Just wanted to give the lowdown on the birthday dinner at Deux Cheminees that eGulleters so kindly helped me choose. We went on Saturday night and had a lovely dinner. The room was lovely and romantic, the service was charming, but the food was a bit uneven. We had a minor snafu when my SO realized that he didn’t have a dinner jacket at my house. When I called the restaurant to check if it was ok, the host seemed a bit disconcerted that he wouldn’t be wearing one. But my SO looked great regardless and though we were easily the youngest diners in the place, we were comfortable and treated well. After being seated, we both started with a kir royale as an aperitif. While we looked over the wine list and menu offerings, our server brought out an amuse bouche of duck liver pate with onions and cornichons. It was served with garlic toast. I don’t love pate, but my SO really enjoyed this. The restaurant offers a fixed price meal with four courses—soup, salad, main and dessert. There are several options for each course. You can substitute a heavier appetizer for the soup or salad for a supplement. Or you can add an additional appetizer course for a larger supplement. We were in the mood for a red Burgundy with dinner. The wine we chose for the evening was a 2002 Joseph Drouhin Côte de Beaune-Villages. We really enjoyed this wine. It had a beautiful pale ruby color, a smoky cherry nose and a silky mouthfeel. We loved the long finish and it was a great match for our food. We both started with soups. He had a Hungarian lamb stew. I had the crab veloute with scotch. I had a taste of his and found it pedestrian. I was much happier with my dish. It had plenty of lump crab meat. And the addition of scotch just upon serving really made the dish sing. For our second course, he had escargot. He loves escargot and always orders them when he can. I tasted one, and though the texture was perfect I found them bland. I had poached asparagus with savory whipped cream. I wanted something lighter after my delicious, but very rich first course. The asparagus dish had a number of components—spelt, bibb lettuce, hardboiled egg. Not sure if this is a classic preparation, but I didn’t love it. It just didn’t hang together well. We decided to share a rack of lamb with Perigord sauce for our main. Can you tell that he loves lamb? This, to me, was the most disappointing dish of the evening. The presentation was sloppy with sauce all over the edge of the plate. We ordered it medium rare and it came out tough and overcooked on the ends. The sauce lacked richness and the truffle flavor didn’t come across well. My SO ate most of mine. For dessert, we decided to order something simple. We both had homemade ice cream with fruit. We had egg nog and french vanilla flavors. Both flavors were rich and creamy and a nice end to the meal. Our server was also kind enough to bring out two complimentary glasses of champagne for a birthday toast. Always a nice touch. After dinner, we took a tour of the restaurant and were able to spend time perusing the chef’s cookbook library. It’s in the process of being boxed up for shipment to UPenn. But it’s still really impressive. If I can figure out how, I’ll post a picture. Btw, the restaurant isn't closing when the chef retires. All in all, it was a lovely evening with my honey. We had great service in a lovely environment and some good food. I thought there should have been more care put into preparation and more thought given to presentation. But it was still a great way to spend a birthday.
