MORE LIKE ASSOCIATED THAN WHOLE FOODS

Last night Meena treated me to dinner at The Grocery in Carroll Gardens. We'd talked about going for some time and with all the talk about moving to Brooklyn, recently, we thought we'd give it a shot. It's a remarkably short ride from our hood and it just felt like a nice idea for a Friday night.

The first thing we noticed was the lack of any real decor going on in the one tiny dining room. That's really no big deal. I mean, the food is the big draw, so no biggie. Lots of restaurants use minimalism to make the place feel really chic and fresh. I'm not sure that's what happened here, but whatever. It was warm in there and it was freezing outside, so who cares.

Once seated, we quickly picked a nice bottle of blanc de blancs and got on with the rest of the simple menu. Just a few items (which I like) and all of them sounded very nice. The waitress was quick to take our order (maybe even too quick?) and before we knew it, a really nice bearded man came to the table with a couple opening "tastes" for our palates.
- parsnip soup
- potato croquettes

Both were fantastic. The soup was served in a little cocktail measuring cup and the croquettes were perfect little spheres of mashed potatoes with a crispy red crust.

Meena decided she wanted to further her foie gras habit and ordered a starter that featured that hotly debated liver, homemade brioche and a onion and apple chutney sort of thing. It was good. No doubt about that. Very small, but that's ideal.

So far, so very good.

At about this point, we were given a new neighbor at the next table over. I wouldn't normally even mention the people sitting next to us at a restaurant (although, anyone who has ever eaten in New York knows your neighbors are mostly impossible to ignore. Space is a premium, you know), but these two were horrible, horrible little men. I've never been forced to attempt eating while two more idiotic losers babbled on about how much they love food. I'm obviously into food. I like other people who are into food. But these two. Well, I digress, but it's just annoying to have two jokers like that ruin all that's good about the topic of food.

Our food came out soon after and we were greeted with some mixed results.

Meena had a piece of venison cooked to medium with a buttery sweet potato mash and some brussels sprouts. She really liked the mash and the sprouts, but was a little disappointed the meat came out luke warm at best. It seemed obvious the plate had sat a little too long. I thought the potatoes had a bit too much butter, but it's a restaurant. That's what they do more often than not. I really enjoyed the meat, but I agreed with Meena - too cold.

I had a white wine risotto with duck and butternut squash topped with a crispy duck leg confit. I'm not normally a risotto fan, so it's odd for me to even order this, but I do love duck so much that I thought I'd go with the evening's special. The duck was crisp and delicious, but I'll be honest - a little underwhelming. I'll say the blame is half mine and half theirs. I should have known better and they should have made the dish better than that.

We were finally served some homemade pistachio biscotti with various citrus slices, grapes and pomegranate seeds. Very delicious. Maybe one of the best things we had all night.

At the end of the day, I was mostly disappointed in The Grocery. The place was far too expensive for the food quality. The service was average at best and oh, those awful, awful people next to us. I told Meena this was still far and away the best meal we had all week, but given the last few days of local delivery, I'm not sure that's giving this critically acclaimed spot that much credit.

I certainly wouldn't suggest this to anyone. And if you're a fan, I'm sorry. Maybe we hit it on an off night. Many folks with a palate more refined than mine have given this one two forks up. So maybe it's my bad. But for the money, I doubt we'd ever go back.

I will say this, however - it was wonderful to spend a quiet night with Meena, exploring new hoods and trying new spots. That's one thing I love more than anything about this town - there's always another place to try tomorrow.

NOTE: I jacked the photo from NYmag. Please don't sue me. I'll delete it posthaste if you've got beef, dudes.