Our Accidental Fancy Dinner

On Saturday night we decided we'd go out for dinner, then come home and watch a movie. I had to be at work by 8:00 Sunday morning in order to staff our booth at the Buick Invitational golf tournament, so I didn't want to stay out late. We were both in the mood to try a new restaurant, so Jason said he'd read some local reviews while I was showering and getting ready.

He chose a restaurant I'd never heard of, called The Wine Sellar & Brasserie, which was in an area of town that is a mix of office buildings and industrial parks. The location seemed strange, but Jason said the reviews he read indicated that the restaurant was "hidden." I asked if we were allowed to wear jeans, because I thought that the word brasserie indicated that it was expensive. He said he didn't know what kind of restaurant it was, but he assumed it was casual.

So we found the restaurant, and sure enough it was tucked away in an office complex that was mostly dark on a Saturday night. The restaurant itself was above a wine shop called The Wine Sellar. We walked upstairs, and two things struck me - 1) we were seated by an actual maitre d'; and 2) the other customers were very dressed up.

After we were seated and opened our menus, I almost laughed out loud when I saw that there wasn't a single dinner entree for less than $34 - and most were in the $40 range. We decided we were already there, so we might as well just make the most of it (and charge it to our credit card).

High prices aside, I'm glad we stumbled across it because the food and the service were outstanding. And it was the only restaurant I've ever been to where they actually served each of us an "amuse bouche" before the first course (it's a single bite-size appetizer, and I only know what that is because they were featured on an episode of Top Chef)!

I'm supposed to get my bonus this week, so we considered it an early celebration :-)