I don’t know if it’s just the wintertime (I kind of doubt it), but Steve and I are content to be homebodies much of the time. My home cooking skills keep getting better, and I’m increasingly disappointed with restaurant food from many of the standard downtown Stamford spots. I always find something lacking, or that I could have made for a third of the price at home while adding a new dish to my repertoire. My biggest complaint when eating out: underseasoning. Okay, maybe I do have a smoker’s penchant for salt, but the seasoning job in non-fancy restaurants rarely meets my approval, and I feel awkward asking for salt and pepper. So Friday date nights are more often spent at home with our own custom menu, Steve playing sommelier, and me happily sipping my wine over the stove for far longer than will actually be spent eating.
All that said, we make it a point to carefully select the venue when dining out for anything more momentous than a random weeknight. We build our list of restaurants to try months in advance. Farm-to-table or locally sourced restaurants are our favorites, for the sake of simple, whole ingredients prepared well and in interesting combinations. As we sat kitchen-side at Spoon and Stable just over a week ago on a frigid but bustling Sunday evening, we recollected our last memorable dinner out. It was at FT33 in Dallas, for Steve’s birthday back in October, so we were definitely due!
The trip back to the Minneapolis area for my sister’s wedding was crazy-fun-chaotic. I spent almost two weeks with Tor and my mom on details that get pushed to the last minute when the bride contracts strep throat three weeks before her big day, wiping out all plans for productivity in that critical last month. Hoping the dust would settle and we’d have one night to ourselves post-nuptials, though, Steve did some research and discovered Spoon and Stable. I have a few other favorite and “to try” spots on my Twin Cities list, but [Read more…]
