Best Let's Get Down to Business III: the Final Battle

Friday I didn't really do anything with my parents during the day because of something weird, I was kind of working, or being trained, at least.

But I did see this:


Friday night we went to dinner at Dressler in Brooklyn because it's a great restaurant and Dad and Grandma and I liked it so much when we went there last year. We brought Collin. During the meal I was told this was my birthday party, Hooray!

We joked that my blog post about the meal could be called "No Restaurant for Old Men" because it was so dark inside Dressler and the print on the menu was so small. This is Mom trying to read the menu as best she can.


Appetizer time!

Mom had the wild mushroom and ricotta raviolini with parmesan broth, asparagus, wild mushrooms & micro radish.


Dad had the special duck confit appetizer that isn't on their online menu so I can't use their fancy words to describe it, but he really, really liked it.


Collin had the smoked trout with potato galette, herbed creme fraiche, friess, arugula, and horseradish.


And I, keeping with my current extreme pork obsession, had the braised berkshire belly with stoneground grits, grilled radicchio, and pickled watermelon(!). Magnificent!


Mom and Dad had spent the day at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Mom showed off the commemorative Statue of Liberty coin Dad got her.


Entrees! Everyone got the Braised Short Rib & Grilled Hanger Steak with horseradish whipped potato, onion jam, spinach & bordelaise.

Except for me, I got the Crescent Farms Long Island Duck with truffled forestiere potato, duck confit crepinette, spinach & cipollini onion. I thought I was getting the same duck dish as I had had the last time I was there, I wasn't. It was good, though.


Dessert! Collin had what I believe was the poppy seed blintze with oven roasted suckel pear & lemon sorbet.


Dad had the brioche bread pudding with butterscotch, Hudson valley apples & creme fraiche. Everyone said this one was the winner.


And Mom and I both had the hazelnut semifreddo with praline crunch & chocolate sorbet.


So that's the dinner we had Friday.

Saturday was Mom and Dad's last day in New York. In the morning we went to the temple and we were going to go to Momofuku for lunch but we were passing Jean Georges (you know, the restaurant that has won every single restaurant honor and accolade in the Trump International Tower by Central Park) on the way to the subway and I said, "Hey, why don't we try this place out?" So we had lunch in their very agreeable less-formal barroom. My enjoyment of the meal was hampered by the beginnings of a cold that persists to the time of the composition of this blog, but it was an fine way to end our short time together. [Mom: didn't you get a picture of Dad and I in front of the building? I think that would be nice for the blog if you could send it to me.]

UPDATE Okay, this picture looks a little different than I had imagined.


Their online menu is not helping me at all, but we partook of their budget-friendly prix fixe lunch. But for our first course we all had a cauliflower soup, they served it ingredients first and then poured on the broth.



We augmented our lunch with an additional appetizer, the salt and pepper fried calamari. It was great.


For the main Mom and Dad had the shrimp & pea risotto


I had the nice chicken with pea pods.


I can't really remember what the desserts were, Mom and I got the one that involved chocolate.


Dad got the one that didn't.


Lunch took a long time and when it ended I had to run off to my stake conference meetings (sure there were four hours of them and sure this meant I couldn't spend the rest of the afternoon with my folks before they left, but Bishop Cropper told me to sprint to the end so I'm sprinting to the end) and Mom and Dad went off to a museum and to find dinner without my guiding hand. It was great to have them here and I hope they come back soon because I'm getting hungry. And because I like them. Come on, you guys, it isn't always about my stomach.