My lovely bride and two friends and I finally remembered to put The Patron on our short list and had a wonderful dinner there last evening.
We started with a "Chef's Whim" pizza as an appetizer for our table. Amber's whim last night was a perfectly crisped crust, lightly covered with goat cheese, roasted yellow peppers, roasted red peppers and roasted broccoli. It was just fabulous. Unfortunately, we also had ordered a wonderful puff pastry appetizer, also filled Capriole goat cheese, which turned out to be a bit too much for appetizers (note that the pizza is on the dinner menu, and was plenty large for one person for dinner or two to four as an appetizer).
I had a ceasar salad, which was served with fried oysters on four or five large leaves of romaine and a very, very tart chipotle dressing. The oysters were cooked to perfection - crispy, not too much batter and not carrying too much oil. The oysters inside were soft and melted in my mouth. My wife had the crispy country ham salad. She avoids fat at all costs, but said the crispiness of the country ham made it seem like there was not much fat at all (rationalization? that's OK!). I'm blanking on the details of our friends' salads, but I recall a healthy dose of blackberries that were beautiful (they reappeared on the dessert menu, too).
My entree was the Patron Paella. Holy cow. Served in a large dish with a healthy layering of saffron rice, it contained several large prawns, tiny bites of sea bass, chunks of chicken, chorizo, peas, onion, and red pepper. I can't say it was "rich," but it was certainly hearty (savory was another word my friend used). My only disappointment was that a bit more chorizo would have been nice (I only found a few small bites). My wife's scallops were beautifully prepared and very fresh. One friend had the panko chicken and mac and cheese - it was prepared perfectly with the chicken still glistening inside the panko blanket. His wife also had the paella - our portions were equally oversized and she was able to take home Monday's lunch from her portion (yes, I was a bit more piggy than that and didn't leave a lot for tomorrow).
I don't eat sugar and can't comment on the deserts, but our table had some "salty" ice cream and steamed pudding. There wasn't much left on the desert plates, so I can only assume it was more than adequate!
A couple of bottles of reasonably priced pinot noir (from a very short wine list, I should add here) brought the tab to just over $300 with tip.
One comment on service: the pacing at Patron is very, very slow. I think it is probably the way Amber sees her patrons - laid back, enjoying the funky environment and atmosphere, and having a night out with friends. We were there for nearly three and a half hours, which is a bit long, but when with friends you might only see three or four times a year, we appreciated the time at the corner table. A bit more frequent refill of the water glasses would have been nice, but overall the service is very friendly and inviting.
A really nice night, and we'll keep The Patron on the short list!