Happy hour and dinner on a Friday night can get stale. Last week, we mixed it up a bit.
Since we were arriving at different times, we met at our usual Friday haunt, the . Rather than my usual Boddingtons (cold days) or 1812 Amber (warm days), I stepped out of my mold and tried Stone's . This is a barley wine from the people who make Arrogant Bastard Ale.
Old Guardian is a smooth wine that takes on the characteristics of an Irish red – slightly hoppy, with a little bit of a chocolate overtone. It's served in a 10-oz glass, and is a slow sipper.
The three of us then went on to , where we were seduced by menus, soft jazz, and a waiter who disappeared into the kitchen for two minutes to check the specials and came out with a 15-minute soliloquy.
I'll just get right to the goods here. We shared an appetizer of a spring roll filled with king crab legs and vegetables, served with a dipping sauce of rice vinegar with jalapeño peppers.
For dinner, M— had duck in a tamarind sauce, served with rice and paired with a pinot noir recommended by our server. J— had sea scallops the size of her head, served with mixed mushrooms and rice, and paired with a raspberry framboise. I had their house duck, served in a Grand Marnier sauce over mashed potatoes, paired with a bourbon old-fashioned.
Our desserts included a raspberry sorbet, a mixed-sorbet basket, and a chocolate cake with a molten center served with burnt sugar ice cream. They make all their sorbets and ice creams in-house.
I topped the evening off with a glass of , served the good ol' way (room temperature in a glass) at , famous for its roast beef sandwiches and for not accepting tips at the bar.
Both the Blue Tusk and Clark's are on All About Beer's worldwide list of .
Highly recommended, all the way around.