We took a cab to Brasserie44 for our reservation for Thanksgiving dinner. The cabbie was concerned about getting stuck in that part of town due to the parade, so we agreed to walk the last few blocks. We got to the restaurant at 1:00 - it was beautiful. When we spoke to the maitre'd, he told us they were serving brunch, not the traditional Thanksgiving dinner as advertised. As you can imagine, I was plenty pissed.
Rick stepped right up to the plate, used his blackberry to find the number for Parlor (across the street from the apt, and made us a reservation for 2:00. Parlor was serving a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in addition to their regular menu. Rick decided to have the 3 course special Thanksgiving meal and I decided to join him. We were not disappointed - it was absolutely amazing.
We started with the roasted sugar squash risotto - I love risotto and I've never made it. This had the squash, just a little firm, in a large dice mixed into the risotto, with roasted pumpkin seeds and freshly grated parmesean cheese on top. Wow. So good. We brought home about half of what was served.
The entree was dark and light turkey (boneless roasted turkey) with baby carrots, green beans, traditional stuffing (yum - no sausage - just like I like it!), whipped potato, sweet potato, cranberry sauce and gravy. Woo! And there was PLENTY of turkey - quite a few sandwiches will be made with mayo that will be feeding us this week!
With both the appetizer and the entree we had a wonderful Mendicino Pinot Noir. It has a big sunflower on the label and I probably wouldn't pick it out from a wine shop just for that reason, but it was amazing - especially with the turkey and stuffing!
For dessert there were 2 options. Rick had the Pumpkin Creme Brulee with almond nugatine ice cream. I had the cranberry pear cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Both were very tasty. Yes, they were not chocolate cream pie, but they were good!
So - if you are considering Thanksgiving dinner, go to Parlor - exactly what you'd expect :)
2 days ago
