A calm lunch experience that started with an extremely gracious host and continued with my low-key server, both accommodating my every whim. Rustic neutral vibe in the decor, bright wood and yellow paint, large windows for natural daylight. Legume feels equal parts waking up from a warm summer mid-afternoon nap and enjoying a gust of wind on the deck of a sailboat. RE-LAXING. In fact, the whole meal glided effortlessly, my small-plates arriving only 8 minutes after ordering.
Crunch! Great bread's offset by fridge-temp butter. Stole a glance of my neighbor's food. Crunch! "Those hard boiled eggs are perfect mustard yellow middle, no green ring." Went instead with...
Goat cheese pepper crostini - buttery crostini's well-toasted, jelly a shade sweet and in need of more bite. Healthy dab of goat cheese at room temp
Pork duck pistachio pate - soft profile with only moderate salt and no old/gamey note, just freshness. Spicy grain mustard provides plenty the bite the crostini's needed, and the quality pork adds some good salt and character.
Tallow fries - ridiculouslt cheap for this much food. The aioli needs more character and spice and has too slushy/goopy of a texture bordering on congealing gravy. but the fries themselves maintain a nice crispness given the shoe string thinness.. let's call it 85% crispy.
Nothing exceptional but all very pleasing. Definitely one of the most consistent near UPitt and CMU