Dining

As I mentioned previously, we ate last night at Suzanne's Regional Cuisine. It's a very good restaurant up on a hill on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake.

We arrived at 6:30 after an afternoon of wine tasting. The restaurant is in an old farm house- there's a couple of barns on the property and a field, of which a small part is used to grow things for the restaurant. There's a wrap-around porch with a couple of tables on it, and once we came inside we were led through a surprisingly large number of dining rooms into what looks like the newest and largest one. It still kind of resembles a living room and even has a couch and some easy chairs. I don't think it's an inn, but that part sure looked like it.

The menu is small, but there wasn't anything on it I wouldn't have eaten. The waiter came around and recited a couple of specials, one of which, a cremini mushroom stuffed with lobster (Maine is in the Finger Lakes region?) with a citrus vinaigrette. This sounded delicious, but when the waiter returned to take our order he said they were sold out. "Sold out at 6:45?" I asked incredulously. There was hardly anyone in the restaurant. Sorry, he said, sometimes when there's a large party a bunch of people order the same appetizer and the specials can go really fast.

I'd say bummer, but the potato leek soup I had instead was wonderful. It was not thick or heavy, but just slightly creamy with a few shreds of bacon and a dollop of blue cheese in the middle. Ronnie, in honor of seeing so many wonderful scallop preparations in The Trip, had scallops, which were perfectly cooked on a bed of sauteed shallots. In general, this restaurant keeps the sauces mostly on the side and lightly on the food itself. Delicious appetizers.

In the meantime, I was trying a couple of Finger Lakes Pinot Noirs. They were recognizably pinot noirs, but not made in any way that was familiar- either from France or the West Coast. Like everything else I'd had, drinkable, but not memorable. We also realized that we were hearing a kitchen timer go off repeatedly. I guess I assumed that even great chefs use timers, but I'm not used to hearing in the restaurant.

Entrees were duck for Ronnie and roast pork loin for me. Ronnie said her duck was unexceptional, that the skin wasn't crisp and the meat not as tender as expected. My roast pork, while not in a league with Tony Luke's roast pork, was very good. I'd ordered it because I'd never make it at home and was not disappointed. It was wrapped with a paper-thin slice of pancetta and lightly sauced with cremini mushrooms. Haricots verts on the side were fresh and delicious and there was some kind of fried grainy thing, maybe cheese grits, that made a nice complement.

For dessert, Ronnie had fantastic berries while I had something called profiteroles. The waiter told me what that meant (kind of like rigamaroles, but more profittable) but it's clear that this is a made up word that they thought would sound good for a dessert and I'm sure they give everyone a different answer when asked. In my case it was three little puff pastries with strawberry ice cream inside, sitting aside a pool of Belgian chocolate sauce. Wonderful way to end it.

By the end of the meal we'd heard "enjoy" enough times that it was all we could do to restrain ourselves from laughing out loud (this seems to be a regional tick- they say it at every restaurant around here every time they leave something on the table and walk away) but overall it was a fine dining experience.