Saturday, April 28, 2012

Sure I'm the owner, but...

Last night Tuti and I made reservations at Sol. Why, you might ask, would we go to our OWN restaurant for a date night when we could go anywhere else? Hmm...that is a good question and one which I will answer shortly.

Jeff, our Chef, Has been working on a special, and we were very curious to try it out. At first glance, it seemed interesting, but I was not sold. I DID want something different though, different from the regular menu. Even when the food is great, everyone, even owners like to try different things sometimes. The special ended up being three courses, each which could be selected individually, but we decided to get all three.

The first course, the appetizer, was Cuban-spiced crab cakes. I will start by saying that I have never been big on any seafood but fish. But these, wow, they really were great. The spices in them were just right, and they had a light crispness to them on the outside that contrasted the sweet and tender Maryland Blue crabmeat inside. Two of them were placed in the center of a very nice sun made of mango aioli sauce that was just enough to go with the crab cake, but nearly left you wanting for more.



It was very, very good. We had mojitos to start with our appetizer, one traditional and one guava mojito. Both were excellent. The fresh lime and mint took these drinks to a level beyond what you'd get at an average bar.

The second course, the entree, was Harina. This is a sort of a Cuban grits. A course corn meal, it was cooked with Snowville Creamery heavy cream and plated with a Tasso Ham Cream Sauce with fresh white shoepeg corn.



Jeff made the ham. As in cured it, spiced it...made it from scratch from a fresh piece of pork. The Harina was served with pan seared shrimp, but really the Harina and sauce were the star of the plate. Creamy and flavorful, the bits of ham perfectly seasoned and just making the dish. I sipped some Ron Zacapa rum as I ate my entree. Smooth and dark, it is a very nice rum.

The biggest surprise for me, and some other tables confirmed the same experience was the crepes. Uhm, I was thinking this might be like a fruit stuffed pancake with a guava syrup. Can I say that in a word this dessert was...phenomenal. The Crepes were soft, and lightly sweet with just the perfect crispiness on the edges. The filling started with a base of our guava cream cheese and added strawberries to the mix. A guava mojito sauce was drizzled over top and a finely diced strawberry placed in the middle. We paired the dessert with a glass of Ecco Domani Moscado, a dessert wine that complimented the crepes nicely.



In short, this dessert really surprised, as did all the courses, and honestly was one of the most enjoyable meals I've had at Sol, and for sure in Athens. I really wish everyone had the opportunity to come try the food, and have the same experience that I and many other people had. It was just great. And when I was there, I didn't feel like an owner, I just felt like I was somewhere special, and that's what we want everyone to experience. I talked to a table next to me about how good everything was and they joked that sure, I was biased, but really, I wasn't. My experience at Sol that night was as new and unique as theirs, because I had never had this food either.