Where the seeds were sown: Sage

For my first post on this beautiful blog (good work A. Linda!), I'm going back to where it all began - Sage in the South End.

In the dog days of August, we decided to take advantage of Restaurant Week in Boston and try a new place none of us had been before. This was a difficult decision because our Boston dining experiences mainly consisted of special occasion steakhouses (e.g. Abe and Louie's) or quickie lunch places around our respective offices (e.g. Viga). Clearly, this was a sad state of affairs that we needed to remedy but there were SO.MANY.CHOICES!

We finally settled on Sage based on various reviews (checkout the Boston board on chowhound.com or the ever popular yelp.com) and their appealing menu which had quite a few choices - something that is sorely lacking on many RW menus.

Because I am writing about an August dinner in April, my memory is not so fresh. But I suppose what I do and don't remember about a meal months later is actually particularly relevant when reviewing a restaurant, right?

Here's what stands out in my mind:
1. The gnocchi
2. The zeppole
3. The (bad) service

Since I'm making a concerted effort in my personal life to be more "peace and love," I'll start with the good. The gnocchi appetizer was incredible. Melt in your mouth perfect. Not dense and heavy but light and pillowy. I believe it was in a light marinara sauce but, really, I have no idea. I do remember those gnocchis though, I've seen them in my dreams.

What else have I seen in my dreams? The zeppole (Wikipedia informs me that this is the plural, one would be a zeppola. This explanation is somewhat irrelvant to my life as I could never eat just one). Zeppole are deep fried dough balls topped with powdered sugar. Think of it as the type of Munchkin that is probably served in heaven. It was a touch crispy on the outside but fluffy goodness on the inside. It was served with a berry compote that was the perfect sweet compliment to the pastry. I would probably go back to Sage just to get this dessert.

What's a reason I might not return to Sage? The service. Specifically, one of the worst waiters I have ever encountered at a restaurant, and not due to incompetence, due to simple rudeness.

Listen, I know that many servers, amongst others, HATE RW. The point of RW is to reduce prices to entice potential customers to try out a new restaurant. And reduced prices inevitably translate into reduced tips for waitstaff. I absolutely get it. But RW also brings in bigger crowds for many restaurants and, hey, afterall, a customer is a customer. So...hide your grumpies.

Now I will admit that I started off the meal by being a huge PITA. Accidentally. Within 3 minutes of being seated.

In a moment of temporary insanity, I propped the drink menu against the window to clear up some space on the table. It promptly fell over, knocked over my water glass, and water spilled all over the table, my mother, and myself. Yep, I'm an idiot. But I am an APOLOGETIC idiot!

During the cleanup, I apologized profusely to the waiter. Like most people, I don't enjoy making anyone's life harder. He refused to make eye contact and never said a word, not even a perfunctory, "It's okay, don't worry about it." That left me with an uncomfortable feeling but it was something I would have overlooked because I don't like cleaning up after other people either. However, he proceeded to take our food orders in a very short and disgruntled fashion and then ignored us for the entire meal. And I'm talking OVERTLY ignored us, it was painfully clear that we were being avoided. Between taking our order and handing us the check, he never came back to our table (other servers delivered our food). Despite the fact that we had ordered one bottle of wine for four people, which we finished at the beginning of our entrees, he never checked to see if we wanted to order another bottle - we would have. Amazingly, while delivering the check, he was miraculously cured of his general grumpiness and attempted to smile and make a joke. Too little too late. It was the one part of the meal that left a really bad taste in my mouth.

The best thing to come out of this strange experience? RC was born! :)

Venetian Moon - Martinis, Great Food & Cougar Hunters

Why would anyone ever wait two hours for a plate of pasta?

It can only be for the martinis and the cozy lounge atmosphere downstairs at Venetian Moon ...and the food is pretty good too.

Drinks -- Venetian Moon offers the most extensive list of fresh fruit martinis this group has ever seen and tried. Our favorites were the mardi gras (coconut and pineapple flavors), apple caramel, pomegranate, and pomegranate plum. The martinis are poured tableside and almost overflow the sugared rims.

Service -- Venetian Moon will seat you when your full party is present. The hostess did a great job keeping tabs on us as we waited for Elise (whose GPS kept resetting -- maybe no satellites cover Reading), took pity and seated us early. Our waitress did a great job delivering 6 special order dinners exactly as ordered, which surprised us based on comments from the next table over.

Appetizers -- we ordered & devoured the bruschetta, stuffed mushrooms and stuffed artichoke hearts.

Entrees -- Check out the menu online and you'll put Venetian Moon on your list of must try places. With 3 Weight Watchers ordering, we were pretty specific about what we wanted and how we wanted it prepared. The kitchen was very accomodating, and prepared our meals to our exact requests. The baked haddock with ritz crackers and shrimp was absolutely delicious, and the only meal that could honestly be consumed in one sitting. All other entrees came loaded with seafood, vegetables and delicious sauce of choice along with home made whole wheat or white fusilli pasta.

3 Desserts/6 spoons -- favorite of the group was the pear tart, followed closely by the Tiramisu and the chocolate mousse type cake.

Entertainment - Fruity martinis and white leather couches are the perfect atmosphere for ladies night out for the soccer moms in Reading, attracting the unnaturally tanned, designer t-shirt and gold chain wearing cougar hunters in the area. So much fun to watch over that last glass of wine!!! I can't wait to bring my soccer Mom friends for dinner the next time