For the second year in a row Bryan and I have dined at Harvest Vine for our anniversary dinner. Both times were beyond exceptional and both times we were seating in the wine cellar and savored a delicious bottle of Spanish red. This time, however, it was a 1/2 mile walk from our house. Couldn’t have been better.
We elected a great bottle of tempranillo wine and five tapas to share. We selected two tapas of the weekly specials and three off of the seasonal menu. The bottle of wine was brought out first before the food started arriving. I will say, Harvest Vine has it down right when it comes to timing of the delivery of plates. We never had to wait super long for food to come out but we also were not rushed, they came out nearly one at a time. Our entire meal took approximately 2 hours.
First, the gazpacho was served and it was deliciously creamy, salty, complex, and perfect to cool us down from our walk to the restaurant. It had a nice kick to it and was topped with excellent olive oil.
Our second dish arrived just as we were finishing. The weekly special of the bacalao mousse stuffed peppers in a paprika sauce. Such a traditional tapa done gourmet. The pepper was soft but also fried to a crispy exterior. This contrasted well with the salty cod and potato mousse encased inside the pepper. And the plate had a surplus of delicious paprika tomato sauce (almost like a mole) for soaking in bread.
The next dish to come out was the pan roasted trout fillets and piperade. Piperade is a very traditional condiment/accompainment in Spain and basically just a mixture of silky soft caramelized bell peppers with a hint of spices. This paired very well with the delicious moist trout fillets (gloriously two on the plate) with their crisp to perfect skin. This was Bryan’s favorite dish of the night.
Our fourth dish came a little while after and was another one of the weekly specials. These were the judias verdes con tomato sauce. This dish was surprisingly delicious and generous in serving size and I forgot about this very common Spanish preparation of green beans. The tomato sauce was again perfectly smooth and delicious with a nice hint of garlic and slivers of almonds.
Our last dish probably was my favorite. The beef shoulder with salsa verde and roasted fingerling potatoes. It sounds like any other steak and potato dish you can get at other restaurants but the meat was so tender, the sear and seasonings on the outside so spot on, the salsa verde again so silky smooth and intensely flavorful, the romesco equally pleasant, and the potatoes so perfectly creamy on the inside and salty and crisp on the outside. Oh my god.
Thankfully the waiters gave us a while to linger and talk over wine before ordering our dessert. We ended up ordering two desserts, which we never do. I got the tarta de narannja which was a bitter orange cake with chocolate mousse and honeycomb brittle. He got the almond cake with lemon curd and fresh whipped cream. Both cakes were great, his was served warm, but I really loved my chocolate mousse. We shared an Americano with dessert.
All in all our meal at Harvest Vine was again totally pefect, 5 stars! I already can’t wait to come back now that we live so close. Happy three years!
Chelsea
Evolving in the Emerald City 