so full...

went out for a special dinner tonight. a twelfth anniversary dinner, to be exact.

and it was GOO-OOD.

our reservation was for 6:45 at Rioja, a relatively new restaurant that opened in part of the space that once housed Josephina's for a quarter century in Larimer Square.

all i can say is, "Wow." we haven't had excellent food and service like that in many years. the staff there made sure all the little details were taken care of. our dining experience was impeccable.

after our arrival, we were treated with a couple small flutes of champagne. lois was pleasantly surprised that they knew. of course, just a little note about it when i made the online reservations made it easy :)

we ended up with:

pear and caramelized onion flatbread as an appetizer...to die for! think of thin crust pizza with sweet comice pears, heady gorgonzola, smoky red onions, and fresh basil.

curried lentil soup. very smooth but not that special.

the house salad...which consisted of baby arugula, Medjool dates, gorgonzola, toasted almond vinaigrette. the spiciness of the arugula and the sweetness of the dates complemented each other well. put those two with creamy gorgonzola and the crunchy almond bits in the dressing and you have salad heaven!

pan roasted salmon with pistachio crust, roasted butternut squash, wilted chard, coconut curry sauce. a great medley of flavors...although the pistachio crust was a bit muted, the chard and coconut curry sauce were the true stars of this dish. i really liked the slight bitterness of the chard and the creamy red curry combination. makes me drool a bit just thinking about it ;)

hanger steak on a bed of caramelized onion mashed potatoes, baked gorgonzola stuffed figs, port wine reduction. now, hanger steak has become somewhat common in dining circles. you can find it in numerous restaurants in town (especially downtown). most serve it with mashed potatoes, some blue cheese or gorgonzola crumbles, a red wine or port sauce and some haricot verts (aka slim green beans). the hanger at Rioja was smoky and the gorgonzola stuffed figs made it stand out amongst the sea of downtown hanger steaks.

are you familiar with hanger steak? it's a cut that was not normally available at the store because the traditionally butchers kept it all to themselves; it was that coveted of a cut for them but unknown to the general public. now, it's showing up on many menus of 'nicer' restaurants, so you still can't get it. basically, it's part of the diaphragm muscle that hangs between the loin and the ribs. the flavor is really rich and the meat is usually very lean and tender. think of it as a poor man's tenderloin. the hanger in France is kinda like top sirloin here (in popularity).

for wine, we had a half glass of Riesling with the appetizer. and with dinner, we decided on red. a chilean red from the Maipo Valley for Lois and an american cabernet for me. very nice. we even had some dessert wine...German...Auslese...very cold and apple-ly. ooh.

even though we shoulda passed, we gave in and topped dinner off with a warm pumpkin bread pudding. talk about sublime...spiced pumpkin, dried cherries, walnut streusel, whiskey caramel sauce, pumpkin seeds. what made it even sweeter was them comping it for the occasion.

we were so spoiled tonight. i know the initial reviews for the restaurant were a bit mixed (good food but not up to par service or great service and inconsistent food) but i think the all the problems at Rioja have been ironed out. we'll definitely go back...but with a little self control in tow the next time ;)

hope you all had a fine weekend...