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| - A chain, yes. But par for the course, no.
First of all, they have an extensive wine list, which includes a rare type of sparkling wine, called Brachetto. In this area, DUI's are more common than a cold, and it's a light and tasty wine, with a low alcohol content. So it's option is great for me. It also goes great with everything they serve, because of it's unique flavor profile.
Lizzie was our waitress, and offered options and suggestions, which actually saved us quite a bit of money on the whole. Not that, by any stretch of the imagination, is this a place to go when you are not intending a big splurge. This is a place to take it slow and spend slightly over a decent amount.
The food, however, is absolutely worth it. We tried the Cheddar fondue, which could have used a bit more mustard powder and worstershire sauce, but on the whole was delicious. It was well prepped, and Lizzie explained what she was adding and why the whole time. The veggie selection is a bit mundane, and that's really my only complaint. We ate the "big night out" prix fix menu and chose the "Fusion" option which had lobster tail, shrimp, brats, ravioli, new york strip, sirloin steak, and a marinated chicken. We cooked it in the Boullion method which is just a flavored broth. Because it's not oil, you do need to add 30 sec to a min to the suggested cook times, but it was a lot lighter than using the oil and we didn't come home smelling like oil. The california salad was incredible. It had mixed greens, sliced roma tomatoes, chopped pecans, and blue cheese crumbles with a rasberry black walnut dressing. It's been a long time since I was able to truly enjoy a salad, and this was amazing. The chocolate we chose was the Smore. It was milk chocolate, marshmallow creme flambeed with grahm cracker bits added after the fire goes out. It's served with 2 types of coated marshmallows, pound cake, a slice of cheese cake, and a bowl of sliced strawberries and bananas. Just enough to fill us up, but we didn't overstuff ourselves. Our dinner was leisurely paced and took us about 2 to 2 1/2 hrs to get through. This is pretty normal for fondue. You do have the option of sitting at the bar and having just a cheese or chocolate, if you are on a time constraint though.
It's located in a great little shopping and dining area that wasn't too crowed last night, but I think that was more due to the weather, than the actual popularity of the place.
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