91 Piper Street

It's a good thing we were up for another meal A Collection of Articles of it being more about friends than the place or the food...  This was their last service before shutting up for a couple of weeks as a Christmas break, and more than once we were told 'sorry, that's out', once we even saw the last serving on the table next to us, and once we couldn't get a second helping because we'd just finished the last serving.  We bear them no grudge, in case you were wondering!

From what I can tell, the restaurant used to be a normal everyday house on a corner block with a good sized garden.  What I can't tell is where the hotel part is...  Oh well.  On an awesome summer evening there was never any doubt we wanted to eat outside (so our friends dashed in around lunch time and reserved the finest table on the patio) and as we were greeted at the gate we didn't get to see much of inside, but it seems it would be a great place to 'hang out' during the winter with the open fireplace and fun spaces made up from the different rooms and it's possible that no two tables were the same.  Perhaps 25 or 30 seats?  There's a tiny bar, but it's not a go and hang for a drink type bar and although we couldn't see the chef doing his thing, we could smell what was going on. 

Outside there's only 3 or 4 tables on the patio (where we sat) and a couple more tucked around the corner on the veranda - perfect for a rainy summer evening, I would think (if the wind wasn't blowing at you...).  But no matter where you sit outside, you get to enjoy the very neat and tidy garden that someone clearly spends time in on a regular basis.  Technically, on the main road through town the traffic was so few and far between we barely noticed.

It wasn't a busy night by any stretch of the imagination so the one Server (we later learned she's the daughter of the chef and relatively new to the job) was more than enough.  A couple of times she may have been stretched, but in noway did it upset our dinner.  She knew the menu, she answered questions, she was nice to the little one, and she was not in the least bothered about our ordering process (more often than not when she came by, we hadn't quite made up our minds).

It's not a super big menu, but there's plenty to choose from and there's not a thing on it that we didn't at least consider ordering.  Most of the descriptions are fairly simple and straight to the point.  We probably could have gotten by without having to ask questions, but we did and the answers we got were helpful, but also made it a bit harder to make final selections.

Our meal went a little like this:

• Wicked Elf Pale Ale - not local. but certainly not foreign!  A fun name and ultimately a tasty brew
• Little Creatures Pale Ale - closer to local, perhaps more sweet than the other, but I could have either again, any day.
• Crowded House Sauvignon Blanc - in anticipation of heading over to NZ in a little over a week...  nah, not really, we just were in the mood for something 'out on the decky' and thought this would work.  It did.  Quite a bit of citrus without being too acidic.
• Garlic Prawns - garlicy and [big] prawny!
• Whole Oven Roasted Quail, prosciutto & sage - probably took longer to divide into 4 than it did to eat.  Yummy, couldn't stop once started...
• Saganaki, fig relish & pickles - a simple dish, built for sharing.  The relish may have been the best part.
• Egplant Chips, aioli - served like fat chips, these were so good you wanted the last one, but felt a bit guilty taking it from your friends.  Very sad when there was no second order to be had.
• Hand Cut Fries, oregano salt - fries might be the wrong word; fat chips is probably better.  Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.  Great with the salt.  Maybe better the second time around (when we couldn't get the eggplant) with the aioli which we politely asked for as an upgrade.
• Slow Braised Lamb Shank, creamy mash - if it wasn't for the eggplant chips this would have been the best dish of the night.  Fall off the bone, rich and awesome mash for collecting the sauce.
• Moroccan Date, Almond & Chocolate Cake, vanilla icecream - we didn't really need dessert, but this was good and we're glad we talked ourselves into it.

We left with very happy bellies, with very relaxed bodies and very happy hearts for having spent a wonderful (and really quite laid back) evening with friends we don't get to see often enough - but that's our fault for living on the other side of the world!

Apparently the town has 'better' restaurants than Mrs Smith's.  Next time we're in town, someone is going to have to work very hard to talk us out of coming back here to find out if that's really true - even if it is the day before they're taking a break and parts of the menu are absent!

Stay JOLLY!
DLisa, Glen & Tom

410 W State St

I think we have another enigma A Previous Article...

A place that piqued our interest on Check Please didn't make the To-Do List the list... due to it's proximity to Iowa.  But, having friends living close by we almost made it A Previous Article here earlier in the year.  Alas, the enigma issues kicked in on that evening...  Based on our friends' glowing recommendations and the clear need for people to eat here we added it to our To-Do List and started working on a plan to get a table on (mostly) our own terms.

The place is small, the place is popular, the place is hard to get in.  They don't take reservations, and only start putting names on the wait list about 5 minutes before they open the doors at 5pm.  The enigma is that they are putting out great food (and cocktails) and you really are better off for having given the place a whirl. 

So, we did come up with a plan.  It involved skipping Friday & Saturday.  It involved spending most of the day in the IowaSt Charles / Geneva area with our friends and our bicycles.  It did not include a trip to the hospital*, even though there was one...  It involved getting in line at the traditional Floridian dining time of pre 5pm.  It worked!

