two birthday dinners, North Pond and Meritage

Hi,
have been meaning to post about these two meals we've had in the past week and a half, to celebrate my husband's birthday.

I chose North Pond for the two of us, last Saturday evening (made the reservation 3 weeks in advance). We'd been looking for a reason to go here and his birthday seemed like a good one. It's such a lovely space - Arts and Crafts style right on the pond with a great view of the city skyline. We sat at the bar while they got our table ready and had 2 glasses of champage - can't remember the name but it was the brut rose which was wonderful. They sat us right in the window, which I requested, and it felt like we were outside but with the shelter of a ceiling - so nice. For appetizers we had foie gras with rhubarb marmalade and the tuna and peppercress salad. The foie gras was so good - seared and with the rhubarb, it was hard not to eat more than half. Tuna was good, each bite had either caviar, capers, or shallots on them (six bites total) - but the foie gras was better. Entrees were rabbit with fava beans and arugula gnocchi and quail with "pork in crepine with braised belly, allumette potatoes, and hefe wiezen ginger sauce". Both were very good - lots of contrasting flavors and textures. If I had to choose one, the rabbit was better. Finally, we shared one dessert - I don't know what it's titled but it was a thick chocolate mousse with anise-hyssop sorbet, delicious. They wrote Happy Birthday on the plate in chocolate

We had a bottle of Gevrey-Chamberin ('02), lovely with the food. When we were done, they applied a wax to the label and were able to peel it off the bottle perfectly and then laminated it for us. They also had printed into our menus, "Happy Birthday Barrett!" which was a nice, surprising touch. The waitstaff was wonderful all around.

Total after tip was 266. I highly reccomend it.

Yesterday, a favorite Aunt took us to Meritage, which I was so looking forward to because we had a stellar meal there last fall. We shared the spinach and beet carpaccio, which had some maytag blue cheese crumbles and a few bluberries atop. It was just okay - nothing great. Aunt had Peruvian sweet onion soup which had a large crouton topped with smoked swiss. I only tried the soup part and it was very good but needed salt - our waiter brought us some right away. I had the spinach and beet ravioli (I seemed to be on spinach and beet kick) and they were also just okay. The raviolis were very thick and seemed to be filled with roasted butternut squash with some tiny bits of spinach mixed in. This dish also needed salt. The fiddleheads served with it were bright and just crispy enough. Husband had the venison special which was very good - only had one bite so I can't say a lot about it but the wine sauce surrounding it was luscious, however, this seems more like a fall dish, especially served with carrots and onions. We shared a bottle of Kunin Syrah ('03) which none of us loved, but was fine. For dessert we shared myer lemon creme brulee which was excellent. 3 of us could not finish it though, it was such a large portion.

I snuck a look at the tab, I think it was 175 without tip.

I'm not sure what's up with Meritage, but the food last fall was much better. Service was still excellent and I highly reccomend sitting outside - lots of leafy trees overhead and soft lighting/gas heaters, but even with this perk, I am not sure I would go again.