Whoa.
My birthday was yesterday. As usual for a Friday, I worked through lunch and then went to the gym. I'd had four teeth pulled earlier in the week and I had to force myself to go work out, with the result that I wasn't feeling all that hot when I got home. So when John asked me where I wanted to go to dinner, I nearly opted to just stay home and try to do the dinner celebration later in the weekend. However, if you've been paying attention (or simply because I never shut up about it), you know I'm on a major diet this year - a diet that allows two free days every two weeks to eat whatever you like. Naturally I had finessed the free days of this diet cycle to coincide with my birthday, and I had been craving a cheeseburger and fries, so - I put my earrings in, curled my hair, and asked to be taken to L&N. Some of you will remember that I used to work there, and their fries are one of Louisville's best-kept secrets (they double-blanch them in beef lard, the way the good Lord meant for them to be cooked). And their burger (the "Georgia" burger, named after one of their regulars) is no slouch, either. I have also been wanting to re-visit L&N now that Rick Adams is back in the saddle as executive chef - plus everyone that works there is a friend, so I knew a good time was guaranteed no matter what. But had I known that I was in for the restaurant meal of my year, I would have actually washed my hair and worn nicer earrings!
Ignoring my own advice (you've heard me pontificate "always make a reservation"), we just showed up at 7:30 - on a Friday night!
- and I was pretty worried we wouldn't be able to score a table, but at the same time I hoped we could at least dine at the bar. When we pulled into the parking lot, we got the last space, and the patio seating was fairly well taken up, but when we got inside, I saw that one of the best tables in the place was miraculously empty. Birthday luck! - and that wasn't the end of the birthday luck, either.We were seated immediately, and I made my rounds saying hello to everyone while John ordered our drinks. Remember, I was there for burger and fries; but I also wanted the cheese board as an appetizer (it's an excellent choice for dessert, too!). L&N has one of the best cheese boards in town, and the servers are extremely skilled at pairing wines or flights of wines with their current cheese offerings. So we ordered the cheese board, but brother, we didn't get the cheese board first.
Boy howdy. The kitchen sent out what our server David called an "amuse bouche", but it was more like a full-fledged appetizer. Check this out: a seared diver scallop-and-crispy sweetbread tower on a bed of peruvian purple confit potatoes (confited in duck fat!) with a port wine/veal demi-glace. This was, in a word, amazing. I have only had sweetbreads once before, in culinary school, and believe me, at the time I thought I'd never want to eat them again (I have since found that my palate has expanded nicely, and that it's important to remember that what one is presented with by another student at the end of class is not necessarily the gold standard to judge a dish or ingredient by). But I want this again right now. Lush on the tongue, gorgeous to look at - when our plates were cleared I could have stopped right there and been purring like a kitten. But we'd already ordered the cheese board, and it was time to order our entrees.
I was dead set on the burger and fries (or at least the fries!) but I decided to take my own advice on this score, and at least hear what the special was. Well, goodbye, burger - hello, special! Beef shoulder filet over the confit potatoes, braised raddichio and grilled asparagus, garnished with a fried whole soft shell crab? Are you KIDDING me? Yes, please! Twist my arm some more! Not to mention that, having already had the confit potatoes in the scallop dish, I felt perfectly justified to ask to substitute the "frites of heaven", and ask for kosher salt (I just never use table salt anymore) and mayo on the side for dipping them in.
Then out came the cheese board. They serve it on a little individual marble slab with various accoutrements, like sliced strawberries, edible flower blossoms, candied walnuts, slices of Blue Dog baguette, and this absolutely delicious little date/nut cake (reminiscent of holiday fruit cake, but MUCH better) that they make in-house. There are normally three cheeses on the slab - we got four, I reckon it's good to be the birthday girl. I'm struggling to remember, but I think they were: Humboldt Fog, which I LOVE (this is a surface ripened goat cheese with a layer of vegetable ash in the middle), a Camembert (sorry, I can't remember what variety, they could name it "Yumptious", though) Kenny's Country Bleu (Kentucky organic cheese - did you know they use vegetable rennet only in all their cheese, so they are all suitable for vegetarians? ) and St. Pat (from Cowgirl Creamery - love all their cheeses, out of Pt. Reyes Station, CA). Sorry for the excrutiating detail; I am a cheese nerd of the highest order.
John had ordered a house salad (D'Anjou pear, Pt. Reyes blue cheese, candied walnuts and Carol Friedman's Hart County, Indiana microgreens which include the occasional edible pansy for color - so beautiful!). This comes dressed with the best vinaigrette known to man: Honey-Lavender. I love this vin so much that I adapted the flavors to make an ice cream last year, and it was amazing. So he ate as much of his salad as he could salvage around the constant interruption of my fork
and I had another highball in anticipation of the main course.to be continued
