Birthday Dinner: Starker's Restaurant

My birthday was Friday. That means I’m another year older, but more importantly, it meant BIRTHDAY DINNER!

We do four special dinners a year – anniversary, Valentine’s Day, both of our birthdays. Previous entries include Bluestem and Michael Smith. We don’t tell the other person where we’re going beforehand.

When it’s my turn to be surprised, it’s always exciting to get in the car and start running through all the possibilities based on which direction we’re headed. (We’ve also learned that varying our driving routes and taking unnecessary turns adds more fun to the game.)

We eventually landed at the Plaza, and my list narrowed considerably. We typically go somewhere we’ve never been before, no chains, with interesting food and at least a modicum of formality.

We parked, started walking, and finally I knew we would be dining at Starker’s Restaurant.

I had been looking forward to trying this place. It’s located above Restoration Hardware on 47th, which makes it easy to miss if you’re just walking by.

First things first: this restaurant is known for its wine. It has won numerous awards for its list, including Wine Spectator’s Grand Award. The list is 51 pages long, but it’s organized quite well. As you may imagine, you can order a $25 bottle or a $2500+ bottle.

We like wine, but I’ll let you guess which end of that scale we’re on. Your guess is correct. We enjoyed a nice Malbec (Madena was the label, I believe). It was tasty, as red wine tends to be.

On to the food!

I really liked the layout of the menu. On one page is the list of Starker’s Classics. These are your year-round dishes. On the other page is Seasonal Favorites, which focuses more on in-season ingredients. This list changes frequently…in fact, the current menu is different from the one from which I ordered 4 days ago. They provide a list of local providers, which is nice.

Each page offers one soup, two appetizers, two salads, and four entrees.

She started with a cream of heirloom tomato soup. It was rich, with a surprisingly strong smoky/chile flavor, topped with sourdough croutons. You could really taste the freshness of the tomatoes. I had a fresh (green) bean salad, topped with feta and lardons. I was pleased with this as well—a simple dish taken to another level by using fresh ingredients.

(I originally ordered a braised pork belly appetizer, but they were out.)

My entrée was an herb-encrusted rack of lamb. It was super juicy, cooked perfectly, and…well, let’s just say I had to discreetly pick up each bone to get the last bite off of it. It was too good to sacrifice any of it. The summer squash was, as with all the ingredients we had, fresh and delicious.

She had rainbow trout. If I had known fish could taste that good, I wouldn’t have gone most of my life not liking it. It was (you guessed it) very fresh and served with Minnesota wild rice; this last fact probably pushed my fiancée toward the dish for a taste of her homeland.

We finished by sharing a slice of chocolate pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. How can you go wrong with that? It was a great end to the meal.

The service was professional without being stuffy, and attentive without being smothering. In other words, ideal for a special meal.

I was very pleased with the restaurant overall. A couple quirks: the clientele was certainly on the older end of the spectrum. Not a problem, except that a couple of the people at the table behind us were hard of hearing and talking REALLY LOUD AT TIMES. We mostly laughed it off because some of the stuff they were talking about was kinda funny (the self-esteem movement and how it’s ruining kids, how beer doesn’t taste like it used to, how one of their neighbors thinks he's--and I quote--"hot shit").

Also, the layout is a bit odd. To get to the restrooms, you have to walk down a narrow hallway past the busy kitchen. There’s a logjam of servers there waiting for plates.

But these are minor, minor quibbles. This restaurant is about the food and wine, and they deliver both admirably. The food is a great value given the quality; most of the entrees come in at no more than $30. If you’re looking for even more of a bargain, Monday through Thursday they offer a 3-course meal for $33.

Give them a shot! You won’t be disappointed.

Know Justus, Know Eats

Sunday was her birthday. After she got back from a brunch-type event, we went hippie and hurriedly planted the trees that the Arbor Day Foundation decided should be sent and planted the first week of December. My runny nose thanks you immensely.

As is our custom, it was time for one of our special occasion dinners. These occur on our birthdays, our anniversary, and Valentine’s Day. We try to do something really nice and/or interesting, as we are budding foodies who enjoy the adventure of experiencing new tastes.

This led me to select Justus Drugstore (a restaurant) as the site for our dinner. I had heard great things here and here and here, but this place was in downtown Smithville! I was hopeful that a 70-minute round trip would be worth it.

Oh my, was it ever.

My expectations were pretty high, and they were thoroughly exceeded, surpassed, and altogether annihilated.

We started with some wonderful libations from the skilled bartender. She had the “Elixir of the Day” (yes, they have such a thing) and I had a “Go Figure”. They infuse their own spirits, which leads to things like fig-infused applejack and raspberry-infused vodka. Trust me – they were fantastic.

We were then seated. The décor is nice and modern, with a wide-open view into the kitchen. It was interesting to note that I faced calm, placid downtown Smithville while she faced the organized chaos that is a restaurant’s kitchen.

We had brandade, a mixture of smoked walleye, oil, and potatoes to spread over crostini. Fabulous. Our salads almost induced tears; hers was maytag blue cheese with roasted beets and a black walnut praline and mine had sage goat cheese wrapped in bacon on the side.

Our mains were fabulous – hers was an American Kobe flat iron steak, cooked a perfect medium rare. I had the Pork 2 Ways, which was a pork ribeye and a small cut of shoulder that was smoked, crusted, then fried. It was stunning, and it really should have been called pork 10 ways. Each time you got a little bite of the braised spinach, cabbage, apple sticks, crème with bacon powder (seriously), or sweet corn flan, it lent another dimension to the pork. This was the best pork I’ve ever had, bar none. I refer to both the preparation and the quality of meat that was used.

After we ordered dessert, the very friendly Chef Justus came out of the kitchen and spoke to us. His passion for this place is evident, and he has a lot invested: he and his wife designed and did most of the construction for the restaurant (a slide show plays near the bar showing the construction process). He believes in his food, most of which is supplied by a network of local farmers and grown organically. Everything is prepared from scratch. The quality is top-notch.

His story of how he and his wife entered the food business and how the restaurant came to be is fascinating and worth a trip by itself. Seriously, go up there and ask him or his wife! I won’t spoil it; I’ll just say it involves bike messenger-ing, art school, a flood, and the south of France among other things.

Dessert was wonderful as well – flourless chocolate torte with hazelnut mousse inside. We also did a flight of ice cream. Yeah, you heard me. They had about 12 homemade ice cream flavors that included raspberry ginger, butterscotch tarragon, and cherry balsamic. We tried four; all rocked.

If you have the chance, I implore you to go off the beaten path and visit this gem. I promise it’s worth the drive.