Another Fine (Line) Dining Experience

To recover from weeks and weeks of kitchen remodeling, Rob and I decided finally to cash in our gift certificate (thanks, Kathryn and Scott!) for the Fine Line Bistro last Saturday. It was a meal full of the sensual delights and culinary revelations that we have come to expect from this establishment.

We started with two special selections: a chilled strawberry/fig soup and a Mediterranean eggplant/barley salad. The soup was fresh and refreshing, although perhaps a bit too dessert-like for an appetizer. But the salad was a knockout, making exemplary use of nutty grain, intense mushrooms and eggplant, and briny olives, lightened by herbaceous greens, all steeped in a complex, earthy perfume.

For entreé, I had another special, the braised short-ribs, which was served with generous mound of curried sweet potatoes and a side of salad greens dressed simply with olive oil. The sweet potatoes alone would have been worth the price of the dish; sinfully rich and creamy, perfectly spiced and seasoned, with larger chunks of potato for textural variation. And the ribs! Actually a rib — a single massive rib skewering a gigantic block of slow-cooked beefy goodness. It was topped by a peach chutney, and it sat on a pool of clear, gelatinous, slightly-sweet reduction of something unidentifiable but right as rain. Fantastic.

Rob was feeling particularly red-blooded and ordered the grilled rib eye. Also beef, also first-rate, but in a completely different way. Served with caramelized onions, a red wine and veal stock reduction, and their incomparable pommes frites, the simplicity of the steak was enriched by these finishing touches, and no one element overbalanced any other.

We ended our meal with decaf americano (espresso diluted with water) and two desserts: Midge's crustless cheesecake, which was light yet rich, and the pain ou plaisir, an upscale bread pudding which I've mentioned before. Perfectly delicious!