Gracie's: the play-by-play
1. You will be directed to your table, sit down, and have a moment to admire the star motif from the star punch-out on the menu to the hanging star lanterns and the patterns on the cushions. You’ll also notice that the silverware is very nicked – a sign of disgusting old cheapness in any regular restaurant, but at Gracie’s, an indication of character and tradition.
2. A waitress will ask if you want tap water or some super fancy sparkling pure water. Your tongue will go on autopilot and spit out “Just iced tap water please.”
3. You’ll stare at the menu for what feels like hours, making up your mind and changing it twenty two times. One of you will stare at the menu for two minutes, look up, and ask, “Should I ask for an English menu?”
4. The waitress will come take your order. Your table will order, and after everyone is done, two people will change their minds and order something else. The waitress will appear to happily make the change and then whisk herself away to save herself from a whole table of fickle minds.
5. Bread lady will come with foccacia, beer bread, French baguette, and fennel seed raisin bread. She will encourage you to take more than one, and to eat it with the whipped butter topped with coarse salt. Focaccia will be the most delicious.
6. Another waitress will come by with tiny glass cups of watermelon juice with drops of rosemary oil, a palate cleanser between bread and appetizer.
7. Conversation will effervesce and immediately be put on hold when waiters and waitresses approach with armfuls of large white plates. You devour your poached egg and Berkshire pork belly.
8. Another palette cleanser – a lemon sorbet with the essence of lemon thyme served in the shape of a cute round bonbon on an asian soup spoon.
9. Entrees will arrive. The evening will begin to get dark, so you move the candle closer to your plate to snap a good picture.
10. The table is cleared of everything except the candle, and the cutest dessert spoon and fork will be placed in front of you.
11. Desserts arrive.
12. Hazelnut macaroons on a silver star plate arrive. You savor your small piece in five bites.
13. Valet parking guy will leave three bags of round chocolate chip cookies in your car. You share a cookie with someone because you are just too full, but the bittersweet chocolate throughout the tender cake-like cookie is very good.
Price: $25-$48 (entree), $30 prix-fixe 3-course meal
Service: +++++
Food: +++++
Will go again: YES ...maybe after subbing a few extra BUDS shifts
Best dish (so far): Slow Poached Zephyr Farms Egg
What's awesome about this place: amazing service, beautiful food, seasonal menu, "between course" surprises
