Sweetie allowed me to tag along with her to a pre-opening night at River House. Clearly, no expense was spared in the build out. The space is quite spectacular and the patio on the river we be great heading into spring and summer. The highlights are the floor to ceiling windows facing the river and a waterfall wall similar to Varanese.
We were each allowed to chose an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert.
Our appetizers were the cheese selection and a charcuterie of house cured meats. Both were very good, but the details are already lost to the mists of time.
The first entree was bacon wrapped pork tenderloin over pureed butternut squash. The second was shrimp and diver scallops over pasta, with fresh corn, edamame, and a green chilli cream sauce. Both were great. The only quibble was the green chilli flavor was somewhat lacking in the cream sauce. It really didn't detract from the meal as it was still awesome.
The desserts were a chocolate / peanut butter lava cake and a bread pudding, both al la mode and a fine finish for our meal.
I enjoyed two of their "Cardinal Sin" cocktails which is basically a riff on a Manhattan. Delicious! The closest I've had to this flavor is Majid's Tobacco Manhattan. Other than adding wine, I'm sure this will be my drink on my return.
Sweetie tried two of the 'frozen' drinks. The first, a "Blackberry Mojito". This was not a good drink. There was no taste of alcohol and the predominate flavor was ice, which was not even blended smooth. Her second drink was a "Jalapeno on a Steek". I cannot recall any ingredients. It was something of an improvement, even suffering similar issues as the Mojito.
These frozen concoctions are a large part of their cocktail list, so they are clearly meant to be a highlight. Unfortunately, the two we sampled fell short of that goal. One cannot expect perfection straight out of the gate though, so here's hoping they get those improved.
I think I'd probably hate it, too ...