Restaurant Week - Cosmos

Thursday night I headed out for another Restaurant Week adventure -- this time at Cosmos in the Graves Hotel downtown.  I had been to Cosmos one other time for a wine pairing and loved the space, so I was looking forward to this dinner.  The restaurant itself is very chic.  Retro-looking tables and chairs, high ceilings, open space, and this awesome back wall that is lit up with blue lights and has a "hanging" of mirrored circles that catch and reflect all of the light.  The space really sets the stage for a great experience.

The RW menu offered a lot of options, which I was very pleased to see.  We were first treated to an "amuse bouche" (one of my favorite phrases) of tuna tartar on a silver spoon.  My friend called "DIBS!" on my serving, and the server graciously offered to bring me a veggie-friendly item so I could participate in the pre-dinner amusements.  I couldn't have been more pleased with the offering.  It was a piece of slow baked tomato with candied pecans and an aged balsamic.  It was so amazingly delicious that I talked to the server for about ten minutes about the exact process of making that morsel of happiness.  They slow bake the tomatoes for about eight hours, then seed and skin them, and hang them in cheese cloth to drain off some of the tomato liquid (more on that later).  The candied pecans have an entirely different process, and the balsamic is aged about 12 years.  I could have eaten an entire meal of that tomato serving. 

My first course was the salad option, and it was fresh and crisp just like a good salad should be.  There were a few cherry tomatoes and a couple wedges of grapefruit tossed among the lettuces, and it was very lightly dressed, likely with a simple olive oil/balsamic dressing.  I adore super simple salads like this because you really get to appreciate the freshness of the ingredients when they are only accentuated by the light drizzle of oil and vinegar.  Don't get me wrong, a green salad with croutons and french dressing is also pretty tasty, but it has a time and a place, and it's NOT at Cosmos! 

My main course was their confit of artichokes, sweet potato gnocchi, shitake mushrooms, and wilted spinach.  I think I blacked out while I was eating this dish because it was so amazingly good.  The mushrooms were the focus of the dish, and they were perfectly cooked -- meaty but not chewy.  The artichokes and gnocchi were interspersed between the chunks of mushroom.  I really can't remember the particulars of this dish, except to say that I was extremely sad when it was all gone.  I desperately want to return and try it again. 



seriously, it's not steak!

 Our dessert course was another win for Cosmos.  Our server recommended the yogurt dessert over the chocolate option, and since I have no particular draw toward chocolate, I went with his recommendation.  The dessert arrived on a long, thin white plate, and the entire plate was evenly filled with vanilla greek yogurt.  There was a dollop of sweet blackberry sorbet that was the perfect complement to the tangy greek yogurt.  And the most surprising part of this dessert was the bits of herbed meringue sprinkled on the top of the yogurt.  I generally stay away from meringue in its dried form for some reason, but this was infused with an herb flavor that added a bit of savoriness to this sweet dessert.  The meringues had a bit of a crunch to them, but they melted into the bites of yogurt and sorbet to add a bit of an earthy vibe to each spoonful.  I've had a lot of great desserts in my day, but this was so simple in presentation and design yet so complex in flavor and texture that it ranks as one of the best. 

The best part of the night?  The tomato water.  The man who was kind of enough to talk through the ins and outs of my amuse bouche was also kind enough to let me try the infamous tomato water.  I was very curious about the tomato water that was served with their sea bass entree, and when I learned that it was a byproduct of my dinner amusement I was even more intrigued.  Fast forward a few minutes, and the guy showed up at our table with a small glass of this tomato water for me to try!  Who knew that the liquid drained off of a slow-baked tomato could be so delicious and refreshing?  Seriously!  I wouldn't go so far as to request a giant glass of this water as a beverage, but my friends and I had fun contemplating various uses for the sweet drink.

With our bill came tiny bites of passion fruit, dark chocolate truffles.  I don't generally eat dark chocolate since it's too bitter for me, but the combo of the bitter chocolate and the overly sweet and tart passion fruit filling was exceptional.  Plus it made paying the bill all the more enjoyable!

Cosmos's food was some of the best I've eaten in the Twin Cities and the service was also pretty fabulous.  It was busy, as is customary during RW, so our drinks sometimes got lost in the shuffle, but as a former server myself I did not mind that much.  Everyone seemed so excited about the food and eager to share the menu options with us, that I was caught up in the excitement.  Want to really impress someone?  Take them to Cosmos.

Sea Change Part II: A Pescetarian's Perspective

I realized that it was absolutely silly to have a review of Sea Change that focused only on their grilled cheese sandwich.  I mean c'mon!  So I asked my dear friend Jillian Dease to compile her thoughts about our lunch at Sea Change and guest post on my blog.  After I read her review, I thought about NOT posting it because her writing is going to make me look bad from now on!  But for the foodies out there who think grilled cheese is for suckers, here is Jillian to the rescue!

Sometimes it’s never about the food but about the gathering - - why we gather, where we gather, and with whom we gather.  For a recent midweek lunch date, it was about catching up and sharing some laughs with old friends at Sea Change, one of the most well-reviewed and best designed restaurants in the Twin Cities.  Big, lofted ceilings with spacious seating and hints of chartreuse surrounding the simple, elegant, and sophisticated design of the restaurant.  The gathering was perfect.

