Thursday, February 25, 2010

Keep it Simple....

I've decided to change the format of this blog. It's just going to be a very short summary of what I thought. If you know what I like, a yeah/nay will suffice.

Soooo, in the spirit of short-and-sweet...... Elemental Next Door (E.N.D.). We went last night (Wednesday evening) early. I'm not sure how my husband finds these places - we drove up on a dead-end street and I was still not able to locate the restaurant from my seat in the vehicle. As I unbuckled my seatbelt however, I noticed a small sign, "E.N.D".

We entered the restaurant and were immediately greeted by a young man who would be our waiter for the evening. He welcomed us and gave us a run-down of how things worked there and then proceeded to pour us a glass of sparkling to start our evening. Yeah! The menu is written on a chalkboard near the door; the wines and beer are located on shelves on the wall. All wines are $8 a glass, $15 a half bottle, and $30 a bottle. I don't recall the price of the beers - shows where my interests were that evening.

We started with a glass each of red - mine was a Quinto Cae from the Douro, and my husband chose a Basal red blend. Both were delicious. I ordered a pheasant terrine plank and mushroom aspic plank to start the evening. They were both wonderful choices. We continued with a sunchoke ravioli, followed by a rabbit dish. Those were both amazingly good. We ended up passing on the dessert options but did choose to end the meal with their cheese plank. Two cow's milk cheeses, and two sheep's milk choices. All four were wonderful and they were served with a homemade wine mustard, pickled beets, and almond-stuffed dates.

This was an easy, "YES"! I can't wait to return!