As the title suggests, we celebrated the Birthday of a lovely lady who was turning older than 50 years, but younger than 60. For the past decade (following a very fun 50th Birthday celebration she had), I've never known exactly how old my mom was on her Birthday, but I've felt OK knowing it's "in the 50's."
While she was in town visiting, we made a point to eat some cake, open some gifts and get out for an amazing celebration dinner.
Don't let the candles fool you - this isn't a cake for any of our kids (although there's plenty of that during this month!), nor is she 3 years old or even 3 decades old. Those three candles just happened to be what was on hand, and oddly, I think it turned out that Grams blew out one of the candles and the other two fell casualty to Max and Otto.
Saturday night my mom, sister Jamie and I headed to Bar La Grassa for a fun and tasty dinner. The restaurant truly is delicious and always impresses. My "fun fact" is that this is the restaurant that "the General" brought Martha Stewart to when she was in town to speak to the marketing community at General Mills. If it's good enough for Martha, it's more than good enough for us!
Without a reservation, we showed up, fingers crossed that we could get a table without a long wait. Their initial guess of an hour until a table would free up turned into less than 15 minutes. As soon as we had our drinks from the bar we were being shown to our side-by-side seats at the "pasta bar" facing the open kitchen. I've dined at BLG a half dozen times or so and think these seats are my favorite - lots to see/learn while watching the kitchen hum along, amazing service always at the ready and less "traffic" from the servers bustling through the main dining area.
The food, and we tried a lot of it, was all amazing. Except for one dish (and the espresso, so says my mom) everything was well above average. So, in a somewhat ranked order, here's what we feasted on...
Chicken Liver Mousse Brushcetta. A.m.a.z.i.n.g. Although I don't hate liver, I'm not my parents who seem to have always had a fondness for this organ. BLG had made me a believer and I can't foresee myself NOT ordering this every time I return to BLG. It was that amazing. Chicken liver whipped with something else (butter, cream, who knows! who cares!). Some sweet tangy pickled onions on the top of it. Ready to run back right now for some more.
Bucatini al Bolgenese (image below). Wow. The dish that has flown under the radar takes flight. I've eyed this several times on past dining occasions. I love a good homemade meat bolgenese, but have wondered if it's really worth getting something so basic at such a good restaurant. It is. Pretty sure Wren and I will be stopping by some snowy afternoon in the next month to get a double order to bring home and enjoy with the boys. Wonderful, hearty flavor of the pork and tomato sauce (w/ a splash of cream!) that gets absorbed by the bucatini.
N'dujo Egg Ravioli. A fresh made ravioli pasta with some sausage (that's the N'dujo [sp?]) and an egg yolk essentially poached in it. I am forgetting what herb garnished it, but the flavors were delicious together and not overly used on menus. A surprise gem Jamie and I are glad we ordered.
Linguini Creme Freche with Winter Vegetables. A fresh and tart tasting pasta featuring the complexity of winter veggies (kale, squash, carrots, etc). Another dish with surprising flavors that you rarely find on all "pasta joint" rosters.
Soft Eggs and Lobster Bruschetta and Crab Ravioli. These are two of BLG's "signature" dishes. While they are very good, I was ready to try new dishes, hence the lower ranking of them. My mom and sister both liked them (crab ravioli moreso, I think). I just needed to mix it up.
Fusilli with Lamb Meatballs. I've had this before and thought I remembered really liking it. However, I think that was about 4 years ago, before any of my kids were born. My memory often fails me now. This is the one dish that I thought was not necessarily above average. Everything kind of fell flat. Minimal sauce/tomatoes on it. Flavor of the meatballs nothing spectacular.
Desserts included the Caramel Crepes for Mom and Jamie. I decided to try something new, the Ricotta Bombolinis (mini cinnamon sugar donuts filled with ricotta). I was envious eyeing the buttery crepes and rich ice cream on either side of me. I doubt I'll stray again from the crepes.
And their coffee (Dogwood, also featured at Rustica, the coffee shop this is mine and Wren's favorite) was the best. Jamie literally added the entire pitcher of creamer to her cup and the coffee was still piping hot and strong.
Mmm. Mom, I say we make your Birthday dinner at Bar La Grassa a new tradition and lobby to get Cristy and Katie in town to join us.
HAPPY 50-ISH!!!
Xoxo, Summer
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