Sobriety: wd-50

Blondie and I went to dinner on Saturday night at wd~50, a place I've been dying to try for a long time. It's run by Wylie Dufresne, one of the leading molecular gastronomic chefs in the country. We had a great meal (and saw David Chang so it was a total foodie dream night), but damn was it hard to go out to a nice dinner without any drinking.

First, we arrived half an hour early of our reservation. This is usually SOP for us, but if you can't wait it out with a cocktail, it's a brutal 30 minutes. We literally stood there and stared at the extensive bar, D.Chang's stupid ski-hat, and each other's obviously parched lips. Thankfully they sat us before we attacked the bartender.

We had to explain to the waitress why we weren't ordering wine, and she gave us a mix of response 1 and 2.

By the time the apps were done (I had the smashed foie gras, and it was fucking unbelievable. Blondie had the chestnut soup which I loved, but a heavy dose of "mackerel powder" kind of turned her off. She's not one for powdered fish apparently), we had run out of things to talk about. 3+ years of dating got us past the first course. Awesome.

The entrees came (monkfish with Irish oats for her, duck with worcestershire spaetzel for me) and we went to town. The oats made the monkfish dish, and I devoured the duck (which tasted like fillet and was amazing, easing my debilitating hatred of fowl and poultry). But we both couldn't help but notice how the water between bites just felt wrong. Like using a golfcart at Augusta. Or Phil Collins fronting Journey.

And for dessert, cheesecake globes with lime ice cream balls and raisins, and a caramelized brioche with brown butter sorbet. highlight of the meal. It seems that "molecular gastronomy" really is at it's best for desert. But damn did we miss that Riesling or ice wine with it.

Now normally, a place like wd~50 would be cost prohibitive for us, but sans drinking, we managed to save at least $100. So far, this is the first upside of this crusade.

Overall, it was a delicious meal and cool experience even without the booze, but not something I see us ever going back for. It's just too pricey and too experiential.

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On an unrelated note, I watched TMNT (the CGI animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie from a year ago), and frickin' loved it. The 9 year old I became for that hour and a half was glued to the TV. Thoughts?