Just getting a reservation took a while. I used OpenTable and I couldn't get a good time for a few weeks. I finally decided that I would go for my 5 yr anniversary with Dan over the 4th of July weekend. One of my first reactions when I saw this place was Wow, it's beautiful. You walk in and you immediately notice all the white - white tables, white chairs, white painted brick wall. It also has an exposed loft feel with exposed wooden beams and concrete pillars. The table setting was very rustic with hand painted porcelain plates and "antique" flatware. The staff is extremely attentive and nice throughout the whole meal. The menu consists of the ever-so trendy farm to table, organic, local, sustainable, whatever you want to call it, food. The back of the menu lists all the ways they are local and sustainable...which I appreciated but it almost became like the J.Peterman catalog when they started describing how the bowls (or something) were hand made by natives from the hills of Patagonia..seriously, that's what they said.
The food menu had a section of Market table and appetizers. I'm not quite sure what the difference is, but in any case, Dan and I each order an item as a starter. I ordered the fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomato, basil, and chili ($13). The mozz was these 5 small balls of cheese and they were extremely fresh and it was mixed in with a lot of gorgeous looking tomatoes (greens, dark reds, bright reds, etc), topped with basil and then thinly shaved chili. Good thing they were thinly shaved b/c you could really taste their heat from just the small pieces in there. Dan got the snap pea salad, which was a bunch of greens topped on a weird hunk of lettuce. I really liked the fresh taste of the peas and it was dressed really well (not too heavy) with light cheese. However, I didn't like that it was on a thick hunk of lettuce that was essentially not too edible.
For entree, I got the organic crispy chicken with mashed potato ($23) and Dan got the black sea bass ($27). I know that normally chicken sounds like a boring dish, but to me if you can do a chicken right, that's a sign of a good restaurant. And oh boy, was this chicken good. It has to be one of the best chicken dishes I've had in a while. It was perfectly juicy and it had the right amount of crispy (not deep fried) skin on it. The mashed potato tasted like it probably had 5 sticks of butter in it, which is why it was so good. I wished they had more of it, it was just a very thin layer on the bottom. I was practically using the chicken as a sopping bread to get all the potato on my plate. Dan's sea bass was also very fresh tasting and came in a light salty broth.
For dessert, we opted for the rhubarb crumble ($9). When it came out, it was in this cute mini dutch oven like pot and it came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The crust of this crumble also tasted like it had 5 sticks of butter in it and it was delicious. To be honest, it tasted exactly like an apple crumble, only if you looked hard could you see some pink/redness to it. Dan thought it had a tartness that comes with rhubarb...I guess I just don't know rhubarb very well.
Overall, this was a very pleasing meal and I can see why people like it. The place is gorgeous, the service is attentive, and the food is very fresh. Several of the pastas and pizzas were more affordable (in the $15 range). Total bill for two before tip was $109.
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