Posh Lunch Monday: Lacroix on Rittenhouse
Posted: March 3rd, 2009 | Author: Bone | Filed under: Food, Philadelphia, Travel | Tags: Food, lacroix, lunch, Philadelphia, rittenhouse | No Comments »
It was meant to be ‘Posh Lunch Wednesday’ but since I didn’t manage that last week, and probably won’t this week, I thought I’d just take the opportunity of having a posh lunch when it presented itself. I walked to Gyro this morning with the wind whipping snow in my face, and found no other interns at the intern desks. I asked if there was an intern meeting, there wasn’t, so I headed back to my apartment, and on the way I stopped in at the Rittenhouse hotel to make a reservation at Lacroix, which is one of the best restaurants in the city, and just happens to be 3 buildings up the square from me. I asked if “there was any chance that I could get a table at lunch” and the lady behind the desk said it was very possible.
I returned to Lacroix at one to find just how possible it was. I was the only person in the restaurant. I got the best table in the restaurant, I had two waiters, the longest I waited between courses was about 1 minute, and I had a thoroughly enjoyable time. I can’t decide if the people working at the restaurant would have been happy about catering to just one person, but they probably pre-prepare everything anyway, and it’s not like I’m a troublesome customer, so they probably wouldn’t be too annoyed. The whole point of ‘Posh Lunch Monday/Wednesday/Whenever’ is to get good deals at expensive restaurants, and considering that brunch at Lacroix is $75, and dinner would be around $100 before drinks/tax/tip, I think that getting three courses there for $24 is a pretty good deal.
I may have paid $24 for the food, but I guess I did splash out when I paid $12 the cocktail. I thought it would be odd to have a beer, coke would have been immature, just tap water would be cheap, and I don’t like wine (which would probably have been near $12 for a glass anyway). That cocktail is a strawberry blonde; champagne, freshly squeezed strawberry juice, with strawberry pearls floating in it. It was pretty awesome.
First course was a creamy onion soup. You got a pretty big bowl of it too, with crispy onions, vermouth, and smoked oil on top. It tasted amazing, I don’t rank soups but I presume it’s in my top ten ever. Looking out over the cold, snow-covered park probably made it taste even better.
My main course was a risotto with gruyere cheese, baked prosciutto, roasted garlic, and asparagus. I don’t really know what the stuff on top was (it wasn’t on the menu), but it tasted like a garlicky breadcrumbs. It was maybe a little salty for my tastes, but still fantastic.
There was no choice for dessert, you get a plate with three little desserts on it, and some fruit. I didn’t manage to get a good picture of the one in the top right (moose with layers of dessicated coconut, mango sauce, pistachio… something on top, with a green-white chocolate sprig pushed into it), but I did of the other too.
This is a flourless chocolate torte. It was actually surprisingly dry; tasted good, but I expect a flourless torte to be kinda heavy (but in a good way).
I really like this photo, it looks like it could be in a food magazine. The dessert in the front of the pic is a passion fruit creme brulee. It was good, but the top didn’t have a crunch. Isn’t creme brulee meant to have a crunchy top (that you smash with the spoon)? Making that’s just how I like it.
When I got the bill ($38 with drink/taxes, a bit more with the tip), I also got a small tray of goodies in lieu of the usual mint. There was smoked & powdered almonds, dried cranberries, and some candied orange. All were good.
I don’t know where to go next week, I’m going to have get researching which restaurants are hurting in the recession.