louie, louie

LOL- I know I know- if you are of a certain age you get the title and that may be what you came for... but this is a review of a new-to-us restaurant in downtown Sarasota that we LOVED!

Now there are any number of reasons why a restaurant may be liked but to get to LOVED you need three things- great food, great service and lovely ambiance, and this one had it all.  It began with a really truly warm welcome at the front desk. Then although the dining room was nearly full, the hostess offered us a choice of tables rather than forcing her choice upon us.

The restaurant really doesn't show well in the photos because it is lit in a cool blue -which I am sure is terrifically soothing and also cooling in the long hot and humid summers here (we don't know because we are in lovely Chicago for our summers...LOL) It also wreaked havoc with food photos (I really really try not to be disruptive and use a flash at restaurants - there are other diners perhaps not interested in every course being documented...LOL -so that is fair warning about the strange blue tones to the food photos etc..

Although the corkage is a stiff $25 per bottle- we brought our own because as we always tell the restaurants- our wine is old and needs to be drunk - and since we eat out a lot that means we need to drink it in their places - not just ours...

the room is actually lovely despite not photographing well-

 here are a couple of photos in daylight that are from their website which show off the lovely room-

back to my "blue period" photos- the menu- changed into B&W for reading purposes- LOL

we had the black and blue pizzetta and the tuna to start- sharing both - the pizzetta won but both were marvelous...

then because it was cold outside (48*) Phil tried the seafood chowder- no clams just the good stuff! He was a happy diner...

I went for the wedge salad- a favorite that I use to compare restaurants to each other- this was very nice - a tad overdressed but next time I will just order "on the side"... the netsuke bacon chunks were fab! (there is actually a LOT of lettuce under there and it was so large Phil had to eat the second half of it for me)

then for mains Phil went for the lamb and I had the trout preparation - mine was perfect- the bone removed and the trout butterflied and served on the skin- really good prep with mashed cauliflower as part of the set up....

the lamb came with chops, meatball and meatloaf with sides of mixed veg and truffle mashed potatoes.

and I can't believe I missed the photos of the amazing dessert that we shared and what's worse is I can't find one online either LOL- trust me this one was more than a cookie ("dark chocolate skillet cookie" by name)- it was so chocolate that you could smell it as it was brought to the table fresh out of the oven- molten like but crusty - ooooohhhh! it was completely luscious- we had no trouble taking it down despite it being course number four.... wish I could show you but, alas no photo exists.

so what I haven't told you yet is how terrific Kristin our server, and Jeffrey the manager were.  Both attentive to their patrons and friendly. And they both had a trait I love - a sense of humor.

 Jeffrey suggested that we book on a night that we could meet Eric as he is the "wine guy" and would be a good person to get to know - he gave us his card so next time we reserve we can ask if he will be in that evening....

A wonderful evening - made even better by extremely nice people and great food. We highly recommend this for anyone looking for a special night out! And now- LOL - back to the Cuba and the UNESCO World Heritage town of Trinidad.... now more than half way through the Cuba trip and if I finish my posting by Saturday I will have done it in only a month (I know that is nothing to brag about - this has been such a busy time for us that I can only use that as a lame excuse for the delay.) Stay tuned I will get you through the country and back to the U.S. in time for the holidays- LOL