If you’re looking for dating advice, don’t read this blog for dating advice.  That being said, it’s very difficult to try and impress women with fine dining.  On one hand, she might be amazed at your taste, but on the other, she might think you’re just a pretentious snob.  Anyway, I met this girl named Nykesha in New York who I was seeing a few weekends in a row (hanging out, doing fun early date stuff), and I felt it was time to amp up the situation and do a romantic meal together.  This girl works in Midtown Manhattan, and I thought it would be cool to take her to DB Bistro Moderne, a place I almost went to with Hakeem and Chamique that looked like a good date venue*.

Before we even ordered we were given parmesan breadsticks with pesto and olive tapenade.  The breadsticks were light and fresh-tasting, and went well with the pesto and olive tapenade.  As an amuse-bouche, it was quite appealing.

We both ordered soups, and I told her that I was not a big fan of soups, as a function of my wisdom teeth surgery 13 years ago.  Nykesha said I should get over that by now.  I ordered the butternut squash soup, which pretty much was the best soup I’ve ever had.  So, I did get over it, but not because of her, it just turned out that I’ve only been eating really crappy soups for years (sorry, Au Bon Pain!).

That being said, the butternut squash soup was the best soup I had until I tried the wild mushroom soup that Nykesha ordered!  There was such an interesting blend of flavors and textures in the soup, with little quasi-dried mushrooms providing a pop with every spoonful.  I am a big fan of mushrooms, and the bold flavor was really great, almost to the point where I tried to get her to switch (with no success).

Nykesha ordered the orecchiette pasta, which is supposed to have a venison ragout, but they were willing to make vegetarian by not putting in the venison.  They did put in the butternut squash, chestnuts, and tomatoes.  The pasta was obviously very fresh, but the flavor was quite mundane and likely needed the ragout to taste good.

I ordered the “parsley impression farfalle”, which was the only dedicated vegetarian option on the menu (that wasn’t an appetizer).  Basically it was campanelle pasta with mushrooms, tomatoes, truffles and parmesan.  While I was enjoying the food and I actually much preferred my pasta dish to Nykeshas, I was slowly thinking about how much I was spending on this meal (~$30 for each pasta dish!).

Nevertheless, a meal’s got to end in dessert.  We decided to split the hazelnut marjolaine gateaux, which was frangelico cream, milk chocolate coffee mousse, devils food cake, and coffee ice cream (and a bizarrely cool chocolate wheel).  The desserts at DB Bistro Moderne are definitely the highlight of any meal.  It’s cliche to say that the meal looked to good to eat, but it actually felt weird digging into such a beautifully organized dish.

Overall, Nykesha and I had a good time, despite us both realizing that this New York-Boston thing was not going to work.  She definitely had a better time, as I ended up paying for the whole thing (stupid chivalry…).  What food is available for vegetarians at DB Bistro Moderne is fantastic and very delicious.  However, the selection is very limited, and while I had a very tasty pasta dish, modifying a dish to make it vegetarian just does not work.  Furthermore, the staff didn’t seem too keen to try and invent something for us knowing that we were vegetarian and didn’t want to have the exact same meal experience.  So, I can’t give full credit to DB Bistro Moderne for that.  However, for a fancy dining restaurant, it is reasonably priced, and the food is amazing, so I’ll give it three and a half cheese sandwiches.  I could be assuaged to give it 5 if it catered to vegetarians with a couple more entrees.

*Before you ask, SHE wanted me to record the date by blog.  Women can be vain sometimes.

DB Bistro Moderne
55 West 44th Street
New York, NY 10036

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ve probably noticed that I eat most of my meals alone. Then you’re probably thinking that I’m the really sad guy sitting in the corner of whatever restaurant you’re in by himself. I probably am, but I’m not that sad – I write a quasi-successful blog (Four followers! Thanks caketease, a-pwrs, karrkarrkarr, thisaintseaworld, and imfrompeebles!)! So, to change things up a bit, I thought I’d take a date (Yolanda) to Restaurant Week, more specifically Rialto, to try celebrity chef Jody Adams’ cuisine.

