I have found a few select restaurants throughout my travels that I can genuinely enjoy immensely every single time I eat there.
About them from them:
"our vision is to nourish, educate, and inspire our guests through food, each plate is a mosaic of the finest seasonal ingredients available to us. most of our produce is organic; our seafood is local and sustainably caught. we use only the best, humanely raised, natural meats and poultry. we evolve with new menu ideas each season and let the raw ingredients shine.
our chef joins us from fine dining restaurants in california, notable andrea at the resort at pelican hill in newport, and motif at the st. regis in monarch beach; both five-star, five-diamond rated establishments. chef rueben's passion for food came early in life, following his father from the garden to the kitchen. after studying organic farming in israel, reuben honed his techniques with a classical culinary education in california, france and italy.
our menu reflects our times: a modern, global culinary influence; a strong foundation of traditional techniques; respect for our resources and community, and the courage to try something new."
It's been one of our favorites ever since moving here and even has become our "birthday dinner" go to spot.
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| Jack Sprat December 2010 |
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our birthday dinner
(My birthday is 12/10 & the Mister's is 12/12)
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| beautiful view |
Last weekend we decided it was a Jack Sprat night after being at Forest Fair all day and not really being able to get some non-fair food option (funnel cakes and turkey legs anyone?).
Once we sat down we ordered a bottle of wine.
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| this was delicious |
We looked over the menu and decided to start out with 2 small plates while browsing the menu. We remembered how good the yam fries were last time so that was my pick and the Mister was craving salty meats (twss?) so he chose the cured meats.
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| nothing small about it :) that's basically a whole sweet potato! |
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| the Mister's cured meats: spanish smoked Chorizo, prosciutto, genoa salumi, sweet capicola served with roasted nuts |
While browsing the menu, I immediately found the fresh halibut and knew I need not look any further. The Mister decided that he's go with the fish of the day the server had described earlier.
Right before the server came back to take our order we started discussing how delicious their salads sounded and decided to order the
Salad Nicoise to share with dinner. (I just love that the Mister genuinely enjoys delicious
real food just as much as I do.
There are very few things in life better than a great meal, rich bottle of wine and fabulous company.)
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| Salad Nicoise: seared tuna, field green, 6 minute egg, olives, flageolet, julienne vegetables, capers, served with fine herbs citronette |
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Alaskan Halibut: pan seared filet, braised wild mushrooms, fennel and corn succotash
with sweet pea beurre blanc |
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| Fish of the Day: Alaska Salmon with a ratatouille |
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| this makes my heart happy |
I don't think most servers realize the amount of food the Mister and I can take down. When ordering this I was even questionable on if we would be taking leftover home for a midnight snack..
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| demolished. |
Everything was absolutely phenomenal.
I sat in my chair finishing my last glass of wine with a grin on my face when our server came back with the suggestion of dessert. I probably could have left the restaurant and walked on home totally content with everything that touch my tongue and entered my belly but after hearing the description of Frans' Raw Strawberry "Cheesecake" we had to order a slice.
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| Raw Strawberry "Cheesecake" |
Wow. Honestly, this was amazing. the crust was so moist with dates and the "cheesecake" had a great
sweet tang from the fresh strawberries.
As we were eating our dessert Frans Weits, the owner, came over to see how we enjoyed our meal.
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Frans & Jennifer Weits : Owners of Jack Sprat
source |
As I was gushing over the meal (and Frans, definitely not bad on the eyes) :) the Mister brought the blog up and how I would be writing about the meal soon. Frans seemed interested and asked me what the name of my blog was and I committed the cordnal sin of any blogger...
I forgot the name of the blog! I'm shaking my head as I type this because I can't even believe I'm that crazy.
It went a little something like this:
Mister: "
Yes, Melissa is writing a food blog."
Frans: "
Oh really? What's the name?"
Me:
"Yeah... ugh............ ugh.........." I was definitely sending SOS signals via eyes to the Mister at this point.
Mister: "
VeggOut, right Melissa.. VeggOut." SOS message received!
Ha! I blame it on the bottle of wine and the food coma I was about to slip into once I walked home and got my pjs on.
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| until next time, Jack Sprat |
If you are ever in the area I would totally recommend
Jack Sprat. We've been to their brunch which a lot of local swear by but honestly, I'm in a committed relationship with their dinner menu.
Luckily, I won't have to go too long without it because I'm sure we'll be taking my family there when they come to visit at the end of this month.
What is your favorite restaurant where you live?
Have you ever forgotten your blog name before or other important information?
