So I was all ready to just make a post with some pics from the last time I was at Northside to see Jake Speed & The Freddies, and when I went to their site, I saw some terrible news:
Northside Show Canceled
Jake Speed lost his voice. He put it in a closet somewhere…can’t figure out which one.
Long story short, no show tonight. Sorry.
:sadpanda:
As you can tell from the new URL, I have moved my blog away from my portfolio. I thought it would be a good idea to brand the two separately. The blog is much less formal than I want my portfolio to be, and it only made sense to move this to a unique domain.
The fact that I am at a new url is not the main reason for needing your attention though… As you can see, I have a blogroll dedicated to Cincinnati bloggers. I know you want in, since more links = more gooder. If you are seeing this, you follow me on twitter so here is what you need to do:
Let’s get some linky goodness going on here.
Thanks to Kate for letting Sara and myself take the two open spots she had in her reservation for dinner at Pigall’s. It was an amazing time, and I am glad that I had the chance to experience real fine dining.
I apologize for the poor picture quality. There is only so much that can be done with a camera on a phone in low light. I also failed to get pictures of many of the dishes before the sauce was applied, so the amazing presentation of the food is not accurately represented.
(Photo from http://jeanrobertgroup.com/pigalls/about)
We started the night in Twist, the bar next to Pigall’s, with everyone getting to meet each other and having a cocktail before sitting down to dinner. When the clock struck 9:00 we headed next door to start dinner. We were presented with two choices: the three-course dinner or the Gourman menu. There was no hesitation, everyone agreed that if we were going to do this, we were going to do it right.
There is no picture of the L’Amuse Bouche du Jour, but it was tasty
The Maine Lobster salad was delicious. It really made me miss the summers I spent in Cape Cod as a child. The lobster and pomegranate together were excellent, and the fennel was really fresh.
Foie Gras. Probably one of my new favorite foods. I had it for the first time only a few days prior to eating at Pigall’s when I went to Terry Turf Club. And while the novelty of having Foie Gras on a burger is neat and all, this was properly prepared. I had expected the Foie to be greasy, since that was how I encountered it at TTC, but instead it was a lighter, cleaner flavor. The candied walnuts and duck all combined to be an amazing set of flavors.
Since Kate knew another Cincinnati chef who accompanied us to dinner, we were given an extra dish which consisted of a huge scallop on top of fennel, topped with a citrus creme sauce. It is nice knowing people that know people.
The cod with blue cheese was probably my least favorite course. The corn and blue cheese worked well together (and is something I am going to add to my home cooking), but I felt the blue cheese fondue masked many of the other flavors in the dish. It was hard for me to cut through the cheese’s punch of flavor to get to the fish. Everyone else really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t my thing.
This is what sold me to going with the Gourmand menu. The second I saw elk, I knew I had to try it. I was rather surprised when we started eating the elk because I assumed that it would be gamy, but the meat was so tender, it almost dissolved in my mouth. The barley on the apple slice was awesome, and I told Sara it was something she should make every night for me.
The deserts were amazing. Both chocolate dishes were rich without being too heavy. The red velvet cake was smooth as ice, and the pear tart with pomegranate sorbet was out of this world.
After we had finished our 4 hour dinner (yes, we left Pigall’s around 1am), Jean-Robert came to our table to say hello and thank us for coming. We showered him with the praise he deserved for making such a wonderful dinner, and when we were heading out the door, he stopped a conversation he was having to thank us again and shake all of our hands.
All in all, I am really glad I was able to try real food. I doubt I would be able to eat food that good every day (I was half way in to a food coma by the bonus course), but I now know what can – and should – be done with food. I am also glad that I was given the opportunity to try this gem of Cincinnati, but if it wasn’t for the fact that they are closing in a week, I would never have even considered dining there.
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