If I’m having a quick bite to eat by myself I’ll usually opt for something light and quick, but when I have plans to meet a friend, selecting a place to dine requires a careful consideration of location, price, type of cuisine and ambiance.
I particularly enjoy prix-fixe menus, when I can just glance at the menu, make my selections and get on with the serious business of catching up with whomever I’m with. On gorgeous sunny Friday afternoon recently, I chose Branch Water Tavern for its close proximity to Memorial Park, its festive, red umbrella-covered patio, and its cheekily priced $20.11 three-course prix-fixe menu by award-winning executive chef David Grossman.
While I would have preferred hearing soft music in the background, the patio was tranquil, the perfect setting to enjoy a private tête–à-tête with my girlfriend. The patio chairs were comfortable, and the sun shining through the red umbrellas cast a soft pink glow on everything, the rosy haziness relaxing and dreamlike.While we were eating, a few couples were seated, as well a group of three young women. Attire ran the gamut from relaxed to hobo-chic to preppy.
The prix-fixe offered a choice of soup or salad, three entrée choices and two dessert choices. I took a quick look at the menu and ordered the roasted beet salad, a Reuben sandwich and sticky toffee pudding. Of note, the fisherman’s stew in spicy broth, regularly $19, and the chicken pot pie, regularly $13, were also available as entrée choices.
I’d had the roasted beet salad before, an attractively conceived dish made with colorful roasted beets and topped with Humboldt goat cheese, candied pistachio and greens tossed in a light vinaigrette. The beets were prepared to the correct degree of firmness – neither too hard nor too soft – and the delicately flavored, creamy goat cheese with candied pistachios complemented the slight sweetness of the beets. I loved it just as much for lunch as when I’d had it for dinner.
The Reuben sandwich, while impressively overfilled with stacks of tasty house-cured pastrami and luscious to look at, was actually too big for me. And because I was busy chatting with my friend, the toasted bread hardened to an almost crostini-like consistency in between bites.
But the sticky toffee pudding, served with pistachio ice cream, tasted just as good as it looked, and well it should. GQ magazine’s Alan Richman put it way better than I could when he named it one of the Five Best Desserts of the Year: “Everyone is doing it. Nobody is doing it as well [as chef Grossman]. A miniature Bundt cake enhanced (as usual) with chopped dates, in a sauce tasting of butter rum and caramel, served with housemade pistachio ice cream and a small slab of pistachio brittle. It’s not this great in Great Britain.”
The value-priced $20.11 prix-fixe lunch is available for Tuesday through Friday. While the patio is always welcoming, if you prefer inside, the modern retro-hip interior inside is upscale without being too hoity-toity, an easy choice for a simple lunch date, a man-date or a business date, whatever suits your fancy.
Branch Water Tavern, 510 Shepherd south of Washington, 713-863-7777