They're certainly experienced at handling the rush.  When the doors opened, they didn't seat the whole place at once, taking their time (certainly with us) for what appears to be controlling the orders hitting the bar and kitchen, and having no qualms about leaving you in line.  Once that rush is over they settle down and keep the place turning over and once you're at your table everything runs smoothly.  It didn't seem there was much of a line waiting outside, but we're told that when the line gets too long they'll take a cell phone number and call you when you're up, so we're not really sure how long the wait might have been had we arrived at the time we were leaving.

You'd barely know it's a restaurant from the outside, but the line out front helps you find it.  It really is quite small, but not cramped, and set up so that tables can be joined for larger groups.  There's a tiny bar right in the entrance way (and you can 'negotiate' a seat there instead of waiting for a table but there appears to be a system for that too) where the 2 guys could barely get by each other and were shaking right from the word go.  The kitchen pass is open (and there's a lot of people in a small area again) for you to peek in and it's sort of in the middle of the place splitting it in two.  Our little section was behind the bar, and they have a window that doesn't let you see them shaking, but you do get to see the pretty big range of tequilas they have.  There's also an outside area which we didn't take a look at (and may have been cranky being out there on this warmhot eveningafternoon) and a tiny area that's more like an extension of the bar than anything else out the front with the host stand - I hope she doesn't have to stand out there on crappy weather days!  Everything is neat and tidy and bright and airy and a few simple and appropriate art things on the walls.

Once we got in everything went smoothly, and really, we didn't wait all that long to get in and probably came in under that 30 minute limit we have set ourselves.  We got to sit at the important people's table?  That is, the 5 of us sat at a elevated table (bar height) which if pulled off of the wall could easily seat 8, probably 10.  It seems that they accept people order a number of times, but keep things moving along by making suggestions quite often.  Our Server knows the menu and used this knowledge to gently push us along in the ordering procession - we probably didn't need the suggestions because we had seasoned veterans with us...

There's plenty to choose from and the menu is easy enough to navigate, but if you're a little spicy-hot food averse like me, you'll have to get some assistance from your Server, but I think mostly you'll be fine - I only sulked through one dish.  Food comes out of the kitchen when each dish is ready and not as a complete order.  Certainly no drama when you know that every plate that arrives is going to get passed up and down the table so there's none of that awkward "go on, you can start with out me" stuff.  The cocktail list is fun and I think you'd be missing out on the experience if you didn't try at least one.

Our meal went pretty much like this:

• Limonada 
• Flor de Jamaica (tequila, orange, hibiscus flower & more) - orangy and flowery.
• Cassi-Pica (tequila, lemon, serrano, egg white & more) - looks good in the glass, didn't seem to last long, must be good.
• Ahuacatl (tequila, avocado, agave nectar and more) - mild, but avocado-y, kind of sweet too.
• Mojito (rum, mint & more) - exactly what you'd expect.
• Guacamole del Dia (strawberry) - a fun way to start the meal - it'll probably be different the day you are there
• Ceviche del Mes (shrimp) - a nice sweet tang.  It we ordered a second it would have all gone too...
• Tacos - they all come in 4s as standard and all completely individual.
  
  • Pescado (beer battered tilapia, red cabbage, chipotle-morita aioli & more) - crispy and soft at the same time
  • Hongos (portabello, avocado, onion & more) - vastly different to all the others we had, but no less tasty.
  • de la Costa (beer battered shrimp, napa cabbage, roasted serrano-mango salsa & more) - probably the best sauce of any we had (and I could probably argue it would work on just about all of the other tacos just as well) with the sweet tangy gentle heat thing going on.
  • Pescadillas (shredded shark, avocado-habanero pico & more) - not sure what we expected, but it was almost crab cake in texture.  Everything combined made a great taco.
  • Barriga de Puerco (slow roasted pork belly, adobo, queso fresco & more) - a great piece of pork, almost a shame it was only taco sized.
• Esquites (grilled corn, lemon-aioli & more) - this may be the best corn I've ever had that wasn't still attached to a cob.  Our friends 'made' us order it and we thank them.
• Brochetas (skewers)
  • Pica-Pica (bacon wrapped shrimp, onion, pineapple, chipotle-lime glaze) - fortunately for me the pineapple took the edge of the shrimp.  Tasty!  But right at the edge of my comfort zone.
  • Carne (beef tenderloin, onion, poblano, garlic-avocado salsa) - beautiful tender meat made better with the salsa.

I do think our group was the best size to get the most out of the menu.  Had it just been the two of us we would have so over eaten trying to get a taste of as much as possible, and had the group been larger it's probable things would have been ordered that you missed out on.  But a group of 4.5 matches up really nicely with things that mostly come in 4s!

It's an enigma! 

It's a place we'd love to go back to (there's at least 5 Tacos we didn't get to try), but we're not going to get an ulcer trying to do so.  If the opportunity arises and the planets align up just right we'll be back in a flash, but not to be dining at 5:01 on a Tuesday.  We're certainly happy for Chef Ricardo and how we'll he's doing, but we're also a little sad he's so far away and so hard to get into.

Stay JOLLY!
DPete, Kris, Jersey

* There was some blood letting as part of the day's adventures (and I do mean blood on the sidewalk letting!), but that's a story only our wounded participant can share.