Dinette

We visited Dinette this past Saturday and loved it. As Maggie describes it is beautifully done with earthy colors, gilt accents and rustic wood details. The mismatched dishes and (actual silver) silverware give it that feeling of kitsch with out tacky.

We started out with a lovely cheese course, and a bottle of wine from their excellent list. I appreciated that our waitress gave us the space to talk and nibble for a good 45 minutes before even looking at the rest of the menu. (Actually her only mistake came early on when she carded only my husband. This was really tacky, I understand that he has a youthful appearance and it is the law, blah, blah, blah, but we were a table of 30-40 somethings and if she had her doubts she should have asked all of us rather than to single him out.) Anyway I digress…

After the lovely cheeses we moved onto a wonderful roasted mushroom salad. The boiled egg was ground so fine it seemed more like cheese and the vinaigrette made it plate-licking worthy (though we all kept that impulse in check).

On to the main courses J and I had the gnocchi in a light broth with sweet cherry tomatoes and argula. It was light, with a nice texture but not very flavorful. It was good, but not great. S had Alaskan cod on a mountain on cauliflower puree, I didn’t try it but it looked great and S cleaned the plate so that says something in itself. G had a selection of 3 toasts. The toasts made the meal exciting as his reaction was fantastic. To be served a hearty meal of toasts with pate, gorgonzola with walnuts and fig sauce, and avocado with salted sardines and on a bread board no less sent him into culinary heaven. I tried a bite of the gorgonzola (which melted in my mouth in just the right way) and the avocado and sardine (which was creamy and salted, with a bizarre and enjoyable texture), they were delicious!

To finish off our wonderful meal we each had an aperitif for dessert, passing them around to try each others. We ordered the white port and tonic, Cognac and some French Pernod whose name I can’t recall, Lemoncello on ice and G had a whiskey, some Balley something or other. The white port was refreshing and made me long for a hot beach, the lemoncello was as it sounds, lemony, sweet and delicious, and my cognac was dynamite. Each came in a different, unique glass that was perfect for the flavor.

You can tell that they love the process and are adventurous. I think they are seeking the daring (sorry vegetarians and those of us with food allergies, we’re out) with their Dark Dining affairs where you are fed blindfolded anything they serve you and the no menu Sunday Dinners.

I highly recommend it.

I’d walked by this place 100 times and always thought it looked pretty cute, and I vaguely recalled hearing something about fancy toast, but I had no idea how adorable and delicious Dinette was until last night. First of all, the decorating is tops. Every little detail was thought of—cute round carafes and little juice glasses for wine, mismatched vintage plates, pretty colored walls with gold leafed patterns, red painted wood floors…it’s all darling.

The menu is “family style” so we ordered several things to share. The toasts are thick browned bread with a variety of interesting toppings. We ordered the variety toast plate and chose smoked salmon and marscapone, fig with anchovy paste and maybe walnuts, and tuna with white beans. We also had a delicious roasted mushroom salad with argula, parmesan cheese and truffle oil, and the “snack plate,” which included cheese, beans, tapenade, and Salumi meats. Everything was yums. I highly recommend this place. I hope they start serving brunch one day!