the Bridge Road Bistro

really, oh. my. god.

when your friend wants to take you out to dinner, and your friend is pg, you scrap plans to do a chili-rubbed flat-iron steak with greek potatoes. trust me, herb and jer will be able to wait to come over on tuesday. pg's schedule is nuts. more nuts than mine most days. so if he says monday dinner, chez and i say go.

we met up and took the course of 12 fluid ounces to figure out where to go. finally naming off so many restaurants that we found one that a) wasn't downtown, b) pg hadn't been to, c) was good for a thank you dinner, and d) had the added bonus of a good friend of pg's behind the bar.

off to the bridge road bistro we went.

it was fantastic. the manager, chef, and sous chef all came out to chat us up. they were friendly, knowledgeable, and doing a damn fine job of plating excellent food.

mussels, maybe 45 seconds less cook time. venison, we'll order rare instead of mid rare next time.

you have now heard the extent of the comments made that could in any way shape or form be taken as critical.

and even then, the mussels were tasty, the broth clean and full of portugal. the venison was slightly musky, but not 'gamey' in the way that people say when they curl their lip and sneer at the thought of eating deer meat. the succotash and beet with the medallions were a fantastic pairing. and i have never loved goat cheese more in my life (in fact, i've never really eaten that much before in my life, i'm usually anti-stinky when it comes to cheese).

we had, in all, three apps, four entrees, four desserts, and three sorbets/creams. the extra dessert and sorbet/creams were courtesy of the chef. he was smiling when he said 'we have a thousand dollar ice-cream maker back there and i figured we ought to use it.'

amen brother. and thank you for the cleanest, most crisp-sweet strawberry sorbet ever. coconut-lychee was no slouch either. and dipping the mexican chocolate churros into the almond mocha ice cream AND the warm chocolate ganache? really, that did not suck.

i'm going to shut up now and just let you read the awesome.

• portuguese fisherman's mussels (saffron white wine broth)
• baked oysters new orleans (tasso ham, chevre)
• sesame fried calamari (ummm, fly here to get this)

• american snapper amandine, creole-style with red beans & rice stuffed piquillo peppers and a red pepper hollandaise
• muscovy duck breast with juniper berry and sage, whipped chive potatoes and sauteed spinach
• venison with hossenfeffer succotash, chevre, and beet
• seafood spaghettini (lobster, shrimp, crab, carrot)

• wild berry creme brulee
• mexican chocolate churros with warm ganache
• poundcake with fresh strawberries and heavy cream
• lemon and thyme tapioca with blueberry vodka compote (yeah, come get some)

• coconut lychee sorbet
• strawberry sorbet
• almond mocha ice cream