont Butchery)
Several cloves garlic
4 lbs sweet onion
2 cups apple cider
1 can Boddington Ale

Preheat oven to 300. Salt and pepper pork. Sliced garlic into thin slices, cut pockets into pork and slid slices in. Olive oil in braising dish, heat, sear pork. Remove to a plate. Add sliced onions and caramelize. Return pork to dish add cider and beer. Cover tightly and place in oven for 4 hours or until fork tender.

Problems - An hour or so into cooking the pork unexpectedly expanded blowing the lid off. Not good for braising. Transfered to a roasting pan and covered tightly with foil. Added 1/2 hour cooking time due to transfer. Onions didn't add a whole lot and the jus would have been better without. Next time will caramelize onions as a side (better colour and flavour) and add more cider to the braise.

Faux Mashed Potatoes (Mashed Cauliflower)

2 heads cualiflower
Garlic
Stock (Veggie or Chicken)
Onion
Pine Nuts
Parmesan Cheese
Cream
Butter

Cut cauliflower into florets and place in stockpot with 2 table spoons minced garlic. Cover with stock (I typically use chicken but as one of the guests was a vegetarian I subbed veggie stock) and boil over medium high heat until tender. Mash. Add a large pat of butter and a half cup cream. Salt and pepper to taste (white pepper works best if you have it). Reduce heat to low and allow moisture to reduce, 2-3 hours.

Yeah, I know, sounds like a long time. The key here is not just taste but mouth feel. The mashed cauliflower ends up very moist and while the taste is good it just isn't enjoyable to eat, kinda mushy. The slow cook to reduce the moisture makes it much more enjoyable. I tried high heat once and the result was pretty bad.

Just before serving you can add a number of things. Parmesan cheese, fresh grated, helps with the textures issues. Chopped caramelized onions go great as well as toasted pine nuts. Other items can be chopped chives and sour cream. Remember, this is low carb not low fat.

As Mr RVA Foodie is a vegetarian, of the meat is murder but fish is justifiable homicide sort, we had a nice piece of Rockfish for him.

On The Fly Rockfish Almandine -

Fillet Rockfish
Sliced Almonds
Butter
Olive Oil
White Wine
Lemon

Toast almonds lightly in a pan with butter and a little olive oil. Add white wine and cook off alcohol. Squeeze in one lemon. Reserve sauce.

Salt fish. Sear top in pan with butter and olive oil, flip to sear skin side. Pour sauce over seared fish trying to keep almonds on top. Place in 400 degree oven to roast off (8-10 minutes).

I cooked it to the rare side and warned Mr Foodie, easier to cook longer than deal with dry overdone fish. It was either good or he is very polite as no fish remained at the end.

M had made a chocolate cake for the occasion. Very tasty.

After dinner we settled into some heavy beverage consumption. Cy and I introduced Mr Foodie to the joys of Aalborg Akvavit. Silliness ensued and in the grand tradition of gatherings at our house the upstairs toilet broke. Unlike some other incidents, like the collapse of a bathroom ceiling a few years ago, no person was involved in this, it just spontaneously happened. Ah well, we wanted a new toilet for that bathroom anyway and it's a good excuse to get Cy over for beverages later this week.

Things threatened to get really silly when I came across a bottle of Patron in the freezer and people started looking for salt and such. Fortunately we got sidetracked and the tequila was forgotten.

Initial thoughts were that a good time was had by all until we realized we were missing a cat. She turned up the next morning, happy that relative quiet had returned to our house.

Cast Iron Cookin' - Cafe Rustica

Addendum - 8/1/08 - The chef here is, shall we say, intolerant and a bit of an ass. We will not be going back.

My sister the artiste, K, arrived yesterday from Philadelphia to illustrate my book store. With any such visit feasting is in order. We decided to try someplace new last night and made our way to Cafe Rustica. Small, sparse, shall we say 'rustic' decor greeted us and we settled in for dinner.

We ordered from one of our favourite vineyards, Domaine Zind Humbrecht, a Gewurtzrameiner that was refreshing without too much sweetness. That was actually on of the most expensive wines on the list at $32. The rest of the wine list was primarily in the $18-$24 range with a nice array of well-known and more obscure choices.

The menu, while short, didn't really contain anything I didn't want to try. For starters both K and I pounced upon the soup du jour. In this case it was tomato and crab. It was nearly a cross between a stew and a soup with big chunks of fresh tomato in the puree and just enough spice to give it some heat but not overpower the tomato or the generous dollop of crabmeat sitting on top of the soup.

M tried the grilled radicchio. Wrapped in prosciutto and stuffed with risotto it was the perfect combination of crunchy and creamy plus the saltiness of the ham.

For the table we also tried the Mediterranean Short Stack. Basically a seafood cake made with crab, shrimp, and scallops. The flavours and textures were perfect. All meat no fillers just a binder to keep it all together. The scallops got lost in the crab and shrimp. Not sure if they were an integral part for moisture or consistency but they didn't seem to add anything to the party.

