Fan Girl Wannabe

Last night, DH and I celebrated our 21st anniversary since our first date.  WOW.  We did our usual thing and went out to dinner.  We even went someplace semi-usual for us - Eno Vino has become our default fancy dinner place.  We love the atmosphere and the service, and the food is to die for!

So I received an email invitation, informing me that reservations had been made for 7 pm.  I went home with plenty of time to change into something nice (longish black skirt over black patent boots & a red blouse), fix my hair and paint my face.  DH was also gussied up with a fresh shave and an olive/sage shirt & slacks ensemble (love the monochrome look - it's sophisticated) topped with a black sport coat.  We don't usually go all out on the dressing for dinner, but this was the first anniversary in the past couple of years that we could actually celebrate in the style to which we have become accustomed. 

When we arrived at the restaurant we were whisked to our table, where a lovely arrangement of 3 blushing roses were waiting in a vase.  It took me a moment to realize that they weren't the restaurant's decoration - no other tables had flowers.  The card read "Dinner, $100.  Roses, $40. 21 Years of Love & Happiness: PRICELESS."  Doesn't he write the best notes?!

On to the food:  (we ordered one of each and shared everything)

Red Wine Flight - 3 oz each of a Beaujolais, Merlot and Syrah.  They were all lovely, and the Merlot was a Hogue, so now I have another wine in that family that I'll be wanting on a regular basis.

Soup:  Bisque of Cold Water Lobster and King Crab with a Brunoise of Vegetables - so butter & cream laden and luscious I could feel my arteries clogging!  Garnished with a split crab leg full of succulent yumminess and a split lobster tail of goodness.  The soup base was definitely vegetable - with tomatoes lending the soup an overall pinkness.

Salad:  Mixed Field Greens with Kalamata Olives Red Onions, Feta Cheese and Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette.  The vinaigrette was almost syrupy and very intense. The salad made a nice counterpoint to the soup as we ordered these to arrive together.

We sipped the Beaujolais with the first course.

Next:  we tried to order Grilled Breast of Pheasant with Truffled Fig Risotto, and Chestnut-Honey Jus, but they were out of it, so we substituted Seared Foie Gras, Apple Tart-Tatin, Spanish Sherry Vinegar Reduction, Truffled Greens.  OMG!!  This was fantastic - the sherry reduction was dark red, almost black and we couldn't stop dipping it up.  I still would like the foie gras to be a little crispier and cooked more thoroughly, but the flavor was excellent.  The apple tart is a wonderful accompaniment to the foie.  I think the greens were more for decoration - I wouldn't have missed them.  We sipped the Merlot with this course, and it paired very nicely.

Third:  Grilled Double Lamb Chops, Roasted Fingerlings and a Minted Winter Vegetable Ragout.  We totally agreed that the lamb could not have been prepared any better than this.  The entire dish was excellent, but the lamb was awesome.  The perfect outer salty crunch and a tender, succulent middle, hot all the way through and not quite medium.  The roasted fingerlings had some blackened edges, and the vegetable ragout consisted of baby carrots, asparagus and zucchini, with shreds of fennel for garnish.  All this was served on a long rectangular tray, in a pool of what must have been pan gravy.  There was no description, and the jus was not completely thin, so it was finished with a touch of cream or butter.  So So Good!  And the Syrah, with it's spicy notes was brilliant.

We could have hurt ourselves easily, by ordering another full course, but we decided to settle for dessert:  
a warm cinnamon chocolate fondue (in a pot, over a candle) with cubed buttermilk panna cotta (delish!), homemade marshmallows, chunks of strawberries and bananas and blackberries, blueberries and raspberries.  I stuck a blackberry in my glass of Prosecco too.  In 21 yrs, this was the first time we'd ordered the super romantic chocolate fondue for two.  Go figure :)  We didn't actually finish all the dessert, which was kind of sad, but we were plenty full of good food and good feeling.  Also - solstice buds take note - the fondue is quite generously sized and would split well between 6 ::hint hint::  B tried to roast a marshmallow over the candle, but only managed to darken a corner.  Our waitress confessed that she too had tried that trick and had ended up with the marshmallow stuck in the candle holder and burning in flames. LOL

Our conversation for the evening included a lot of reminiscing of that first date and all the subsequent fancy date dinners we've had.  We're pretty sure that Eno Vino has been the most consistently wonderful place we've patronized and we look forward to many more special dinners there.

The roses are currently lending their fragrance to our bedroom from their perch on the shelf above the bed.  And the girl brought us a bouquet of flowers too - all autumnal colors of roses, lilies and suchlike.  They're in the dining room.  It was a truly wonderful celebration of "The Long Run."