TL;DR – I had dinner. It was good.
Ok, first a quick blog update. I’m officially on sabbatical! I’ve gotten multiple questions on when I’m actually going to write something so I’m going to ::attempt:: to do a daily post!
I kicked off sabbatical with an amazing dinner at Next restaurant with Ana, Tim, and Andie (Tim’s climbing Kilimanjaro too, btw.) But let’s start somewhere else.
When Ana and I first moved in together we got hooked on watching the Food Network. I’m not really sure why, but it became the ‘comfort shows’ we just always had on in the background. And while Giada became her favorite, Bobby Flay was my guy.
We watched all of his shows and then started to try and make his recipes. This is the first food photo I ever took of Citrus Pork Tacos we made back in 2013. Its actually a combo Bobby/Giada recipe, which is so apropos.
His recipes became some of our favorites, from the Southwestern, Ancho Chile spices in his dinner recipes to the sweet and savory combos of his brunch recipes
Over the years, we’ve visited three of Bobby’s restaurants(yes, we’re on a first name basis): Gato, Bar Americain, and Mesa Grill. The meals were always delicious and was just fun tasting the flavors that we’ve seen for so many years through TV.
[Not pictured: Justin furiously stirring an after-dinner cappuccino until it was homogenized and thus embarrassing me]
Fast forward: Next restaurant’s theme this year are tribute menus to Julia Child, Charlie Trotter, and Bobby Flay. What are the odds that the Bobby menu occurs during my sabbatical!? So, of course we were going to go and as extremely excited to see Chef Grant’s (also first name basis) take on Flay food & flavors. It was tough, but we completed stayed away from social media so the menu would be a surprise.
But the surprises didn’t stop there – as we walked in, we were taken to the kitchen table; a private alcove with a floor to ceiling window to watch the team prepare all the food! The host said he was excited to hold this table for us and remembered us when we visited in 2020 for the Mexico City menu.
(Ok, ok. I’m not that naïve. They simply looked up our reservation profile and strategically dropped that hint as we were seated. But it was fun to pretend)
The food – and the service – was OUTSTANDING! And the view into the kitchen was such a fun way to spend the evening. Every bite was incredibly complex, the mix of flavors and textures were so unique and yet so familiar. I couldn’t imagine a better way to commence the next two months!!!
