Saturday, November 6, 2010

Wild Rosemary - save your pennies and go here

Last night, I journeyed to the strange land known as the South Hills of Pittsburgh to meet DB~ for dinner. She selected Wild Rosemary as the place to go for dinner last night. We have talked about going here for a while now and it was well worth the wait.

Wild Rosemary only has 8 to 10 tables tops, so a reservation is a must. They pretty much seat people in flights. We had the 6 pm to 7:30 pm sector. When we left, we were pretty sure the people sitting in their Lexus SUV were waiting for us to go so they could get our table.

Wild Rosemary is an absolute jewel of a restaurant. DB~ described the decor as "shabby chic". It has a refined country feel to it, with its distressed cabinetry painted cornflower blue and the presence of wooden reeds and corn-husk-looking lights in the front windows.

Our experience started with a complimentary starter of pumpkin soup, but it was the vessel that it was served in that won us over. The soup was served in a small, hollowed-out pie pumpkin and the top was cut off on a biased angle. This allowed you to use your spoon to scoop directly out of the pumpkin, rather than having to get it out of the top of the pumpkin. Just take a look at the picture, as I really screwed up that description. (Wow, what a nice looking ring on DB~'s hand!)



For dinner, DB~ went with the Sea Bass that was served in one of the largest soup bowl ever designed. The sea bass was in a risotto salad broth. There were some zucchini slices and tomato chunks intermixed with the risotto salad broth, as well. DB~ felt a little guilty leave a small chunk of the sea bass in her bowl, but it wasn't really enough to take home. Her meal also came with a few leaves of romaine lettuce topped with a ginger/soy dressing.

I wasn't feeling like having seafood last night, which was half of the Wild Rosemary menu last night, so I went boring and got the Strip Steak. DB~ chided me a little bit for my "safe" choice, but when it came to the table it was worth it. The steak, which I ordered medium-well, was done perfectly. I mean...perfectly. I hate cutting into a steak and then my plate looks like the scene of the Tate-Bianca murders. When I cut this steak, it was still juicy and just a hint of pink. The steak had a red wine demi-glaze sauce over top of the well seasoned meat, plus some fire roasted tomatoes.

On my plate, I also had a stacked scalloped potato that was thin slices of the potato with some cheese melted between each layer. I also had a salad on my plate that was called "rocket" on the menu. When we asked what that meant, our server said it was an organic arugula, but we still didn't understand why it was called rocket. Whatever, it was fantastic with the julienned tomatoes and balsamic dressing.

We spoke with one of the owners briefly after our meal (she was the hostess) and she told us that there are 3 women that own the restaurant. In addition to herself, the chef named Gloria and the baker with the blond hair are the other pieces of the triumvirate of ownership. Our table was not next to the window looking into the restaurant, but we could still see in to it. Gloria was working feverishly all night to prepare the delicious dishes.

Wild Rosemary is a locovore restaurant, meaning that they attempt to use only locally produced foods. They thanked a particular farm market on their menu last night, which I can't remember the name of right now.

The only downside is that Wild Rosemary is it's expensive. The entrees ranged from $31 for a roasted chicken dish to $43 for the majority of the dishes. It's not a place that you go every week, but definitely if you have a special occasion or are willing to splurge.

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