It may seem odd that we are tagging Heath Cermaics for our meal, but this was our second dinner with Outstanding in the Field and Andrea was very interested because of the venue since we own so much Heath dishware. The event was supposed to be outside, but due to the atmospheric river bringing somewhat unseasonable rain, they did very fortunately move all of the seating indoors. It was pretty cool to see some of the demos from some of the workers.
The dinner format otherwise is communal tables with food served family style. The chef leading this was the chef from SPQR, a long established Italian restaurant on Fillmore (who also lost their Michelin star in the latest guide)
First course was ciabatta bread, mozzarella, and a fava and butter bean dip/sauce. Second course was a insalata ‘rossa’ (red) composed of raddicchio, red beets, red onions, pickled cherry, and mulled red wine vinaigrette. This was nice with a combination of acid, sweet, spice. Third coruse was the ricotta gnocchi with a truffle and mushroom bolognese and grana padano cheese. It had a nice earthy and mushroomy flavor to it.
We were already getting kind full by this point, but the next course was a grilled trout dish (what they were filleting outside), brussel sprouts, marinated cucbumer, and some dill and black garlic vinaigrette. I esp.liked the skin (and was the only one at our table who ate any) since it was very well seasoned; Andrea called it “fish bacon” which was about right.
There was a long delay before dessert because some fo the tables (including the one directly adjacent to us) didn’t receive their trout course until quite some time after us. This seems like a little bit of a misstep in service. But dessert was certainly worth the wait. it was basically a tiramisu and the coffee syrup was delicious.
We had great company to talk to at the communal table and best of all, we were able to keep our Heath dinner plates to take home!!
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