The first Thursday of every month is Girls’ Night Out. For well over a year, a group of us gets together at local restaurant and we eat, chat, and drink wine. May’s restaurant choice was The Bearded Frog in Shelburne, Vermont. We chose this restaurant because the menu for Vermont Restaurant Week looked interesting and many of us had never been.
chilled spring pea soup
As part of Vermont Restaurant Week, they offered a Prix Fixe menu in addition to the regular dinner menu. I selected the Chilled Spring Pea Soup, Stuffed Pork Ribeye, and Bittersweet Flourless Chocolate Cake from their special menu. I also chose to pair my dinner with a glass of the Novellum Chardonnay, Languedoc Roussillion, France 2010, which ended up being a nice choice.
The Chilled Spring Pea Soup served with lavender crème fraiche arrived with lavender seeds a top the soup with swirled crème fraiche. The lavender was pleasantly surprising and added a nice flavor to the soup. The soup was thick and creamy, but not too rich.
stuffed pork ribeye
When the Stuffed Pork Ribeye arrived, it wasn’t as pretty in presentation as the soup, but it sure was a large serving. The pork ribeye was stuffed with a sautéed mustard green and bacon stuffing and served with sweet onion potato salad and cherry onion marmalade. I loved the cherry onion marmalade, but didn't love that the pork chop was pink on the inside. It was tasty but not spectacular. The outside was cooked adequately, but I couldn't bring myself to eat the uncooked pork. The portion I ate before I discovered the uncooked pork was good. Not as fantastic as the soup and dessert but good.
bittersweet flourless chocolate cake
For dessert I chose the Bittersweet Flourless Chocolate Cake with strawberry Grand Marnier sauce, vanilla ice cream, and toasted almond toffee. The presentation was fantastic showing its gorgeous color and textures. The chocolate cake was delicious, moist, and almost cheesecake-like in consistency.
The restaurant was busy when we arrived for our reservation. I do understand it was restaurant week, but when you know you are going to be busy, the restaurant manager should ensure they have enough wait staff scheduled to handle the customers. Even when it slowed way down toward the end of the evening, our server was pretty darned slow. It took us quite a while to get our dessert, a check, and to pay.I wouldn't race back for a main course but would love to try dessert again. For the price, it was a certainly a sizeable quantity of food and the quality was above par (undercooked pork excluded).
If you want to go:
The Bearded Frog
5247 Shelburne Road
802.985.9877
Bar opens at 4:30 p.m. daily
Dinner beginning at 5 p.m. daily
Also posted on www.vtmommies.com.
Jana
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Hello Jana!
Girl’s Night Out… visions of laughing, great food and wonderful friends fill my head!
I know you’ve relocated to the west coast but, please consider grabbing all your fun VT friends (next time you’re in New England) and head to North Conway, NH. You’ haven’t lived until you spend time with friends in our beautiful space in this world!
I own a vacation rental lodge in North Conway and my town is my second favorite topic to talk about – my horses are my first!
Love your blogs and hope to meet you in person soon!
Teena
PS Google Teena – New Hampshire and you’ll find me. Like Prince and Cher, I’m on first name basis with Google!!
Thanks Teena! I need a trip back to the East Coast again stat! I’ll have to make a plan for this!