But, sometimes it’s about the gathering and the food, especially if you’re gathering at Sea Change.  I expected the food to be good, but there’s always a risk with preparing seafood, especially for a lunch crowd.  I ordered the bouillabaisse – basically, a fish stew.  It appeared in an oversized white bowl with a slice of toasted French bread smothered in some delicious aioli made with ingredients my amateur taste buds couldn’t quite discern.  Protected beneath the bread was the stew, filled with mussels, chunks of whitefish, a giant prawn, and other delectable seafood delicacies.  Each piece was cooked to perfection and tasted precisely as seafood should – fresh, rich, and meaty.  Although the broth was slightly more “fishy” tasting than I would have preferred, it satisfied the yearning for a light winter lunch:  not too heavy, but filled with savory spices (saffron, maybe?) in a rich tomato base.  Combined with the comfort of good friends and plush surroundings, the meal at Sea Change was superb.



Bouillabaisse at Sea Change



Restaurant Week 2011 - Sea Change. Or Lessons in Being Famous.

It's officially Restaurant Week in the Twin Cities and I couldn't be more excited.  I love any excuse to check out new places and revisit some of my faves, but more people seem to get on board with my dining habits during restaurant week.  My first stop was Sea Change with two of my lawyer friends, Jillian & Jessica, to belatedly celebrate a 30th birthday (Jillian's!).

I adore Sea Change.  During a previous and pre-veggie RW, I went to Sea Change with another foodie friend before we hit up a performance of Macbeth at the Guthrie.  The crisp skin arctic char on the dinner menu changed my life and the service was outstanding.  We were given plastic cups to take the last of our bottle of wine into the show and were allowed to come back and eat our dessert course after the play ended.  My experience was so positive that I was dying to go back.

The restaurant itself is fabulous.  The windows overlook the river and as far as I can tell, they have tables available for outdoor seating in nicer weather.  (As a Minnesotan, I found our 35-degree day pretty delightful, but we opted for an indoor table.)  The tables are sparkly and the artwork adds some intrigue without being ostentatious.  There is also a raw bar in the center that reminds you yes, this is a seafood restaurant.  But no, it's not Red Lobster.  Overall it's a lovely setting.  When we walked in, my friends mentioned how beautiful the restaurant is inside, to which I responded in my usual fashion, "You guys have never been here?  Well sucks to be you because this place is awesome."  I'm classy that way.  The manager heard me and apparently appreciated my uncouth comments because after we sat down, we were each treated to a complimentary glass of Cava -- a sparkling Spanish wine.  After our server realized one of my friends is with child, they brought her a glass of S. Pellegrino with orange juice, and Jessica & I split her glass of wine.  My love for Sea Changed tripled at that point, because everyone knows that the fastest way to my heart is free food or free drinks.  Sipping the sparkling drink made me feel famous, much like how Paris Hilton probably feels after her seventh free bottle of Dom Pérignon. 



 We checked out the RW menu and the regular lunch menu.  I was drawn to the grilled cheese/fries but my friends were unsure.  We asked our server about the bouillabaisse and the fish tacos, and he helped them decide on the bouillabaisse.  Our server pretty much rocked, by the way.  The food arrived and I was immediately impressed.

My grilled cheese sandwich was perfect.  Thick slices of buttery, toasted white bread filled with smoked cheddar cheese, which I dipped into the roasted tomato aioli with every bite.  I was pleasantly surprised by the grilled cheese because my restaurant experiences with this classic sandwich have been mostly negative.  The bread is either too toasted or barely toasted and more often than not the sandwich is filled with way too much cheese or a mashup of cheeses that don't really go well together.  Now I love cheese as much as the next guy, and I'd probably hit that next guy and steal his cheese too.  But I don't like massive amounts of rubbery, overly melted cheese on my sandwich.  Cheese is not to be overdone people!  A common mistake.  Sea Change did it fantastically with a few slices of smoked cheddar that were melted just enough to still make it a grilled cheese sandwich.  The aioli was the perfect addition to this sandwich, adding a little extra depth and complementing the smokiness of the cheese wonderfully.

Now on to the fries.  They were good, I'd totally eat them again, but nothing special.  The fries were the thin, lightly salted and of the lightly fried variety.  Had they been served with homemade ketchup, I would have been in heaven.  Simple fries are the perfect vehicle for delicious, homemade ketchup.  I realize that I went to a seafood restaurant and french fries should really be the least of their concerns, but I love fries so I will order and review them to my heart's content at any restaurant kind enough to serve them. 

Sea Change did not disappoint and I would highly, highly recommend this establishment to anyone who wants delicious food and excellent customer service.  And a quick word about the practices of Sea Change, because that is what first drew me to this restaurant.  The chef, Tim McKee, designed the menu focusing on sustainable seafood.  The restaurant buys from fisheries that are committed to environmentally friendly methods of gathering and farming fish. I love supporting restaurants that acknowledge their broader impact on the world and take the opportunity to make a difference.  Sea Change recognizes its environmental and ethical obligations, and for that I will always be a fan.  Well done, Sea Change.  Well done. 

So seriously, go check out Sea Change.  Like make a reservation right now.  And if you don't get it for free, you should order their Cava because it's a drink for the famous.