after dinner sneeze

t says:  g and I were in the mood for a good date-night, but didn’t want to mess around with corkage fees.  Fortunately, Serpico had space on a Friday night; we were stoked!  We walked in to an essentially empty restaurant, sat down, ordered up some dishes we had never had before, and let the barrage begin …

November 2013, Friday Dinner, Party of 2.

raw fluke: this crazy fluke dish brought a smile to g’s face at first bite as she said “i love it when someone knows what to do with celery”.  Apparently that “what” is to shave it and serve it with some fluke so that the vegetal zing and fishy brineness shine against the savory broth.  A beautifully balanced dish – bravo!  g’s other quote: “you should get in on this or I’m going to eat it all” …

the pig tail special got my attention with gouchuchang – i knew I had to order it.  Overall, it was quite impressive, with lots of flavors built on top of an incredibly unctuous slab of meat (and bones).  The polenta, soaked in that ridiculously, was so good that my only wish was to have some bread to soak up the drips left over on the plate.

for the main, g and i couldn’t help but repeat the slab of wagyu chuck we had last time.  yea – it’s still wicked awesome.

to beef up the roughage of our meal (ha ha – good joke, right?), we went with the fairly expensive vegetable plate (21 dollars!!)  There was no way it’d be worth it, right?  WRONG.  This dish of vegetables was quite filling, with umami bombs (mushrooms), good bitter greens, sweet onions (g love-love-loved the onions), and a reminder the i need to cook more cauliflower.  Vedge better watch out, because this stood up to the beef dish, bite for bite.

g and I finished with the rocky road, which was a nice, simple finish to an otherwise “fancy” meal.  With chocolate ice cream, toasted marshmallow, and candied nuts, it didn’t stand a chance!

Now, the food at Serpico was fabulous.  And, with the BYO-ness, g and I were so deeply engaged in conversation that 2 hours went by *snaps his fingers* just like that!  We paid the bill but continued to linger over a cup of coffee.  At that 2 hour mark, the general manager came by and politely asked how the meal was, and then offered to buy us a glass of dessert wine.  In my head, I figured we were at our limit of EtOH consumption, so I responded, “no thanks!  we’re actually just getting ready to leave!”.  Just as I said that, it clicked in my head what he had actually said, “May I please offer you another drink – maybe a glass of dessert wine – at our bar?”  He was a smooth operator because it did not click in my head that there was actually quite a crowd of people at the bar, all waiting for their dinner reservations.  Oops!  Our bad!  g and I got up and headed towards the door.  And on the way out, the GM palmed me his business card and said, “the next time you come in, please just mention me in the reservation – we will be sure to get you a free drink or dessert or something – please – take me up on the offer”.  Nice!  No hard feelings on our part at all!  And maybe – just maybe – we WILL take him up on that offer!