Joyeux.....

For my 24th, I spent the day eating. So pretty much in the same way I spend every day of my life, ha. J.D. took me to The Firehouse Restaurant in Oldtown Sacramento that really took me back to my days in France. Which, by the way, exactly one year ago I spent my last day in France. On April 6, 2008, I was on a plane to Germany and Spain for my Spring Break. This year's was spent working at baseball games!

But I digress. The restaurant was extremely elegant and small, with a staff of about four personally tending multiple times a course to each table. It was a neat little combination of France meets Northern California that so many eateries and wineries in this area so painstakingly try to emulate (see: the film Bottle Shock). Literally, after every course that was sat down in front of us had finished, the wait staff came and cleared out all five-ish plates that were on the table in addition to all of the silverware, regardless of whether or not it had been used. Now I know that this has the potential to sound pretentious and stuck up, but it was really nice being treated in such a manner. I've never really eaten at an establishment of this level, so it was a nice change of pace for someone like me. I think everyone deserves to be treated to a really swank meal at least once in their lives. Oh no, it's the French food snob in my genes coming out now...

So I'll leave you with descriptions of the meal, taken from the website itself!

We started off with a small endive shell placed atop a port reduction sauce filled with sand crab and pineapple, "compliments of the chef." They then gave us a basket filled with two types of bread to snack on, while I sipped my 2006 Victoria Sauvignon Blanc. Half of the bread was a sourdough type of dough flavored with asiago cheese and garlic. The other half of the basket, which was much more to my taste, was a dark wheat bread with cranberry, walnut and rosemary. Amazing!

First Course: Pears and Camembert en Croûte
(*My favorite dish of the evening)

Double-creamy camembert cheese wrapped in puff pastry and baked golden brown wine-spiced pears, blackberry gastrique and organic honeycomb

Second Course: Hearts of Romaine Caesar

Whole leaves of crisp lettuce and house-made dressing, anchovies and shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

That was followed up by a lemon cucmber sorbet for a palate cleanser before the entrée.

Third Course: Achiote Duck

Chili-citrus rubbed duck breast with gingered carrot and kohlrabi purée preserved lemon polenta and tomato-apricot relish

And for dessert we were served the restaurant's take on a Strawberry Charlotte: A bottom layer of sponge cake soaked in strawberry sauce, with lady fingers facing the outside of the pan fanned around the cake. It was all topped off with a strawberry mousse with a top layer of gelatin, strawberries and chocolate drizzles.

This has definitely been one of the most decadent birthdays ever. It was definitely a fun experience. Keep in mind I'm still recovering from that nasty two-week stomach flu, so I was only able to graze my way through the entire meal. For my stomach and his wallet's sake, I'm glad this was only a special event and doesn't happen too often ;)

Now I need to think about what to do for his next month..... Maybe a restaurant somewhere in Napa or San Francisco?!