Big Man and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary in a strange way -- we worked together on another couple's wedding ceremony! It was the first time we had done that, but we plan to do more, as soon as we get our joint website up and running, me doing the custom service and him doing the music.
On Saturday, after the wedding rehearsal, we decided, a little last minute, to go out to dinner for our anniversary. We thought of a couple of places that would be delicious and impressive and romantic, and made a couple of calls. No dice. There must have been some kind of big convention in town or something, because every place we called was either all booked up or would seat us at or after 9:30 pm. We were looking to eat at around 8-ish, so that was out.
Using my iPhone's Zagat app (and thanks again, Steve Jobs!), I found a place in the Warehouse District about 6 or so blocks from our house. It was called Méson 923, at 923 South Peters Street. It had extraordinary reviews online, and the restaurant website made everything look heavenly. What the hey, I thought, and even though I had never heard of it before I booked us a table for 8 pm, and made sure to say it was our wedding anniversary. (Look, you have to tell a restaurant when it's your special day or a special occasion; they love that and they'll always make a special fuss over you and comp something.)
It being a lovely breezy evening, Big Man and I strolled over, taking our time and talking the whole way. We arrived and found the place with its elegant gas-lit sign and door on the corner. As you enter, you are in the tiny bar with its high stools and a few scattered high tables with stools set around. (On the bar was a small red notice that the restaurant had been chosen as one of the Zagat Top Ten Restaurants in America in 2010 -- What?? Why have I never heard of them?)
They have the ubiquitous flat-screen TV over the bar but the volume was muted, so there was no disturbance. To the left, over a pony wall, is the little dining room, which has one showplace booth that seats about 6, and then about 6 or 7 other tables (yes, it's a tiny place). The walls of the bar and dining room are a soft muted and mottled silver, faintly metallic but not shiny or tacky. There's a long high horizontal window into the kitchen, which gives a partial, and thus mysterious, view into the goings-on in there. Everything you could see in the kitchen, however, was spotless; I told Big Man, cleaner than our kitchen at home by far. He said, "I hope so!"
Our table for two had a view of everything, and we had two waitpersons -- one, seeming familiar to Big Man, turned out to have worked in the past at the old J'Anita's on Magazine Street (which I've blogged about before) and she is even friends with Craig and Kimmie. So it was like old-home week at our table and our service was attentive and on-the-spot throughout our delicious dinner.
And delicious it certainly was! An amuse bouche was brought to us right away, and it was a tiny portion of salmon tartar in a spicy sauce. It was so great, we wondered if anyone had ever ordered it as a full appetizer. We tried 2 of their signature starters, the cold carpaccio with the fried poached egg and caviar and the hot seared scallops with corn relish, and both were absolutely perfect. In the former, the raw beef was sliced so thin we could not figure out how they did it -- however in the world did they do the slicing so fine, and then manage to transfer the slices so perfectly to the plate? On top of that, as literally on top of the slices of beef, was the lightly fried, perfectly oval-shaped poached egg, still runny on the inside, with a small spoonful of caviar as the icing on the cake. So how do you poach and egg and then fry it -- and still have the yolk be liquid? It was a complete mystery. Big Man said, "You know it's a terrific dish if you have no idea how they did it." The scallops were golden brown on both sides and yet still translucent on the the inside.
For entrees, Big Man simply could not choose between the red fish and the filet with crabmeat and told Jessica, our server, to just surprise him. I ordered the slow-roasted duck breast. Jess picked the filet for the Big Man (he looked like a beef-eater to her) and it was superb, with giant lumps of fresh crabmeat over a nice-sized filet, perfectly grilled to medium rare, with grilled asparagus. My duck breast was roasted also to medium rare, and served over a polenta concoction -- it all melted in my mouth and was so delicious! We oohed and aahed, and traded our plates back and forth, til everything was gone. (Our other waiter came over and, looking at the scrubbed plates, inquired with a straight face, "Are you done with that?")
Since portions had been been nicely calibrated we decided we did have room for dessert. Big Man ordered the goat cheese cake with home-made graham cracker crumb crust, and I got the chocolate mousse something-or-other with an eensy dollop of passion fruit sorbet on the side, with cappucinos. Simply put, both desserts were like eating heaven.
With the restaurant thoughtfully comping one of our desserts for our anniversary, me having 2 gingery cocktails (a house specialty), and the great food and great service, our bill came to under $150. We think such a 5-star meal was worth every single penny, and we will definitely recommend Méson 923 to all our family and friends with an occasion to celebrate. Remember this chef: Mr. Baruch Rabasa -- you are gonna hear a lot about him very soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment