City Table and M Bar

A delicious night out to celebrate one of my oldest and dearest friends’ 30th birthday could not be beat. The excellent service, delightful and flavorful food, and great wine list at Boston’s City Table were the icing on the cake.

I arrived at City Table early enough to snap a few photos of its lovely exterior.

City Table is located in the Lenox Hotel and is another example of pretty, old Boston architecture.

As it was my friend’s birthday, I picked up some flowers for her on the wayy to City Table. And since she is the sweetest, she brought ME flowers for my half birthday! :)   

It’s somewhat of a tradition that any time Julie and I get together, we drink bubbly, so we both started with Champagne cocktails. I had a St. Royale       (st germaine, mathilde cassis, champagne) which was light and bubbly but maybe a little too sweet.

For my salad course, I had the Heirloom Tomato and House Made Burrata Cheese with shaved fennel, crushed pistachios which was a lovely last hurrah for summer tomatoes. The house made Burrata was simply to die for. It was so creamy and soft with a slightly chewier outside. I could have eaten this as a light dinner and been completely satisfied.

Before our main courses came out, we ordered a bottle of wine for the four of us to share. My first choice was a La Crema Pinot Noir, but they were out, so instead we had the Emeritus Pinot Noir instead. I loved this explanation from Emeritus’ website:

The Emeritus Team has embarked on a new direction for Pinot Noir. Winemaker Don Blackburn has produced two elegant Pinot Noir wines, whose defining characteristic, he believes, is charm. Don explains that a great Pinot’s appeal is emotional and visceral; seducing with nuance rather than  complexity or intensity. Noble wines begin in the vineyard and the Team utilizes clonal selection, meticulous viticultural practices and dry farming to help the grapes achieve full ripeness without excessive sugars and extracted flavors. Then, to capture the wine’s full essence—that captivating sultry elegance—the winemaker must listen to the grape and respond with a gentle touch.

Everyone loved the wine, so it was a happy accident that the La Crema was unavailable, though I know that would have been delicious as well.

For my meal I chose the Line Caught Chatham Cod grilled corn and lobster chowder sauce, fingerling potatoes which was a lick-the-bowl-clean kind of a meal. The fish was so flaky and light, the corn sweet, and the lobster sauce rich and buttery. It was an ode to all that a New England summer has to offer, and it was just beautiful.

Too full for dessert, we decided to head around the corner to the M Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. I love love love hotel bars, and this is definitely one of Boston’s swankiest. I had a glass of Jeio Bisol Prosecco, and despite being full could not keep my hands off of the bar snacks, olives and sugary almonds.

We had so much fun, and I could have stayed out for hours if it hadn’t been a “school night” . Getting together with good friends is so reenergizing, and in all of the craziness of life, it is so important.

I hope you are having a great weekend. Mine is flying by way too fast!

Do you have any fun traditions with old friends?

Also, a more technical question. I don’t use Google Reader (and don’t plan on it), but I have been doing some blog updates and recently changed my settings. I guess now just a summary shows up, and I have gotten a few emails asking about this. I can change it back but was just wondering what everyone does for their blogs. As I don’t use reader, I actually go to each blog I read so I don’t have a preference. Just curious!