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| - Haters be damned, Alchemy and Ale impressed me tonight. While dining with a friend yesterday, I was tipped off that my Groupon would be expiring in the next two days. Great, I know that Groupons usually mean long waits and a a certain disdain for the people using them by the time servers are exhausted with the rush of forgetful cheapies near the end of a groupon's life. Hey, it's not my fault - if I could use it day of, I would... My mind has wandered by the time they're active, though.
I arrived at the door to a jovial man who simply asked my name and wrote it down on a notepad - no wait time offered, didn't even ask how many were in my party(maybe it doesn't matter). Regardless, he was willing to talk after what I assume to be an influx of people slowed down. The space is small: Upon entering there is a bar with two bar tables to the side on the right, a dividing wall, and a 'bistro' area with probably 10 tables or so. The decor is cute, the dividing wall has fake ivy and streetlamps to give an outdoors-indoors feel. We were seated in about 15 minutes.
We were seated and immediately given glasses of water, and the short black-haired waitress asked if we had been there before. We told her it was our first time, and she went off on quite an in-depth speech about her favorite items on the menu and why she enjoyed them, touching on probably 70% of the menu unprompted. When asked about vegetarianism and nut allergies, she was extremely accommodating. This girl provided service that I thought was top notch - slightly informal, but passionate, and a desire to make sure the customer is happy. The line "The chef will do his best to make sure no nuts come anywhere near your plate" shines in comparison to the usual "uh, the chef says he uses nuts, is it like.. I mean will it kill you?".
We chose our entrees on her recommendation, and being lovers of the mighty beet, we also chose the Beet Panzella($9) - roasted beets, caramelized goat cheese, chunks of bread, arugula, supposedly new to the menu. The flavors in this dish were excellent, the bread soaking up the beet juice, and the goat cheese was phenomenal. This was my favorite dish of the night.
One complaint I have about the dishes here is that it seems like the chef doesn't like to use too much salt, which may be good to some, but I like salty food - even though I hate to use a salt shaker when I go out. Regardless, I found it to be a common theme throughout the meal.
Our entrees arrived, my girlfriend getting some sort of mushroom pasta dish($14) and me opting for the shepard's pie($16) that the server raved over. I don't eat mushrooms, so I can't speak for that, but the shepard's pie was served hot in a decently sized portion. The quantity was not so large, but this was quite heavy and I was hurting by the end of it. The flavors were good, the truffle stood out well in the gravy, the potatoes were extremely smooth and creamy, and the short ribs at the bottom were tender enough to eat with a spoon. When I got to the bottom of my dish, I snuck a couple shakes of salt onto it. Yeah, even better.
My girlfriend took over half of her entree home, and I finished mine but sit here with quite a lump in my stomach - I could have easily stopped half way through without much regret, so the portion sizes here are large enough to split a starter and an entree between two if you aren't super hungry. I thought the service was outstanding and the food was good - including the price of our groupon coming to around $40 was a steal.
I was hesitant to come after reading the recent reviews An'A has been getting, but I have to say I would love to come back. Maybe they're stepping their game back up?
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