Finn ordered off the menu for this evening. The chef made him a perfect plate of al dente pasta with butter and parmesan. Finn was happy and, after trying it myself, thought I could eat a plate of that too.

M ordered the Braised English Pot Roast for her entree. The waitress brought it out on a sizzling iron skillet and, before placing it, inquired whether she was a rightie or a leftie (we're both lefties). I simply thought that was such a well thought out piece of the service so that she wouldn't have to adjust a fire-hot piece of iron herself that I just had to mention it. The beef was text-book perfect and fork tender with a horseradish crust. The roasted potatoes and and carrots on the skillet left a perfect vision of vibrant colours and textures.

Both K and I both ordered the same thing again (not sure if it's a sibling or a Scorpio thing...). Their special for the evening was sauteed shrimp in a garlic buerre blanc with sun dried tomato and gnocchi. Fabulous. Shrimp, thankfully with tails removed (see Lulu's review), tender and tasty with just enough buerre blanc to coat but not swim. The gnocchi were obviously made in house and were probably the best I've had in years.

The final choices were a bit more difficult. They have cheese plates on offer and the desserts sounded quite good. The deciding factor turned out to be the bread. I had heard quite a bit about their breads that were baked in-house. Finn ate most of it but the piece I had had been left out a bit too long and was a little stale.

Chocolate mousse, chocolate pate, nutella creme brulee. Not a bit was left.

If I were just thinking about the food we would return. When I look at the very reasonable prices I think this may show up on our dance card on a regular basis. Next time I want either the paella or the schnitzle! - Oh, and watch your head when using their restrooms...

1 North Belmont - Forbidden Foods & The Politics Of Eating - Foie Gras

A couple of weeks ago M and I got ourselves a toddler-sitter and did a very rare thing, dinner out alone. The occasion was V-Day, although we selected the Saturday after to avoid the disaster that is eating in a restaurant on Valentine's Day. We arrived a little before our 8 o'clock reservation and saddled up to the bar for an aperitif (10 martini for me, Grey Goose Cosmo for M). The dining room was full, not hard since the kitchen is actually larger than the dining area, but the noise level was hushed with most of the discussion we could hear being praise for this dish or that.

To get things started at the table we ordered two bottle of wine. Domaines Schlumberger, Riesling Les Princes Abbés, 2004 (good but not especially memorable), for the white and Chateau de Beaucastel, Chateauneuf du Pape, 2003 (absolutely fabulous), for the red. Two glasses of Sauturnes were also ordered for the first course.... yes, foie gras... but we'll come back to that later.

Second apps were a cocktail of poached lobster and crabmeat with just a little citrus. Refreshing and complimented by the Riesling.

For entrees M had the entrecote (NY strip) in a green peppercorn sauce while I had the pistachio crusted rack of lamb. Both were excellent, tender a flavourful, but be warned... They cook in the French style at 1NB, I had forgotten this and had ordered my lamb medium rare. What came out was a bit overdone. If memory serves classical French meat temps are slightly different than what we get here and I should have ordered rare just as northerners used to do when they traveled to the southern US. I was just a bit tempted to send it back but one bite changed my mind. The red wine, which had been decanted and breathing for nearly an hour had opened up perfectly and was fantastic.

Our next stop was for the cheese course. I had a craving for morbier (a wonderful cheese made from the morning milking on the bottom and the evening milking on top with a layer of ash in between) but they didn't have any, whiny moment on my part.... We had the chef select for us and it was wonderful. I would tell you which one's we had but I was a bit wine-addled at that point and can't recall the specific varieties...

To finish was a Grand Marnier Souffle, light and foamy, an excellent ending. To add to this I had an enormous snifter of heated Grand Marnier. Sometimes I am tempted to get the special edition Grand Marnier's (at special edition prices....) but have sworn M to stop me as my taste buds are usually fried at this point of the meal and I might as well be throwing dollar bills out the window.

Service was excellent throughout and once the main rush of the evening was over they paused to chat about dishes and food related things. The price.... bring an extra credit card or your no-limit Amex.

Now, back to the foie gras. The portions here were generous. The liver smooth (better than our last visit to LeMaire). The cherry gastrique was a perfect, adding tang without too much sweet. Whenever M and I see foie gras on the menu we order it and have even served it at home. Dogwood Grille used to always have a foie appetizer on special that was wonderful, except for the Mexican themed atrocity they served us once...

Many people have issues with foie gras and it's production. Having been to farms I know all our meat production involves quite a bit of cruelty, especially in the large corporate operations. We must also be careful not to over-anthromorphise animals too much though. Having a feeding tube shoved down your throat will hurt but have you ever seen a seagull eat an entire hotdog? Different anatomy at work here.

