RESTAURANT WEEK 08: Butter

For my reviews of restaurant week, I shall make them blissfully short and lacking in frilly adjectives....so tonight Jessie and I hit Butter on Lafayette. Sure, I could go here any other night, but then I'd be paying $35 for an entree instead of $35 for a 3-course dinner! They *surprisingly* did not alter the portion sizes smaller for restaurant week, and the selection was quite good. I found all my courses to be complimentary in flavor and quite tasty at that. Our decisions:

1. Beet and Basque Cheese Salad with Sherry Dressing (Jessie: Sauteed shrimp and crispy salt cod with mandarin dressing and arugula). Super yummy!
   
2. Duck Breast with roasted sweet potato, dandelion, and kumquats (Jessie: Braised Pork Osso Buco "that's a lot of pork!" with Adzuki beans, charred onions and mustard) and a shared side of white mushrooms and braised leeks with dry vermouth
   
3. Dark chocolate and salted caramel tart with vanilla ice cream (Jessie: Blood Orange upside-down cake with cognac sauce and orange sherbet) This course was my least favorite because the duck was so summmmmptuous.
   

Interesting notes about our time at Butter -- We sat underneath a spotlight in the center of the room, and I was a tad put off by this at the beginning. Then the random background music begun: Jimi Hendrix "All Along the Watchtower" followed by Kansas' "Dust in the Wind." With the latter song, the dining room quieted a bit and a consciously sad mood briefly descended, as about 3 hours prior (and 3 blocks south), Heath Ledger had been found dead. Also, the dining room reminded me of a freshly-dug grave (albeit warmer).

And yes, there was a specialty butter tasting to whet the appetite.