So, the Catbird Seat. A rather unique for Nashville restaurant setup in which there are 32 seats around a U-shaped kitchen in which you watch chef Erik Anderson prepare your meal while you watch. Or so they claim. However with a party of five, we were in a booth off to the side between the "bar" and the "restroom" and with (albeit great taste in) loud music rocking the room we couldn't hear much of what the chefs had to say as they brought over our food. That was a disappointment. After all, I wanted to watch what the chefs were doing and hear why they were doing it. So if you are a foodie, I recommend going as a party of two, not more.
We chose to do two standard pairings, two reserve pairings and one non-alcoholic pairing. Then we shared. Which turned out to be pretty smart. Not once did I prefer the reserve pairing (sorry, I'm just not that sophisticated of a palate) and in some cases I actually prefered the non-alcoholic drink. I will say, those that could do the drink at Patterson House before or after have a much higher tolerance than I do. Even without drinking my entire pairing, I was still tipsy. So glad we had the designated driver!
Some people seem to be shocked by the expense while others compare it to what it would cost were you in New York or Los Angeles. My response to this is two-fold. One, they fairly clearly indicate how much it will cost on their website so if one had just bothered to do some math, one would not be surprised. Two, we aren't in NY or LA so things shouldn't cost that. Cost of living should still mean something...
A note on allergies - they truly do mean it when they say they will do their best to accomodate food allergies. It was one of the first questions asked when we sat down and without blinking an eye they were able to work around my own allergy. These guys are good!
My second (first was the seating) biggest disappointment would be that they obviously do *not* do a new menu each night. A review on Yelp from the week prior to our attendance references several dishes we also had. To the point that I'm not sure we had anything special or unique. I know that is minor, but it still made me sad.
To sum up: I am so very grateful we had the chance to experience this. It was one of three restaurants I have really wanted to try "someday" and to have someday be now was a present I will never forget. However it is definitely not for everyone as I totally left my own comfort zone tasting some of the dishes and I'm pretty brave these days. Will we try to go again? I'm not so sure. I might just keep aiming for those other two (French Laundry and Blackberry Farm).
Below, a pictorial tour of our plates. (Pictures were taken with an iPhone in a dark restaurant. Some are much better than others...)
"snacks" consisting of island creek oyster + sea flavors, smoked pate, and country ham + coffee
continuing with "snacks" this was our hot chicken.
Next up was "salad greens" in which we had a string tied bunch of lettuce with pecan butter, huckleberry jam, and pine dressing. Yes, it was tied in a string and you ate it with your fingers. No need for silverware here. Unbelieveably tasty!
Duck liver terrine with gingerbread, honey crisp apple, creme fraiche, and celery.
Pan roasted turbot with sea urchin, roe emulsion, and lemon.
Duck breast with turnips, pistachios, and cassis.
Beef ribye with onion, spinach, and mushroom.
We don't remember what this was - between beef ribeye and tete de moine in terms of photos taken, not on our menu...
Tete de moine (a type of cheese) with walnut, cranberry, endive, and honey.
Kartoffel cake with cocao powder and vanilla creme.
An egg shell (we couldn't understand the answer to how they cut it without breaking the shell) with maple bacon, custard, and thyme.
Bourbon beads with vanilla cake, cherry crisp, oak wood ice cream, and pineapple gelee.
There was also a meyer lemon madeleine - we did not get a picture of that.
All in all, a very lovely three hour dinner which I'm very happy we did. Now if it had just not taken 90 minutes to get home that night...
