CHEW

So Tessa and I had one of the most amazing dinner's last night here in Jacksonville. The place was called CHEW and Tess's friend Laurie heard about it through work and went for lunch. She enjoyed it so much she had to go back for dinner the next night and invited us along.

As soon as I walked in I was instantly taken back to when I visited San Francisco last year. The reason I say that is because as you can imagine San Francisco has a lot of trendy, hip places to eat. Hell even their mall food courts are better than some restaurants here in Jax! It was an awesome moody atmosphere.

Now the menu was like I was sitting down to try the contestants food from Top Chef. They actually had Foi Gras, Honey Grastriques, and Real Truffles. It was such a great experience because we were sitting down to eat with friends that I would call "Foodies", meaning they aren't professional chefs or anything but they have a great respect for fine ingredients and fine dishes. We all made a point of ordering different dishes, appetizers and salads so we could pass them around and just try anything. Just a few examples of dishes that we sampled were Hazelnut Veal Chop, Skirt Steak au poivre, braised short ribs, stuffed halibut. Laurie got lobster bisque, and fried green tomatoes with Gorgonzola sauce on top. We also all got macaroni and cheese gratin that was amazing!

Finally, one of the best parts of dinner was the dessert!!! I got a green tea cheesecake with fresh whip cream and mint and I believe a pomegrante sauce on top. So light and delicious. Laurie got a warm pistachio crumb cake with fresh homemade vanilla bean ice cream on top. Hers was to die for. And because they owner appeared to like us and respected that fact the we appreciated all of their fine food he threw in an extra dessert of BEET SORBET! Sounds really gross doesn't it? It wasn't. I won't touch beets with a ten foot pole and I tried this and actually enjoyed it! It had the most amazing flavor combination. It really made you sit there and think about what was in the dish.

Overall our experience was awesome. The owner, John Insetta, came out and chatted with us and we learned he is from Jacksonville and that Amy seems to know everyone in this town, because within minutes they both realized they had met years ago hanging out with the same group of friends. We also learned that he has bought another closed down restaurant in Riverside and is going to be opening up a French Bistro style place.

I can't wait for its opening. Now if we can only find those dining chairs for Tess. :)

P.S. Click here to check out their lunch menu.