date: 11/16/04
location: st. paul
grade: b-

 

to paraphrase, the hardest part at any restaurant is the waiting. and there was a lot of waiting here. i'd like to think the slow service was because of the private event being held in the next room, but checking some other thoughts on the 'internet' does not make that theory particularly popular. at least it was just slow, and not horrid. yes, it does take some extra time to do the jambalaya, but it shouldn't take 20 minutes or so just to get around to asking if a party wants drinks to start.

the food was pretty good. however, we felt the need to consume lots and lots of bread during the wait, which i thought was ok, but most people liked a lot (it was a lot better warm). the butter with it was fresh and unsalted. i think i liked it more than the bread. the cheese plate looked good, it came with two sheep's milk (one with a washed tomato rind, which you could taste in a good way) and a mild, honey tasting goat's milk. it had almonds, pear and apple slices, and some cucumber bits, which worked well with the goat's milk cheese, apparently. it also came with a few tiny crostini, which didn't work well with the plate, and were not numerous enough for the generous amount on the plate. the crabcake was also tasty, reportedly.

i had the penne... something. it had a lemony (snicket?) cream sauce, baby spinach, a few pine nuts (it needed more) and reportedly sun dried tomatoes (it tasted like they were oven dried, and not quite long enough). it was ok, but it seemed spendy for what you got. i would have felt better paying even $12 for it instead of $14. not sure why, though.

the jambalaya was tasty and spicy, the soups (of the day, a squash and wild rice affair) and the trio of hot soups (portobello mushroom, sweet carrot and i want to say pea, but i could be wrong, swirled together in a bowl were nice, as was the pork loin, which came with a chutney that was kind of hard to id on the plate. no one looked at it and said, hey, chutney, it had to be tasted to figure that out.

for the place itself, the hardwood floors and high ceilings made it a bit on the noisy side (thumping whenever someone passed by your table with the whole floor thing). otherwise a nice room to look at. restrooms were on the side of ok. the generic looking paper towel pile was kind of tacky looking, even though they tried to stack it neatly.

i felt kind of out of place there. perhaps most people stopped by after work, but there were lots of business suits there, which i decidedly wasn't wearing. i was more dressed like the waitstaff than a lot of the other clienele there, though there were people less dressed up or whatever than i was. i didn't quite feel at ease. which is not something i expected. maybe it was the footsteps that kept pounding around. i don't know.