the dude

If you show up a few minutes before opening, there should be no problem in getting a seat at Frontera Grill. There's usually a line of at least 20 by the opening bell most days (even more if the weather is nice). As far as I know, they take a limited number of same day reservations starting around 8/8:30am for parties of any size, but only take advance reservations for larger parties. The bar is a nice place to sit as a solo diner as the bartenders are typically both friendly and knowledgeable of the menu. On Saturday mornings they serve brunch, with many Mexican egg dishes as well as a few standard lunch items such as tacos.

My wife and I dined at Alinea last Friday 05/27 after much anticipation. Having done the Tour de Force at Trio several times, we knew we would do the Chef's Tour. As the menu from this night has been well-documented and thoroughly dissected, I will refrain from repeating. As far as individual dishes go, I'll comment on several. The sour cream, the hearts of palm, the wild bass, the limes and eucalyptus, the artichoke, and the chocolate were our favorites. The broccoli stem was disappointing. The stem was warm and even mushy, with little flavor. In the end, it tasted like roe and grapefruit and was not a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Everything else was generally outstanding. The wine was very good, although I felt the whites were a little weaker than the reds. In the end, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, but there were two overriding issues: 1. Compared to Trio, my wife and I both agreed that the average portion size was larger on the whole. We were both very full by course 15, making it a little more difficult to stomach the last third of the menu (although we did eat them all). I haven't seen this addressed, so maybe I'm all alone on this front, but I kept thinking that there would be a series of small bites, when what came was a steady succession of substantial (and richly flavored) dishes. I never thought that I would complain about being served "too much food," but many of the exciting moments from this dinner and dinners at Trio past were the ethereal one-bite experiences. The essence of a dish is its flavor and creativity, not portion size. The major take-home point from this is that I will either try not to clean my plate on every course of the Chef's Tour or reluctantly do the 12-course menu on return visits. 2. Secondly (and less important to me than the issue above), I was slightly disappointed, initially, in the lack of evolution from Trio to Alinea. I suppose that with all the intense coverage and "hype" surrounding the opening that I expected there to be a bigger leap forward in innovation. Essentially, it was a re-hash of the Trio experience in a more refined environment with slightly more polished service. The flow of the menu, the food presentations, and many of the ingredients were very similar to Trio meals past. Ultimately, I think that this shows us that ChefG has found the method that works for him (luckily for all of us); however, I suppose I expected a dining experience less like what I remember and more like what I had dreamed about all winter. After having thought about it a great deal, I realize that my feelings were a little unfair and likely due to the repeat diner phenomenon. I have no hesitation when someone asks me about my favorite meal ever: my first visit to Trio under ChefG. The sheer nature of the dining experience--the whimsical nature of some of the dishes, the enthusiastic servers, the wine. Subsequently it becomes more difficult to get that same level of astonishment when one knows what to expect. Nonetheless, dinner at Alinea was one of the best experiences of my epicurean life.

partially frozen cans of Olympia, defrosted on the floor boards of a Pontiac