I see the pictures used by the animal rights groups as no different than those used by the anti-abortion groups. Horrible, but skewed for a specific agenda. PETA says they are force fed 4 pounds a day, the foie industry says it 250 grams and takes less than 30 seconds. The back and forth can go on forever. People are going to continue to eat foie regardless so the goal should not be a ban but to make it as humane as possible. Limited production has started on 'free-range' goose foie that takes advantage of their normal eating cycles.

If one is going to eat meat in this day and age then you must always remember that some creature gave his life for your nourishment and enjoyment. I'll get off my soapbox now, until we talk next about veal or caviar....

When Restaurants Give Birth - Part 3 - Special Defector Edition - Karsen's

This episode starts a while back at a restaurant we used to frequent regularly for both brunch and dinner, Zeus. The food was excellent, the service, brusque but complete. At one point we noted new faces and some missing ones. Brunch fare became uneven and the service.... It's nice that you went to a concert last night but to continue your conversation with someone 10 feet away in the kitchen while your placing a plate in front of me is, at best, unprofessional, at worst, rude. Our last visit was so bad that I felt the need to place a phone call to the owner.

During the call I outlined the many shortcomings of his new staff and the sudden inconsistency of the food. He apologized, offered a free brunch, and outlined the staffing problems he had been having with training a new crew. I lamented the missing faces. He trashed them. Seems we have a bit of bad blood. The phone call soon ended. We have not taken him up on the offer of the free brunch.

Last summer we found the missing faces as owners of the new Carytown eatery, Karsen's. A trip for brunch on their gorgeous patio led me to comment - 'Zeus, taken up a notch.' The missing faces did not trash their former employer during our welcome there. We took a peak inside (very impressive) and a look at their dinner menu (a bit pricey). Chaos conspired to leave them off our dining card since then, till last night.

Arriving, no sign of the missing faces, we were seated. My first impression was that they were moderately busy but seemed understaffed. The menu seemed very ambitious, almost pretentious in it's descriptions. The prices seemed to have moderated a bit since our glance at the menu last summer. There's a bit of a disconnect between what's actually on the menu and what the website says is on the menu.

The waitress concerned me from the start. When eating at places striving to be fine dining, the monotone recitation of the specials by someone staring at the ceiling while counting them off on her fingers is disappointing. Service issues continued throughout. When silverware is removed it needs to be replaced. Food items should not be 'auctioned off'. Empty glassware should be removed. At Waffle House I expect to ask for replacement silver or to have to answer the question 'Who ordered the Veal?'. When the bill for two and a half people is going to be three digits the service level should be a bit higher.

M started with a chopped salad. Pine nuts, crisp lettuces and some sort of balsamic vinaigrette. Finn had the Mac-n-Cheese Cabbonara with White Truffle Oil (Brandon Eats just wrote a really good piece on high end mac-n-cheese and other gourmet comfort foods, highly recommended). M enjoyed hers as did Finn, I gave high marks to the Mac-n-Cheese as well.

I started with the Crab, Spinach and Mushroom Cassoulet/Casserole. It was rich, creamy and lacking in crab or crab flavour. Too much and too heavy for a appetizer it was nearly a small entree. I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with the crunchy topping but I kept flashing back to tuna casserole day in elementary school.

The wine was a bit more of a success. D'Arenberg Love Shack Shiraz, 2004. The waitress, in a brief moment of high end service, described and praised the wine well and even informed us that it was only available in restaurants but that J at River City Cellars had been able to get it for sale to the general public (looks like a trip to RCC for me!). Service returned to normal as she had difficulty getting off the screw top....

Entrees arrived and were 'auctioned off' by the food runner...

M had the Veal Saltimboca with Plum Tomatoes and Gnocchi. The dish was not bad, the flavours correct, the sauce a bit too runny. The problem is that you can get that dish, the same or better, at half a dozen different places around town for less. A good dish but didn't live up to the price.

Had I read In Vino Veritas' post on Karsen's before this morning I would not have ordered the scallops. The asparagus and andouille sausage were all fine. The savory grits weren't bad. The scallops were seared to the point of having a brown crust, overcooked throughout, dry, tasteless. I did not finish them and kept trying, unsuccessfully, to foist them off onto M's plate.

Amazingly, we ended on a high note. The bread pudding with sweet cherries was delicious. The white chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis was outstanding. My espresso was actually still hot when it reached the table.

We will probably give brunch another try at Karsen's. We might even stop in for dessert sometime. Not so sure about dinner. The price, while it may have come down from last summer, does not quite justify the food or the service. I hope, for the missing faces sake, that they are ultimately successful but I don't think they have found their stride as yet.

The Book Room is Open!

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes - no, wait, Phoenix is the gay bookstore in town... Anyway, we've reopened, a day late and still a bit unorganized but we'll get there. All the fish survived, although ~1,000 books didn't... Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap.