dr.com Eventide Blowout Dinner

[Dave Pressley]

I want to host a dinner for some DR folk. A big, stupid, awesome dinner for 8 people where Miles, Steve and Glen can show their stuff.

A shitload of cocktails, food and wine, I'm sayin'. $150 per person (tax and gratuity included) gets you the night of your life at Eventide. I'm thinking about a Wednesday night in the next few weeks, but I want to see if we have enough willing participants that want to do this going "blind". No food allergies or dislikes will be accommodated..,I want to let Miles go off with reckless abandon.

Steve will do some funky cocktail pairings. Glen will do some wild wine pairings. It shall be awesome!

PM me if you're interested. (I'm on vacation for the next week, so forgive me if I don't reply immediately.)

(Read: Don't reply to this thread...PM's only.)

[Dave Pressley]

Looks like we have the group...now we just need to pick the date. Wednesday, January 27 at 7:00 will work wonderfully for us, now I just need to confirm that it works for the group.

Please reply to this thread to confirm your attendance:

Adam23 +1 (confirmed)

Joe H + 1 (confirmed)

Kmango +1 (confirmed)

agm & notquickdraw (confirmed)

merry mary

If you cannot attend, please post as soon as possible so someone else may take your seat at the table.

Thanks!

eta: Adam23 in place of foodtrip and added Joe H.

[KMango]

If we could bump this into February, would work better for my calendar. But if the rest of the gang is down with the 27th, I'll make it work.

Which would mean the Eventide meal one night, the New Heights master/protege dinner the following night, and not eating again until 2011.

But worst things have happened.

(like the meals i had today)

(a story for some other time)

(when someone has a violin on standby)

[agm]

The 27th works for us. Any Wednesday in February would be OK, too.

[Banco]

The 27th is OK for us. February would be more problematic.

[Dave Pressley]

Unfortunately, foodtrip had to drop out, so there are 2 seats available for anyone who can join us.

eta: seats filled!!

[Merry Mary]

Unfortunately, foodtrip had to drop out, so there are 2 seats available for anyone who can join us.

eta: seats filled!!

confirmed and can't wait

[Dave Pressley]

Adam23 +1 (confirmed)

Joe H + 1 (confirmed)

Kmango +1 (confirmed)

agm & notquickdraw (confirmed)

merry mary (confirmed)

[Dave Pressley]

Adam23 +1 (confirmed)

Joe H + 1 (confirmed)

Kmango +1 (confirmed)

agm & notquickdraw (confirmed)

merry mary (confirmed)

See you all Wednesday! Dinner will start right at 7:00, so feel free to arrive a little early and grab a cocktail in the lounge! (I'll include the pre-dinner cocktail in the price of the dinner.)

[lekkerwijn]

See you all Wednesday! Dinner will start right at 7:00, so feel free to arrive a little early and grab a cocktail in the lounge! (I'll include the pre-dinner cocktail in the price of the dinner.)

Dinner last night was truly a fantastic and memorable experience. You and your staff should be very proud. Thank you for giving us this opportunity and I hope to take advantage of this kind of hospitality again in the future.

[Dave Pressley]

It was very nice to meet all of you. I'm glad you had a good time!

[agm]

I should probably attempt a detailed write-up, but I'm still digesting and don't feel quite up to it (24 hours later). Plus, it might be a bit unfair to those who weren't there, since nothing we had is currently on the menu. I'll just say that there is some seriously good cooking going on in that kitchen, and some real creativity behind the bar as well. I was hoping for something special, and Eventide delivered. Thank you!

[Merry Mary]

This was a special evening - the food, the service, the ambiance, the company. How much fun this must have been for Eventide to do this for us - they created the dishes and the drinks for this meal. They have high standards, and in my experience, meet them every time I dine there.

Here is the menu, I will add comments later. Anyone who was there - feel free to comment.

EVENTIDE RESTAURANT

Wednesday. January 27, 2010

Pork Belly '"Reuben"

Rye crostini, achiote aioli, Alsatian cabbage

New Holland Brewing Full Circle Kolsch

Sunchoke Soup

Fried littleneck clams, ham chip, chervil oil, crispy sunchoke

Scrimshaw Pils Shandy

Headcheese Salad

Bitter greens, cherry mustard, brioche crostini

Port-fortified Lancaster Milk Stout

Spanish Mackerel Ceviche

Winter citrus salsa, avocado sorbet

Roasted Redrum

Lobster Tortelloni

Baby bok choy. smoked lobster broth, grilled lobster tail

2008 Evesham Wood Pinot Noir

Pan Roasted Squab

Farro, butternut squash, currants, liver jus

2007 Peay Scallop Shelf Pinot Noir

Bison Ribeye

Sweet potato pave. hedgehog mushrooms, roasted marrow jus

2004 Fidelitas Optu

Apple Terrine

Goat cheese lemon ice cream, apple butter caramel

Clear Creek Apple Fizz

[Joe H]

There were a number of excellent dishes including the bison ribeye. The "roasted marrow jus" was thick and lucious, a superb almost syrupy reduction. Sunchoke soup may have been the best dish of the evening, however. A sincere thanks to Eventide and to everyone at the table. A wonderful evening which included discussions of Polar bears, the Fat Duck and headcheese...

[Merry Mary]

I should have done this sooner to really get the details - next time. These dishes had a lot of elements and I tried to taste all combinations possible with each course. It was a visual feast as well as, um, a feast feast. Thank you Eventide for a well thought out and creative meal. Feast.

Pork Belly '"Reuben" - this amuse did its job - I wanted more. More and more. A bite that warmed you up for an evening of eating, tender pork belly with that tangy cabbage on top to cut the richness just so. I could eat a plate of these.

Sunchoke Soup - most at the table agreed this should be on the menu, a fresh tasting vegetable soup that you really don't find on menus, smooth but not overly creamy, the accents brightening it up when you tasted them, the perfect fried calm, the chervil oil, the bite with ham just enough of a salty bite, as for the shandy served with it, it tasted different as you progressed through the soup. It was a bit sweet for my taste at first, but paired well with the salty and acid notes of the soup, and by the end, the shandy tasted more balanced to me.

Headcheese Salad - house made and oh so delicious - texture was nice, neither too chunky nor too smooth, and the bitter greens cut through some of the richness as did the cherry mustard, but the meat flavor held its own. A rich and dark stout, yeah with a taste of port, also had a hint of cherry.

Spanish Mackerel Ceviche - true mackerel flavor, enough that I thought it was much better with the salsa to cut the oiliness, and the avocado sorbet was interesting - good interesting - taste and texture of avocado yet also texture of sorbet, so chilled avocado but even smoother than a fresh avocado. The drink that accompanied this course, something to take the place of a bloody mary, the Roasted Redrum had a base of roasted red peppers with strong citrus and cayenne. Like no beverage I have ever had before.

Lobster Tortelloni - I was getting full at this point! Al dente (spinach?) pasta, more lobster tail in the bowl, the broth smelled smoky but didn't taste overly smoked, the tomato broth pulled the elements of the dish together, bok choy provided a succulent crunch and the pale green brought together the visual elements of this dish - the green pasta and bok choy, the orange red lobster and broth. Beautiful and delicious. The pinot paired with this was light yet structured enough to stand up to this dish.

Pan Roasted Squab - though beautifully cooked - sous vide and then finished in a pan - this was my least favorite. Maybe the sous vide? Why wasted a chance for crisp skin? I would say maybe my taste buds were wearing out at this point, but the farro with butternut squash was so good and the jus tasted like Thanksgiving day. This dish was paired with a much more substantial pinot.

Bison Ribeye - mmmm, red meat, rare. Rich beef (bison?) flavor, richer jus it was practically black on the plate, the sweet potatoes were grilled and tasted simply of sweet potato, the wine was big, big enough to cut through some of the fattiness of the meat, a mix of varietals that combined into a spicy fruity mouthful.

Apple Terrine - the star here is the goat cheese lemon ice cream, ice cream with a clear taste of tangy goat cheese and the sharpness of lemon - oh yeah - and when you added some of the apple butter caramel, the sweetness turns it into a special thing. A great non-chocolate dessert. The Clear Creek Apple Fizz - can't remember the ingredients but it was sort of milky - was very sweet and very apple-y, nice to taste but I couldn't drink a whole glass. Too sweet for me.