Brick House Wine DInner

Below is the first course of the Rouge et Blanc dinner I attended several weeks ago. They called it the Cheese Course. It consisted of endive leaves, blue cheese, candied pecans and a balsamic Dijon dressing. It was made to look like a flower. Quite pretty but clunky to eat. They should have crumbled the blue cheese over the leaves. Then you could have take a leaf and eaten it and everything on it in one bite. As it was I had to do it myself. Most people did not seem to know what to do. After the cheese got on the leaf and in my mouth it was wonderful. The bitterness of the endive, the sharpness of the cheese, and the sweet and nutty pecan tied together with the sweet and sharp dressing.

What followed was a lemon sorbet in a hollowed out half of the lemon. I have encounter this concept many times. What puzzled me was the placement on the menu. This sort of thing is usually near the end of the menu to cleanse your palate for dessert. It was both tart and sweet and very good.

The Fowl Course consisted of an oyster dressing patty topped by a spilt quail. I could almost swear the quail had been fried. However it was cooked it was moist and tender with excellent flavor and paired well with the oyster dressing. That had a little kick to it which helped alot.

The Fish Course consisted of blackened sea scallop over polenta with a vanilla beurre blanc. I was expecting a large diver scallop but got bay scallops. That was certainly the strangest polenta I have ever seen. The butter sauce on top of the scallops seemed to be the only thing that really worked here. Not my favorite dish of the night

The Beef Course made up for it. A tenderloin steak cooked to perfection with a port wine and cane syrup sauce. The steak was like butter with beefy flavor which seem accentuated with the sweet undertones of the sauce. The molasses flavor seemed to give it real umph.

The Dessert Course of dark chocolate mousse cake was certainly delicious but I suspect not made in house. The top seemed too perfect.

In all a fine dinner although some might disagree. The main courses were served at room temperature which does not bother but others might perceive them as cold. I am after flavor and this dinner had it so I was satisfied