date: 1/17/06
location: long lake
grade: b+

brk, brk, all the way with brk.

one of those not so rare times when everyone's dinner was better than mine. (at least it had no wood in it. small favors...) you learn to live with such things when bad restaurant karma is part of your genetic inheritance. so yeah, it's a group grade. i'd go lower if it were just me and my food.

quack, i ordered the duck off the tasting menu. looked promising. slices of duck, foie gras, truffled mashed potatoes, and broccolini, if i recall that correctly. alas, the tatoes needed salt (none on the table) and were a bit cold, the duck was also a bit cold, the broccolini was fine. but the foie gras... ok, i was wrong. this one tasted not like foie gras, but like just a chicken liver. it was overcooked to sadness. sigh.

well, the starter was decent. truffle infused baked brie with a honey and truffle vinaigrette. they served it with three slices of toasted bread, then brought more when they realized we had more than 3 people eating it. nice touch. they had a bread basket on the table, and it was pretty good bread, and they caught on and started bringing it in the mass quantities we desire.

first course selections included the amusingly named tiger beet napoleon with pistachio and goat cheese drizzled with brown butter vinaigrette, a duck salad with pear and nuts, and a half-order of pumpkin ravioli stuffed with lobster and tossed with nutmeg brown butter. the beet salad was pretty good (and was nicely composed on the plate, though tiny), the duck (quack) salad was balanced in flavors, and the ravioli (just one, not a tiny one, but still just the one.... apparently a full order is two) was lovely i heard tell. (the person who got the beet salad and the ravioli to follow considered a post-dinner sandwich.)

duck (quack) confit pizza topped with currants and amablu cheese drizzled with truffle oil was a winner. that's what pizza should be. crisp crust, not overwhemled with cheese.... all good. not that the seared sea bass on a toasted shallot gratin served
with a charred tomato sauce wasn't good, too, but the pizza was better. the sauce on the bass was impressive. i'd like to see it in a pasta.

i split one of the best-smelling desserts i've ever had.... a carmel lavender crème brulee. it was served with a lavendar bain-marie type of thing (hot water poured out at the table over dried lavendar that surrounded a generous serving). someone remarked it was like a mini-spa and a dessert all in one. a chocolate pecan phyllo box with fresh whipped cream and raspberry coulis was also selected, and that was also very tasty indeed. yes, usually i would be all over the cheese plate, but the server kind of warned against it.

service generally was pretty good, though the server seemed a bit new- they had to consult on a more than few things before getting back to us, and not off the wall stuff (where did you get your sconces?), but standard menu question fare (what's on the cheese plate).

decor was not what you think of when you think italian, but in a good way. it seemed kind of like someone's old-time parlour for some reason, dimly lit. background music was weird... not sure what they were going for... you'd get tunes from musicals mixed in with 'rocket man' by elton john, along with david gray. at that point, just turn on the lite fm, it's less noticeable or something. bathrooms were clean but they had a weird garbage can and the pink soap looked out of place. they need to jack up the heat, too, in winter. i can't recall the last time i had to use my coat at dinner.

it was surprisingly busy for a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere (the place is past where 394 turns back into highway 12... don't think i've ever been that far west on that road before). i don't know if it's worth a special trip, but if you're out on the lake, it's another good option.