On Saturday evening, Steph and I were trying to decide where to eat. Two of the places we called required reservations and did not have any seats open until after 10 PM. I was hesitant to pick some of the nicer restaurants since I wasn’t sure if we wanted to spend that sort of money. Steph said she didn’t care. Music to my ears! So the third restaurant we tried, Sage & Onion, had seats open “anytime past 8.” 8:00 PM it was. We left the house around 7 and immediately I had to run back inside to change from a blazer to a jacket. It was raining really hard.
We got to the Ortega lot and immediately ran across to Cost Plus World Market. Steph is in charge of planning her company’s holiday party and was looking for centerpieces. She ended up getting a cart full of candles and glass holders while I bought three bottles of dessert wine. I don’t know why, but I’ve been amassing quite a collection lately. By the time Steph was done checking out, we had a line of irritated patrons and we were bordering on being late. I sent her ahead to put her stuff in my car and I followed right after. I arrived as she was done loading and we walked downstairs to the restaurant. We arrived at the host table exactly at 8:00 PM but I could see my name was listed at 8:15 PM. The host explained they had no tables open because there was a rather large dinner party that was running later than expected. I was getting a little irritated because he got the time wrong (though it could have been a miscommunication) and I was also afraid that we were being discriminated against. I should point out at this time that we were completely under-dressed. The majority of the patrons had on button up shirts, jackets, black dresses, heels, etc. We were also the youngest people there. Anyway, that was the last time I had any doubts.
We were immediately seated on a comfortable sofa inside of the restaurant and water was brought to us right away along with wine and food menus. We had some time to look over the choices and were discussing what looked good, when a member of the staff informed us that they had nice seats for us outside. We were escorted outside, onto the patio, under a heatlamp, to a table for two. By now it had stopped raining and to be honest, even with the rain, it was not a particularly cold evening. They brought us bread with sage and onion olive oil (how fitting!). Then they poured us two glasses of champagne “compliments of the chef.” We ate and looked over the menu some more. Literally every dish was worth ordering. That’s what made it so difficult to decide. Five minutes later, we were asked if we’d like some more bubbly. Yes, please!
During this time, we watched as the large party wrapped up and made their way outside. All seemed quite intoxicated. Waiting for them were two large cabs called for them by the restaurant. The head chef came out and opened the door of each cab and helped the women into their seats. Now that’s service! When they had finally left, we waited about 5 more minutes for them to setup inside. Then the gentleman that had been helping us came back and informed us our table was ready. He said we could just leave everything. “Just bring the menus and your champagne.” We were seated by the window and immediately were poured two new glasses of water and a new basket of bread was brought over. Then they us each little sake looking porcelain glasses with little sample of a vegetable soup with cream. It was a:
An amuse-bouche is a little tidbit to start a proper French (or just generally snooty) meal, literally meaning “amuse the mouth.” (Thanks Steph and Jon Bonné!)
Our waitress came by and Steph ordered the steak and I had the Artic Char. Our food was brought out in just the right amount of time and everything was perfectly cooked. They changed out Steph’s butter knife for a steak knife and kept our water glasses filled the whole night. It never went under half-full. My Char (which is like a salmon, but not as pink, if you are curious) was moist but not wet. It had a light butter sauce and .. here, you can read it for yourself:
- Artic Char
Fall Hash with Smoked Bacon, Braised Greens & Orange Butter
- Painted Hills’ Hormone Free Angus New York Strip
Chestnut, Caramelized Onion& Aged Cheddar Gratin, Mushroom Jus
I dropped my knife at the beginning of the meal. I looked around the room and noticed most of the waitstaff was behind the bar cleaning glasses. Immediately, one of the waitresses made eye contact and nudged my waitress and told her I needed attention. She came over and I whispered my problem. She came back with a plate with a folded napkin and a collection of utensils and handed me a knife! Later, Steph excused herself and while I was waiting, a person on the wait staff came over and took the napkin from her seat and folded it up and put it on the table. She came back and we ordered dessert and two cappuccinos. Before it arrived, they came and switched out Steph’s fork. The dessert was really good. It had bananas with caramelized sugar on top (think creme brulee). Also, three ice cream triangles with different flavors and pistachio praline pieces.
This was probably the best dining experience I’ve ever had. They did all these little things that really don’t cost much money or time but really left a lasting impression. The most interesting thing is this is not even close to the most expensive meal I’ve had, but it certainly was the best.
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