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| - This was my second visit to Holder, but my first review. The temp outside was a wonderful 18 degrees as we strolled from our hotel to the restaurant only a block up the street (thank goodness). The dining room was warm and inviting as we hung our parkas in the coat room. There is a good variety of banket, center table and bar seating. There are wonderful copper accents in the room and the lighting is an interesting pattern of iridescent glass and metal.
My choices from the menu were simple and rustic which fit my desire for comfort food due to the cold weather. I started with a Grey Goose dirty martini, and my normal 3 olives...the olives were not the usual gigantor ones served locally here in NOVA, these were quite petite and as I bit into my first one off the skewer I realized it was not pitted! I don't mind, but it helps to know ahead...and let's face it spitting those out in your hand isn't too graceful in public. But the bartender did my drink justice...dry and oh so dirty, and the glass was full...yummm.
My starter was a vegetable soup with a great beefy tomato broth as the base, nice touch of sage in the background, salted and peppered to perfection. The veggies were rough chopped including scallions, zucchini, chunks of tomato, petite lima beans and julienne mushrooms. The steaming bowl was topped with fresh shaved parmesean.
Main course consisted of beef cheeks (no, not the ones you sit on silly) bourguignon style. This is classic French cooking...this method slowly simmers the beef in wine which tenderizes cuts of meat that would have been too tough to cook any other way. The flavor of carrots, garlic and onions came shining through in the wonderful sauce that draped over the mashed potatoes like a velvet sheath. Simply paired with the beef and mashers were haricovert....green beans folks! I tried to figure out if the chef had actually used a burgundy, as the rich sauce could have been done with a good cabernet instead.
All in all the meal was everything I wanted that evening and since I'm headed to Montreal on a regular basis I will probably go again. The nice thing here is that the staff instantly recognizes us Americans and quickly opts out your French menu for one in English....Merci!
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