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| - Excellent night out at Spoon this past weekend. We were in town visiting friends and decided to give this place a shot. The ambience here is quite nice - many nooks and crannies with dim lighting providing a very cozy and private dining experience. The table service was top notch throughout our stay. Waitress was always prompt, and our glasses never went unfilled. We started with fantastic bubbly from the wine menu. The wine menu here is quite expansive with a variety of region's represented. In the bubbly section alone, France, US, Austria, Spain and others were all represented. Given the size of the restaurant, I was surprised by the extensive wine list. The wine was served nicely chilled with Schott wine glasses. The glassware was top notch throughout our stay. I did speak with the Sommelier who was helpful in making some suggestions, but fairly unsociable. I have found the best Sommeliers really tell a story about a wine - about either the flavors or the region. The Somm here was able to say this is good, that is a little sweet, this is a good value, etc. No real back story on the wines.
Our table decided to do the Chef's Table. The first course was a steak tartare topped with arugula, shredded radishes, and raw egg. The flavors here were excellent, and if I were more a fan of steak tartare I would have loved this. The arugula provided a nice spice to the steak and egg. After polishing off the bottle of bubbly, our table transitioned to an excellent bottle of Scherrer Syrah (2009, "Sasha"). The Somm was kind enough to decant for us, and this wine was really a showstopper (that is another review in itself). Next up was scallops served over white beans and creme fraiche. The scallops were perfectly done, but browned on only one side. The beans and creme fraiche were very rich and complemented the light flavors of the scallops well. We next moved on to the leg of lamb served with kale and pomegranate seeds. This was a beautiful presentation. The lamb was cooked well, certainly slow cooked as it was very tender. The flavor was a bit on the gamey side for me. The accompanying polenta and turnips were terrific. The polenta was probably the most remarkable of all the dishes we had that night. Lastly, we had a terrific creme brulee that was executed very well. Overall, the Chef's Table was interesting, but I would not order it again. I felt it was too heavy in proteins and really lacked contrast - I cannot recall a single component of acid.
We had a terrific time at Spoon. We had excellent service. The wine menu is top tier and the wine service is very good as well. The menu is very interesting with diverse offerings. Will be back here again.
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