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| - We arrived to the quaint little street just past Old Town and it was immediately charming, lined with attractive businesses and lit by the glow of twinkling lights strung across the lane, with the retro-awesomeness of Valley Ho looming at the end of the street. The parking scenario is not pleasant -there was a vacant,ghetto-ish valet stand propped haphazardly out into the street. We did a quick driveby just in case regular parking became evident elsewhere, but eventually gave up and returned to valet. It was difficult to tell where we needed to pull up, and then we waited a significant amount of time before finally being greeted by the valet. The valet himself was curt and unfriendly, and when we returned at the end of the night we once again had to wait an interminable amount of time before we were finally able to get our car. Anyway, we meandered past the lovely garden to the hostess stand, where we were greeted and advised that there would be a wait for a patio table. We're not typically picky about where we sit, so we suggested we'd sit inside if they had tables ready? They did, so we did.
After being seated on a banquette at a 4-top table in close proximity to other diners, our server swung by to say hello. It was pretty obvious from the outset that our server was new - she just didn't quite have the polish that the setting (and prices) set the stage for. She gave us a very short explanation of the restaurant (second oldest house in Scottsdale) and took drink orders. We picked up a little bit more information from the server taking care of the table beside ours, who animatedly launched into a detailed description of some of the history and the concept of the restaurant. It sounded interesting!
Our appetizers came out very quickly : I had just quietly commented to my husband that it made me sad that nice restaurants which are at least slightly French-influenced don't send amuse bouches anymore when ta-da! Out came an Amuse Bouche from the Chef: Cheese Puffs that were delicious. It was very nice and obviously I had to eat my words :) BUT it was weird that they came out after we had recieved and started on our appetizer - it was the first of some strange pacing issues during our visit. amuse bouche = yummy. Now, back to the appetizers! The House Brisket was generally tasty, although the temperature was cold (how is that possible? We had just ordered and it came out so quickly!) and they were difficult to eat - the portions weren't single bites, but they were tough to cut into and divide into smaller bites as everything just sortof pulled apart. The meatballs: When I think duck confit, I think juicy, fatty and flavor packed deliciousness. These were a bit dry, and the sauce was very thin and difficult to sop up to offset the dryness. They tasted okay but were generally a bit disappointing.
Entrees: My Filet was alright - it was cooked to temperature (medium) properly and the accompanying sauce had nice flavor. The corn on the plate seemed like a bit of a throwaway; I always enjoy sweet corn in summer dishes, but this seemed to just be a filler. My husband's braised pork was amazing - the accompanying apple and grits were just perfect and it was one of my favorite parts of the meal. The Basil and Brie Smashed Potatoes were also a let down - the potatoes themselves were very basic fingerling potatoes with little to no flavor, and they were just smashed a little (I was expecting something a bit more mashed or perhaps crispy) Admittedly, Brie is not my favorite and so I avoided that element of the dish, so perhaps I was missing out on the most important flavor component..
My dessert was delightful - a pear (or apple? I'm pretty sure it was pear) upside down cake that was just so tasty. I'd go back just for that. My husband's chocolate banana budino was okay, but not super exciting. There didn't seem to be any banana to speak of, so it was basically a quality chocolate pudding.
I had mentioned pacing, our food came out so incredibly quickly, we were actually in and out of the restaurant with three courses in an hour and 15 minutes. I feel a little strange complaining about getting our food quickly, but it just seemed rushed, first with the amuse bouche and appetizers at the same time, and then followed by the rest of the courses hitting us so quickly one after the other. It is the sort of meal you want to linger over, but I felt a bit pushed to finish by the way that it was paced.
The atmosphere was a combination of nice and not-so-nice. They've done a wonderful job of transitioning the house into a beautifully furnished restaurant. . I didn't love the closeness to the other diners, especially the bachelorette parties in front of and beside us that got rowdier as the night wore on (general screechiness and shot-taking does not make for a romantic evening) The club-like music was out of character for the otherwise upscale and serious setting.
It was weird, maybe we'll try again.
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