« The Heart of It | Main | Three New Ones »

Craftbar

Todd and I went here late Saturday afternoon, for some wine, salumi and sandwiches. I really love their menu, especially if I'm with someone who's just willing to graze on starters and maybe split a sandwich. I have to admit that I've never had a main plate here because I'm always too full on the other stuff (never had dessert here, either, which is really sad because a couple of the desserts looked remarkable).

Todd started with a New York State microbrew that he really enjoyed, and the waitress suggested a glass of German weisser burgunder for me: clear, crisp, hardly sweet at all with a full flavor and a nice bite at the end. We had a salumi assortment and really liked the coppa, hot soppressata and speck.

When Todd ordered the hen of the woods sandwich, I was at a loss. Clearly he's thinking he's ordering some kind of fowl, not a deceptively named fungus. What should I have done? I said, "Oh, I thought you didn't like mushrooms," which Todd said was snotty (my word, not his). I guess I should have waited until he had a mouthful and said, "Oh, by the way, hen of the woods is a mushroom," and laughed and laughed as he spit the offending bite into his napkin and gargled with his microbrew.

I had a tuna sandwhich, which involved three slices of crustless pullman white and two layers of not-white tuna dressed minimally, with just capers and pickled onions. It was very good and, with the right tuna, easily reproducable at home, I would think. That's what I love about this place: really good ingredients.

Comments

ha- the mushrooms episode made me miss you guys.

Todd and Kim:

Reminds me of our arrival in France in July of 1984. Menus in French and Todd spied Filet Americaine, thinking it was beef steak. Much to our surprise, it was raw ground meat with a white wine and herbs sauce.

So Todd's history of ordering gaffs goes back further than I knew. He didn't tell me that.

I hope it doesn't discourage him. He's become positively adventurous when ordering. Whole roast sea bass? Suckling pig? Venison? I'm going to have to start getting more adventurous myself, just to keep up.