This weekend, we decided to treat ourselves by having our nanny work late on Friday night so we could go out for dinner by ourselves. We love our baby, but sometimes you need to get out and remember what it's like to be an adult.We went to a new French restaurant in our neighborhood called Cafe D'Alsace. We didn't want to go too far on the first night she had to put our son to bed in case there were any problems. This is the newest restaurant by Simon Oren. He owns a bunch of different French restaurants throughout the city that focus on cuisines of specific regions of France.
I liked this place right away because the decor reminded me of actually being in France. However that feeling was somewhat dampened by the music choice in the restaurant. I don't know how often the Bangles are played in France anymore...
Anyway, we opened up our meal with a couple of appetizers. My wife had the Tarte Flambee, which is a white cheese, onions and bacon tart, and I had La Moelle, which is bone marrow served with toast and salt. We also both had a glass of wine at that point. We each had the Chateau L'Ermitage, Listrac-Medoc, Bordeaux 2003.
Our main courses broke down like this: I had the Baeckeofe, which is a traditional Alsatian casserole of lamb, oxtails, bacon & potatoes braised in pinot gris w/ onions & thyme, and my wife had the lamb shank. Both were excellent. With my dinner, I moved on to a glass of Pinot Noir, Cote de Beaune Villages, Roux Pére & Fils, Bourgogne 2004.
From there we moved onto dessert, where we shared a Creme Brulee and I had a Cafe Au Lait to end things out.
It was a very nice meal and we had a good time. But it was nice to come back home and see our son too.
2 comments:
The Bangles, like Jerry Lewis, are *huge* in France...
Baekeoffe (lots of different spellings here) is actually not all that defined a dish. It's basically slow-cooked whatever's-available, though the usual presentations are with beef or lamb, and potatoes are always involved as well. As for the rest...onions, carrots, turnips, etc. can be involved. The cooking wine is usually riesling.
As for the tarte flambée, a much better wine match (from their list) would have been one of the Alsatian rieslings, especially the Clos St-Landelin from Muré.
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