"0"^^ . "5"^^ . "3"^^ . "0"^^ . . "2012-03-04T00:00:00"^^ . . . "Hubster and I wanted a splurge date night, and after hearing about Halcyon since they opened, decided to give it a whirl. We're organic gardeners and big supporters of our local markets (go Atherton!), so it felt great to think about spending our hard-earned cash on a place that passes it on to our hard-working local farmers. We were *not* disappointed! \n\nUpon making our reservation, I indicated I would appreciate a vegan, gluten-free meal. (This was off-menu, as you might imagine.) I called to make sure the message had gotten to the chef, and when we arrived, our waiter (who was attentive but not overly so) let me know the chef was preparing a celery-root mash base with a kale and overnight-roasted tomato topping, a lovely, light sauce, and day lily tubers (?!). I then requested some additional rice for \"heft,\" which they happily accommodated. I felt very well taken care of! (And, even better, we found out later that one of the line cooks prepared my entree AND is the farmer who grew most of the produce in it!)\n\nWe started with wine (for me) and beer (for him), both fabulous, an appetizer of hummus and pickled veggies (for me) and pimento cheese and flatbread (for him), all amazing, and I had a local-greens salad with peanut vinaigrette and caramel popcorn \"croutons.\" The greens turned out to be local kale and baby collards--totally raw--and were totally delicious.\n\nOur entrees were absolutely mouthwatering. Mine was perfect, and my husband took advantage of the evening's Shrimp & Grits special, which was perfect. \n\nGiven the high-but-mixed reviews here, we were 100% pleased and will go back again in the hopes that round #2 is as good as round #1!"^^ .