We started the new year with a stomach full of alpine cuisine thanks to a prix fixe dinner at Gruner before heading to Luc Lac Kitchen for the beverages portion of the evening and to ring in the countdown. While downloading pictures from our Christmas vacation, I left the camera out of my purse, and had to resort to my dying phone camera.
The meal started out with the hors d’ouerves of a polenta “sandwich” with fontina & speck, beet-pickled egg with caviar, fried-smashed potato with smoked trout & crème fraîche, radishes with dill & pumpkin seed oil. These three little bites, along with my pairing of a sparkling rose, were a nice fancy start, of which my favorite was the polenta sandwich. We also were given complimentary bread, which included the quite doughy pretzel (housemade) and a seedy soft country bread.
Next were appetizers of a salad of blood oranges, quince, pickled beets, radicchio,
endive, citrus vinaigrette and also tarte flambee “bonne anee”- alsatian pizza with sweet onions, maine lobster, smoky bacon, fromage blanc & chives.
This was followed by entrees: the vegetarian kabocha squash dumplings, buerre noisette, black trumpet mushrooms, fried sage leaves, parmesan; and also the meat-centered sudan farms rack of lamb en chamois red wine marinade, potato-parsley root gratin with gruyere cheese, brussel sprouts. We commented on how I surely got my money’s worth of the prix fixe with that meat dish, while the dumplings though delicate and delicious were more sparse in amount. Desserts we selected the chocolate trio and an alpine cheese selection (brillat savarin with truffle), muesli cracker, quince preserves.
Luc Lac Kitchen was offering a tremendous deal of a New Year’s Eve- from 10-12pm, you could get in with a cover charge of $10 a person ($15 at the door) that would get you unlimited amounts of their four house cocktails, and the food were at happy hour prices of a mere $2 for small plates or $3 for their salads. Since I had so enjoyed the cocktails on my previous dinner visit, I was excited to try the new debut house cocktails. Yes, we tried them all:
- Socola Tam: Bacardi 8, coconut cream, cocoa, toasted curry marshmellow. My favorite of the four, maybe because part of the prep is lighting it on fire for this warm drink that is all liquid chocolate and curry like a chocolate truffle.
- Xanh Zing: tequila blanco, disaronno, jalapeno-basil, lime, disaronno foam, mescal spritz. A nice balance of tart and sweet, though I could have enjoyed a little bit more jalapeno myself, I understand not everyone likes spicy drinks.
- Saigon Sling: bombay sapphire, benedictine, cherry heering, jack fruit, lime, ango bitters. I can’t believe they had enough little glass punch teacups for everyone as this was an extremely popular request all night
- Little Ho’s Muscle Milk: drambuie, mandarin, lemon, condensed milk, full egg, champagne, ango bitters. Delicious but I couldn’t help picturing how many eggs were being ingested whenever I saw a glass of this leaving the bar
Above, you see me with the Socola Tam, then the Xanh Zing, and then the Little Ho’s Muscle Milk and Saigon Sling. Being fresh from dinner and fighting off a cold, I passed on any more snacks, but the ones I saw at the tables around me looked great. I just didn’t have any more room even as the chicken wings, mussels, and garlic string beans, even as they continued to called to me- I’ll get to them one day.
There was enough people to feel a cheery anticipatory atmosphere for the countdown while still allowing for speedy service of snacks and drinks and being comfy by enjoying seats at the tables and barstools (the cutoff was around 50 some people I believe) instead of having to stand around. It felt like a luxe private cocktail party.
Happy 2012!
[…] called a “Gratinee” instead. I’ve had this sorta of pizza before- specifically at Gruner for New Year’s when ringing in 2012, but theirs was a tarte flambee “bonne anee”- alsatian pizza with sweet onions, maine lobster, […]