around town: home wine kitchen

Last year our anniversary fell on a Monday night. For two people who work a traditional Monday-Friday desk job, Monday night doesn’t usually scream party night. Plus, most of the nice restaurants around town are closed on Monday nights (likely for that same reason). Then I read an article about Home Wine Kitchen’s No Menu Monday, and that seemed like a perfect anniversary spot. Unfortunately, their Monday reservations were full for the next three months. So I pushed it to the back burner and sort of forgot about it.

Lucky for us, I remembered it this year.

This year our anniversary fell on a Tuesday night (another party night!), but I thought I’d give the restaurant another try for the Monday before. Lucky for us they had one last eight o’clock reservation, and we booked it. (You have to put a non-refundable deposit down because of the unique nature of the event.)

No Menu Monday is exactly what it sounds like. There is no menu to select from, just a series of questions that you have to answer about some of your general likes or dislikes. It’s really more of a conversation about food before someone crafts it for you. You can choose to do three courses or five – we initially thought three, but then threw all Monday night caution to the wind and went for five.

images via Home Wine Kitchen

I can’t overstress how relaxed and enjoyable the whole experience is. Because you start talking about food at the beginning, the conversation seems to carry on throughout the meal. Everyone on staff is involved in your meal, and because of the size of the space and probably curiosity as well, it’s really fun to watch the food coming to the tables. No one is eating the same thing.

This was really a perfect spot to celebrate – even on a Monday night. M and I have very different ideas of a great meal in a restaurant. We’re on the same page at home, but when I eat out I like to eat things that I never prepare at home – meat and seafood and as many tree nuts as you can throw at me! M still eats vegetarian, but he really enjoys it when the menu and flavors are unique, and it’s not just the lonely meatless option with little thought put into it.

All ten (!) dishes put on our table were fantastic and well worth the one-year wait for a spot at the table, and the slow rise the following Tuesday morning.