Eatin’ Good in the Neighborhood

I have recently  delightfully dined at two “neighborhood” restaurants, and I ain’t talkin’ Applebee’s. Jeffery Hobbs, Gilbert and Lisa Garza’s Suze and Sharon Hage’s York Street. Great eats at both establishments. These are two places that provide real, approachable, expertly executed food that focuses on quality ingredients and technique. A great piece of meat or fish with a great sauce and some great sides followed by a great dessert is what you’ll get at both restaurants. Nothing is so tall you’ll feel the need to yell, “TIMBER!” when you knock it over with your fork, no page long menu descriptions with 6 hyphens and three sets of quotation marks. Good food prepared perfectly.

The details -

Suze. My wife and I took Beau (see about page), her 16 year old son (my bonus son) out for dinner. He lives in Davis,  Oklahoma and while he is experiencing a classic small town upbringing he is not exposed to fine dining. We did some exposing at Suze. Fine dining that is.  The salads were varied and delicious, a  Kobe Carpaccio for me, made Beau try it and he liked it, Arugula with dates for Beau and a Watermelon, French Goat Cheese and Sunflower Sprout beauty for Carol. Jeffery sent out a killer plate holding three stuffed baby potatoes with smoked fish, saffron and crème fraiche, they were gobbled up. We also enjoyed his crab, potato and cuke salad with red pepper vinaigrette, and  capers. 

Entrees -

Pan Roasted King Salmon, cucumber mint salad, rice noodles, wasabi rice wine vinaigrette and toasted sesame seeds. Yummy and light. Perfect for a late summer evening.

Almond Crusted Idaho Trout, red quinoa, artichoke, capers, tomatoes and citrus Italian parsley butter. Two perfect filets, crisp and tender. The quinoa was nutty and replete with veggies.

Cervena Venison, espresso cured then  seared, with Delmonico potatoes, diced butternut squash and hazelnut demi. Very good piece of venison that matched the espresso’s intensity. The Delmonico potatoes were crispy and bathed in a creamy sauce.

We shared a blueberry cobbler for dessert, reveled in it, then loosened our belts in a good way. The service was attentive and professional. A real good time was had by all!

York Street. Carol was out of town so my daughter Hannah and I headed on down to Sharon’s restaurant/temple, York Street, for her birthday. Number 19. Wow.

We began with customary warm towels, I always want to wipe off my shoes (after my hands and face of course), warm walnuts, olives and a French Rose instead of Sherry

Starters -

Steamed Mussels in a carrot broth and a perfect salad with Nueske’s bacon lardons, bleu cheese and spiced pecans that was perfectly dressed with a simple vinaigrette. The thing is…simple ain’t so simple.

Entrees -

A perfectly roasted Windy Meadows Farm chicken with artichokes and a little jus. The skin was crisp.  I had a big, beautiful, faultless white chunk of precisely steamed halibut with a horseradish and parsley broth.  Again… simple ain’t so simple.

Dessert -

Hannah sprung for the PB&J action. This rocked! PB and wild grape ice cream on a bead of wild grape coulis with a PB cookie. I wanted to purge every PB&J sandwich  I’d ever had in my entire life so I could have only this memory of that glorious combo.

For me, just apple pie with vanilla ice cream. Not a tart or 3 ways or standing on end or on a stick or enveloped in spun sugar or surrounded by perfect dots of some God only knows syrup or, most importantly, no herb component. Just a great triangle of apple pie, with a flaky and buttery crust, homemade vanilla ice cream on top served warm, in a bowl, so I could eat it all.  Glorious. Did I say simple ain’t so simple? Hats off to Sharon and her staff.

Notes -

The service is really polished here, Fana is so cool and composed. Her demeanor trickles down to the entire service staff. Ask her to pair a tea tasting with your dinner. I really enjoyed that on my last visit. Every tea is brewed in a French press at your table. Fana comes by at just the right time, plunges and pours your tea. Heaven.