Yesterday was our third anniversary. So to celebrate, we went to dinner at Erato in Edwardsville. I had read a lot of good reviews on some local food blogs and read how they generally tried to source ingredients as seansonl, local and as organic as possible, and rotate menu items daily. All these things, combined with some sample menus on their website, sealed the reservation. I was glad we were there on a Tuesday as patronage was rather sparse, so I'm sure we got more prompt attention from our waitress, who was incredible. I love when the front of house crowd loves the food as much as you do and it just generally amped about working there and eating. It makes their answers to your questions all the more believable. The only thing that brought down the night for me was that they were out of a couple boutique gins that I was really looking forward to trying. But I wasn't there just for gin, I'm sure I could find that somewhere else, or during a return visit. On to the food...Armed with an empty stomach and a large Baffert's gin martini, we strategically selected our dinner options. We picked four of the smaller plates to start, then had a fish and steak plate for our mains, and would decide on dessert later.
"Toad in the hole": The bacon bread made this dish. I could eat this every day three meals a day and never tire of it. Crispy, smoky bacony bread, perfectly poached egg, delicious ricotta and white truffles. There is so much right about those four ingredients coming together in a single dish. I wasn't at all shy about mopping up the last of the yolk with a piece of crust.
The shitake salad was good, but probably my least favorite; not because it wasn't that great, but because our other choices just blew it out of the water. The mushrooms were fresh and cooked and seasoned well. The greens were dressed lightly and in general, it was just a really good salad.
The pear & proscuitto crostini were awesome. In each bite, you'd chew through the pear, goat cheese and bread first, then be left with the salty, chewy proscuitto to linger. The bite of the reduced balsamic, creaminess of the cheese, sweetness of the pears and salty ham again all came together really well.
They forgot to fire our sweet potato "nachos", but we didn't really care as we were pretty giddy about the food we had already, but within a minute or two, they were at our table. They were a good take on nachos, and for five bucks they were hard to pass up. I'd order again at the bar with a beer.
Our mains came our right about the time we were finishing with the starters, and we were glad they kept the food coming. The red grouper was fresh as fresh gets, cooked perfectly and delicious. That aside, I really thing the oyster mushrooms were the star of this dish. Again, not that the fish wasn't that good, it was fantastic, but the mushrooms really shined. I'm sure adding truffle butter had something to do with that. I was ready to order a side of mushrooms to go with the steak, but got sidetracked trying to make sure Celia didn't sneak in the last bite of mushrooms.
The dry aged ribeye Celia ordered was probably the best steak I've ever eaten. Ordered med-rare, it came out a little less than that, which I was happy about. Steaks really should be ordered and eaten rare and the chef had no qualms about delivering that message loud and clear. I didn't ask exactly what the "house worchestershire" consisted of, whether it was house-made, or if it was a combination sauce of sorts, but I didn't really care. The steak spoke for itself and outshines anything you'd pay two or three times more for at any other place that prides themselves specifically on steaks. Drool.
Right before we got around to ordering dessert, the chef (John) came out to say hello, which is always a nice touch. Given we were one of only 4 or 5 other tables, he probably didn't have much else to do anyway, but still.... I actually knew him from my previous bike racing years at the tail end of the Cat.4 pack, so it was nice to say hello and see a familiar face behind this incredible meal. We ordered a lemon tart with jasmine sorbet and the molten chocolate cake with basil ice cream, along with coffee and port. I'm typically not much of a dessert person, but these were all solid as you'd expect. The highlight though, was the basil ice cream. I will order a double scoop waffle cone of this green deliciousness the next time we go.
This was an A+ dinner outing and we are definitely headed back. The preparations were simple, unpretentious and assembled in a way to let the ingredients stand on their own merit. The philosophy of seasonal, local & organic as possible is a great one by which to create an outstanding menu by which you have no choice but to get what tastes best. They also comped our desserts since it was our anniversary which was really nice.
