Backing up

As I am wont to say, where does that time go?, here we are five days into the new year, and I’m not sure how that happened.  What is worse, now all those things you said “I’ll wait until next year to do….” Is NOW!!  Egad.

So, in order to remain in denial I thought I would go backwards through the Feeder adventures of the holidays.  We did have some very nice meals, both private and public. And we continue to be in reverse here, so this happened BEFORE the bourbon trail stuff..

On this trip our normal first night stopping point is Lexington, KY, mostly because we found the restaurant Jonathan’s at Gratz Park, and it provided a nice meal after a long day on the road.  I think I reported along the way that we discovered it had shuttered, disappointing but not totally unexpected, such being the case with a majority of restaurants.  They have their run, and then for a variety of reasons, either personal or business related, they move on.  So, I did a little research on the trusty (?) web, and I found a place that: a) received generally pretty good recommendations, and b) was open Sunday (which eliminated other candidates).  It is called Dudley’s on Short.  

We hustled into the Courtyard, called to assure a reserve (yes), got DFD and back into the MOMSTER to find the place.  We were aided (?) by the trusty smart phone, and after the usual passing by the place and dealing with one way streets we found it..  Downtown Lexington, although being rehabilitated, isn’t exactly a lovely place.   Anyway we parked the MOMSTER, covered the Christmas presents and walked into Dudley’s.   It is in a rehabbed old building, once home to the Northern Bank, having moved there in 2010 from their original home in Dudley’s Square.  The Bank Building was the entrance to the aristocratic Gratz Park Residential Historic District (Jonathan's... sigh). 

It naturally has very high ceilings and you enter from the street into what is “the bar” a rather large space with tables.   Passing through that you reach the stand for the “the restaurant” which we did, and were seated at one of a row of two tops against a banquette.  We were pleased that the next occupied table was at least two away, since the one next, was….NEXT, and I suspect you could easily join in or eavesdrop conversation.  The table was set with crystal and linens.  We were shortly approached by John who announced that moniker and told us he would be our server for the evening.  Reassured that he would not be bailing on us half way through the meal, he inquired about drinks.  I went for my DMOTRWAT with no further caveats, and MFO decided on wine by the glass since she would have to navigate home.

I must take a moment here to digress a bit. I have to confess that recently in a restaurant I have taken to forsake the “rocks” drinks in favor of “up”.  There is just something more graceful to a drink served in a classic clear, stemmed glass with that twist floating in it.  So maybe my dry Manhattan drink now will have to be DMUWAT.  And nowadays I usually stipulate “no Bitters”, perhaps DMUWATNB?  We were given the wine list which was quite extensive, with a fair amount of “by the glass” choices as well as many half bottles available.   It was a respectable list of wines from all over the world, and some big boys were there.  For instance you could get a glass of Silver Oak ’09 Alexander Valley Cab for a mere 20 bucks,  or maybe splurge on your dessert course with a half bottle of ’04 Chateau dYquem for 250.  As an example of the thoroughness of the list, all five of the left bank Bordeaux appellations were represented, with a 2003 Haut Brion (from Graves) topping the list at $595.  Eschewing that, she settled for an eight buck glass of Benzinger Sauvignon Blanc.

After delivering the (correct!) drinks John went through the specials, one of which was a Monchong.  A new one to the feeder I had to ask, and found out it was a white fleshed HawaiianFish, fairly delicate, and it was being prepared on wilted greens.  I ordered a Caesar salad for a starter which the menu specified it came with white anchovy, (a rare plus in my book – the fish, not necessarily the color).  MFO was a bit tired from her ten hour day behind the wheel and decided to select from the “short plates” section of the menu with a mushroom ravioli, and also another special; a “compressed beet” salad.  The salad menu also included a “wilted Brussels Sprout salad”.  Probably wilted because nobody orders the damn thing.  Ha ha..  After we ordered and settled in, a second DMU….whatever, was necessary to fill the gap before the food came.

And when it (eventually) came, it was quite good.  The salads were fine, although the compressed beet was a bit odd, and my Caesar could have used a companion for the single lonely white anchovy.   By the time the main (and short) plates arrived, the second DMU.. had disappeared so a glass of Hahn Pinot was necessary.   Both dishes were quite good, I very much enjoyed the fish.  We decided to end the evening by splitting a Molasses Cake with two spoons, which was served exactly that way, one plate, one dessert, two spoons.  A request to John (who as promised stayed the evening) brought a couple of small plates. 

The noise level was considerable (I think we’re getting too old), although we did enjoy spying on the table two away from us, with what appeared to be a couple on a date (no rings visible).  The gentleman ordered a bottle of some Rose bubbly, and the lady never touched the glass the whole evening.  Wonder how it went.

Anyway, we enjoyed the meal, and MAYBE we would return if we don’t get to Lexington on a Sunday again, there are some other interesting options to replace our dear Jonathan’s. 

Moving On

The next day brought us rain the entire way to St. Louis, finally checking in at a Town Place Suites (we seem to be Marriott addicts) in St. Charles (home of FOJTE).  With the magic of cell phones, we decided we would meet them for dinner at nearby Prasino.  We have dined there before (with them, actually) and have generally enjoyed it.  Having probably stunned you with Dudley’s, I won’t go through as much detail, but we did have a quite good meal.  FOJTE had his go to Brick Chicken, with his wife getting another fav, a bacon flatbread, MFO (surprisingly) Fish Taco’s, and I broke the meat color mode with short ribs.  Cocktails consisted of a class of Chardonnay, a Tanqueray and Tonic, MFO’s Gimlet, and since they had Plymouth Gin, I had a martini, up of course.  While I (now) enjoy my DM up, it isn’t quite as esthetically pleasing as that sparkling crystal clear martini.   And I really do like that Plymouth Gin, but drinking it day to day would require an endowment. 

Service was appealing to me, very low key and somewhat conversational..  He wasn’t our friend, but wasn’t stilted either.  For instance when we asked after a menu item of Tempeh, he replied it was new, and was made from soybeans.  Like Tofu? We asked.  Worse he replied, you wouldn’t like it.  Now, my vegetarian leaning friends, I am only reporting the conversation here..Oh FOJTE picked out what turned out to be a very nice bottle of Gary Farrell Chardonnay.  In fact it was so good we had to have a second bottle, probably urged on by the Feeder and JTE.  All was quite good, although MFO wasn’t knocked over by her fish tacos (an interesting thought), but I think fish tacos are a little hard to pull off.  Mostly we enjoyed being the our family again.

Although there is a gee whiz dinner out to go, and also the “private” meals, I think we’ll take an intermezzo here (get your own sherbert)..

And you certainly don’t have to wonder about

DFD

We were..