Dinner in the Chez Panisse Cafe

I convinced Heather and Lou to join me for dinner at the Chez Panisse Cafe last night.

Lou's parents had given me a gift certificate for Christmas (Thank you!), and I have been calling both the Restaurant and the less formal Cafe incessantly throughout the last few weeks to try to reserve a table for spring. I had mostly been asking for a table on weekend nights, and it had not worked. So, literally, at the very end of the work day yesterday Heather sent me an instant message and asked if Lou and I had plans for dinner. We did not have plans, and I immediately thought it would be fun to try to use the gift certificate.

I was in luck. They offered me a 9:15 table, and I took it. We have not been eating until almost 9 on week nights anyway, so I thought it wouldn't be much different than normal. Lou and Heather agreed.

In total, I think I've been to the Restaurant and the Cafe at least a dozen times, and I have never eaten at any other restaurant that has consistently delivered elegant and delicious food with such informed and gracious service. There is no doubt that Chez Panisse is my favorite restaurant anywhere. It is a truly lovely experience to eat there.

To start the meal, we agreed to share a pizzetta with spring onions, sorrel and brandade (dried and salted fish, cod in this case I think, that is then washed and mashed with potatoes and cream). The pizza was cooked in their wood-burning oven.



I tried a cauliflower soup with orange zest and marjoram (it was my least favorite dish of the night) and Lou and Heather split a salad of grilled endive with bottarga di muggine and egg.



For our main courses, I had Northern halibut with Kaki Farm asparagus, potatoes and kumquat relish. Lou had grilled loin of Watson Ranch lamb with artichokes, roasted onions and black olives, and Heather ordered Penn Cove (Washington State) mussels roasted in the wood oven with spinach, peas, and saffron. The flavors of my fish were delicate and perfect: the fish was tender and light, the asparagus were slightly lemony and the combination was just like spring. It was just what I was hoping for.



For dessert, I ordered mint-chocolate chip ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce (and a chocolate cookie), which I also tried when we ate in the Cafe with my cousin in October. Lou ordered a Pink Lady apple and Meyer lemon tart with vanilla ice cream. He and Heather each ordered glasses of a 2005 Moscato d'Asti, Bricco Quaglia, Rivetti, Italy. We also brought and thoroughly enjoyed our own bottle of Patty Green 2006 Bonshaw Pinot Noir.