Dining while dating (or vice versa) is a complicated affair, because behavior vital to dining is often times deplorable in dating (such as stuffing your face with nachos).  So, it is an intriguing opportunity to try and romance somebody (as only Cheesesandwich.org can!) while still being a foodie douchebag blogger.  It was quite difficult just trying her to go out to dinner with me, primarily because she probably didn’t like me, and secondly because she is a vegan and therefore overprotective of the possibility of meat/dairy/egg/honey/gelatin contamination in her food.  So, I went through several set menus for Restaurant Week until I found a menu/restaurant that was friendly for both of us (and so that we wouldn’t have to order the same thing either). I told her I found a place after calling to see if they would make any vegan entrees, and I think she was impressed at my work ethic (most people usually are – the closest I have to a redeeming quality as a human would be my work ethic) and agreed to go out with me.

When we both arrived at Rialto, our table wasn’t ready, so we decided to wait at the bar, which was probably a mistake since I don’t think either of us wanted to drop $10 or more on a drink (despite the fact that we probably should have). So, we waited 15-20 minutes for our table sipping water at the bar, while the other Rialto glitterati were downing their single malt scotches and appletinis. We were finally seated next to two Indians who were playing a game over who knew the most important people at Harvard (I tried to interject by saying I know the Falafel King, but they didn’t care).

Our waitress was very tolerant to our dietary concerns, and Yolanda was even impressed that she asked whether she would be OK with having processed sugars* in the dessert (which she is). Before the meal, they laid out two pieces of bread, one for each of us, and a dipping spread of rosemary extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. I did like the layout of the spread, but the bread was so crusty that it was almost inedible. All I could think about was my mother complaining about how tough the bread is.  This is probably a weird thing to say, but everytime I have tough bread, I think of my mother because 90% of my dinner conversations with her involve her complaining about how tough bread to chew is these days.

For our starters, I had heirloom bean soup with carrot and ginger puree, while she had an artichoke, date, and radicchio salad. Portionwise, her salad did appear quite meager, but she said she enjoyed it and even offered me to try a date. I then felt terrible, as I could not offer my soup (as it had cream in it).  I tried to play it cool and started talking about how much I disliked the current weather we were having.

As the conversation reached a bubbling climax, our entrees came out. She had a plate of grilled asparagus, sautéed spinach and garlic, and effectively a vegan mini-eggplant Parmesan (roasted eggplant in a tomato sauce with onions - no cheese). That looked delicious, but I refrained from prima nochting her meal since I already still felt bad about the date (the fruit, not what was currently happening). I had three cheese ravioli in a pesto sauce, which was homemade, and delicious. My big concern with homemade pasta is that it has to be truly al dente otherwise it is soggy and impossible to eat. Unfortunately, the ravioli was just a shade past al dente, and I was clumsily fumbling with it as she was explaining her life’s aspirations.  So, all future conversations regarding that topic will have to be avoided since I was busy ravioli fumbling.

Finally, dessert. She got a lemon sorbet with blackberries, and I had a chocolate torte. Surprisingly enough, by this point I was actually stuffed, so I couldn’t really eat much food. The torte was pretty good, but I thought her lemon sorbet dish was slightly underwhelming in appearance. It basically looked like three lumps of sorbet with blackberries rolling around the plate all higgledy piggledy. I thought, seeing how everything else was plated out so artfully, the lemon sorbet looked quite slipshod. However, Yolanda loved it and said it was great.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable evening with Yolanda, and had a great meal at Rialto, and credit must be given to the staff there for being very forgiving and tolerant to two poor herbivores. They did a great job, and while the food was not the most amazing food I’ve had for the price, I will give Rialto five cheese sandwiches for providing a great atmosphere, friendly staff, and food on a regular basis that is usually vegetarian (and sometimes vegan) friendly. Many complaints about Rialto focus around the small plate portions, which is a fair point, but sometimes it is nice to still be a little hungry after a meal (especially if you’re on a date).  Regardless, I highly recommend Rialto, especially if your dining concerns are finicky, because even if their menu doesn’t offer an opportunity, they will make something outstanding for you (a hallmark of any good restaurant).

Rialto
1 Bennett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 
(617) 661-5050

*Processed sugars usually contain bone char – don’t know why, but they do.