Several dozens of lucky diners ate like ginea pigs Tuesday night when they served as taste testers for new dishes on the menu of David’s Diner at the Hotel Pattee.
Matthew Grimsley, the hotel’s newly hired chef, worked his magic in the kitchen, putting out platesful of slow-braised short ribs, duck confit hash and eggs and beer clams and mussels, while Aaron Lenz, the Hotel Pattee general manager, and a service staff of nearly a dozen kept all turning smoothly.
“The new menu rolls out tomorrow,” said Hotel Pattee owner Tom Maxwell, “and this gives us a chance to make sure everything works just right before we go live. Matthew’s come up with some incredible new menu items, and the response has been very positive so far. People are in for a real treat.”
Dinner Tuesday night was complimentary for the happy few, with only one condition applying: that everyone in a party should order a different entree, a design meant to “allow for our kitchen to get practice on a variety of dishes,” as the menu explained.
And variety was plentiful, with seven “shareables” or appetizers to choose from, plus two soups, two salads and eight mouth-watering entrees. Three or four desserts were available for those with room remaining.
Reporting has its pleasures, and ThePerryNews.com partook of the gustatory goodness with gusto, which started with a jolly welcome served up by Cody Hartz, who seated us in a quiet nook of the Hiawatha Room.
Braised short rib lettuce wraps led off the meal, with pickled onions and pickled cabbage complementing the tender beef flesh. A serving of three crab cake sliders followed, with the super-fresh minibuns enfolding the delicate crab compound.
The seafood theme carried through to the entree of beer clams and mussels over angel hair pasta and chorizo. The beer-steamed shellfish were served with expert timing, and the pasta set off the tender flesh of the bivalves perfectly.
A creme brulee — or crème brûlée, for purists — rounded out the first-rate meal, and we broke through the carmelized sugar to the rich custard below with a spoon lifted from our cup of rich, strong coffee with satisfaction.
Sadly, one cannot eat everything, so ThePerryNews.com extended its inquiries beyond its own taste and to the palates of people at neighboring tables. All raved in unison about the high quality and rare delicacy of the dishes.
The cherry pork chop came highly recommended, for instance, as did the surf and turf, a combination of sirloin steak and crab cake under a Hollandaise sauce.
The dinner hour begins at 5 p.m. at David’s Diner in the Hotel Pattee. For more information, call 515-465-3511.
