Ella!!!!!!

Here's a clue to the SECRET PLAN.

Wow, so Ella last night.  I didn't take any pictures.  Here are some of the things:

Best Gibson ever on the menu.  Made with Junipero gin (the stuff that Anchor Brewing distills) and dry vermouth and a cipollini onion sprig.  Man, I keep thinking about buying some gin and I thought I might get Right gin, but I am getting Junipero for sure.  The difference between a good martini (or gibson) and a bad one is as wide as the Pacific Ocean.  They are two different beasts.  That reminds me, my cocktail article is in the SNR today, but it looks super weird on their website.  My intro is not there and neither is about half the article.  Check it in the print edition.

Started with a beet salad, which I had at the bar a couple of weeks ago.  First of all, it's beautifully assembled and looks like a little work of art.  A few different colors of beets, some roasted, some shaved raw.  A micro cipollini onion with tiny little roots intact.  Can you imagine cleaning the dirt out of the tiny roots to serve?  Crazy.  Micro beet greens included too.  Sitting on a pool of fenugreek aioli.  The awesome thing is that the earthy flavor of the fenugreek makes this salad like a distillation of eating the earth, if that makes sense.  It's like eating delicious dirt?  Or sticking your tongue into fresh spring garden soil?  Or going down on Mother Earth?  Have I gone too far?

Then he gave us some crudites, with romesco, and a cucumber blossom attached to a cucumber the size of a gnomes pinky.  With avocado puree for dipping.

The large portion of mussels (18 bucks) which I ordered as an entree was much too large for one person, even as an entree, so you could definitely economize by splitting that.  The mussels were very smoky because they are roasted and there is smoked olive oil in the mix.  I think they were the best I've ever had, and the roasted shishito peppers add such a wonderful bitter, verdant flavor!  The pork belly was tough and dry and didn't add a lot.

What else, oh yeah battered and fried frog legs with big sprigs of rosemary.  They were perfectly salted and the rosemary was a great flavor combo with the legs.  Thiemann is a master of salt.  This dish was so good with a delicious glass of Vouvray.

Sweetbreads with celery and dates.  The celery flavor was strong.  I love celery.

I advise you to go and focus on the vegetables and small plates.  I don't think chefs get that excited for entrees, in general.  Everyone liked their entrees but it's more fun to graze than end the meal with a big heavy slab of meat.

I had dessert in a glass: the Pedro Jimenez Lustau sherry, which was really raisin-y and viscous.  I really wanted to end the meal with the Cocchi Barolo Chinato, and I should have done that!  I always prefer the bitter to the sweet.  Just like life?

The end.  Wonderful evening.