It is hard to come up with adjectives to describe Fruition; you can use the word orgasmic only so many times before it looses its impact. Every course was a visual art form with tastes that burst upon the tongue with explosions of shock and awe. One’s senses overwhelmed, all one can do is gasp and sigh. Eyes rolling back in the head are a bit dramatic I admit, but when the entire restaurant is doing it, it seems like the most natural thing in the world.
Our mystical experience began with the watercress salad. Watercress always makes me feel like a naughty goat trampling in the clover, but this preparation with the grilled asparagus, avocado, and shallots was a feast for the two-legged kind. It was bright, crisp, and harkened summer’s sweetness even on a less than spring-like day. We followed this up with the braised rabbit over homemade tagliatelle (a fancy name for fettuccine), and roasted onions. The clincher, since rabbit is relatively mild, was the veal and mushroom jus. As our waiter exclaimed proudly, “veal jus just makes everything taste better”. We couldn’t agree more.
Our prime beef entrée was a towering pyramid of culottes (a sirlon cap), choux dumplings, braised oxtail, and trumpet mushrooms all sitting on a wonderfully bright orange and sweet carrot puree. This puree, since as per usual we were splitting, became a dangerous battleground of whisking forks, flashing knives, and general exclamations of “your on my side of the plate”.
Fruitions wine list won’t break the bank and has a little something for everyone. I am on an officially announced quest to master the Rhone, so we tried a decent table wine (just a plain Cote du Rhone) from Domaine La Garrigue. No surprise that it was highly marked up at $40 a bottle, but was still inexpensive as restaurant wines go. Our waitress brought us three different wines to taste before we settled, which is always a sign of first class customer service.
While in a state of contemplative bliss we settled on the Blonde Carrot Cake for dessert. This is not your overly sweet carrot cake, but one without the cream cheese and a small dab of golden raisin compote on the side and a small scoop of cream cheese ice cream. The real find, however, was the Belle de Brillet cognac, which is a nice French cognac infused with pears from the Alsace region. It added just enough touch of sweetness without distorting the cognacs pleasing warmth. I declared henceforth that I would always have a bottle in the house for those cold winter nights.
Don’t take my word for it, and the word of the many pundits out there, go, enjoy, worship at the alter of food excellence that is fruition. You too may find yourself using orgasmic in a sentence!
