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Had an amazing happy hour, complete w/ dessert, here today! Started off w/ red wine, an Apple salad, and Tuscan cheese board, and ended w/ a chocolate almond cake! Service was quick and efficient, although it could've been a bit friendlier... Don't know why they keep it so dark indoors-- 4:30p and it felt and looked like it was two hours later!
I've had the Apple salad a few times before, so it's a fave when I dine here. It's the first time I've had the cheese board, though, and I loved it! On the dinner menu for $9.95, it only cost me $6 during happy hour and was comprised of an aged goat, a pecorino, and a gorgonzola dolce, a garnish of apricot jam, some apple slices, red grapes, and bread rounds. The gorgonzola was the creamiest of the three, and the most pungent-- LOVED it! The aged goat was semi-soft, was easily spreadable on bread rounds, and paired well w/ the apricot jam the best. The pecorino was the hardest of the three cheeses, the saltiest, and paired well w/ the granny smith apple slices and red grapes. A well-rounded platter that satisfied all of the basic tastes (salty, sweet, sour. and bitter), minus the umami element.
The topper of this most excellent meal was the chocolate almond cake! Alternating layers of almond-scented and chocolate cake, w/ layers of chocolate ganache between each cake layer, and then topped w/ more chocolate ganache, plus warm ganache on the plate, and sprinkled w/ toasted almonds!! The almond cake layers were my favorite, as they definitely had the essence of almond throughout-- the chocolate layers didn't have any almond flavor at all. I checked. And checked again. Nope-- the wonderful almond-goodness I enjoyed was in the light cake layers! The warmed chocolate ganache and crunchy toasted almonds just sent me over the moon! I'm so giddy now just thinking about it!
The photos included don't do this meal great justice. BTW, I loved the cake so much, I ate that much AT THE TABLE. I polished the rest off on the ride home! :D
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