Adventures in Fine Dining

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a bit of a foodie; I also enjoy a good cocktail.  So when my husband asked me if I wanted to attend a special Grey Goose diner at Ruth Chris steak house-a 5 course meal pairing Grey Goose cocktails with each course-the answer was a resounding YES!

This event was held at Ruth Chris restaurants around the country; we attended the one in Gaithersburg, MD.  The dinner was held in a private dining room in the restaurant; there were about 25 of us altogether.  There was a "master of ceremonies", who explained how and where Grey Goose vodka was made and described each course and cocktail.  There was a short video presentation all about Grey Goose vodka before the meal began.  We had 2 servers for the room as well as a bartender, who explained how each cocktail was made and what went into each one.

The first course was a salad of thinly sliced duck breast, black mission figs, apricots, greens, and thinly sliced crispy potatoes with a light elderflower vinagrette.  This was paired with Le Grand Fizz, a cocktail of Grey Goose vodka, St. Germaine elderflower liqueur, lime juice, and garnished with lime.  This was easily my favorite course.  I loved the salad (figs are one of my favorite foods) and the cocktail was very refreshing.  I could have drank them all night!

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The second course was dry chili rubbed salmon with baked fennel.  The salmon was very moist and flavorful.  The fennel looked like a small potato cake.  It was also very good.  What I was surprised about was that my husband ate all of it.  This was not a combination I would have ever imagined him trying a year ago.  I guess that's a testament to how good the food is at Ruth Chris!

The drink paired with this course was a pear and cardamom collins.  I don't know all of the ingredients, but there definitely was Grey Goose vodka and cardamom syrup.  It was garnished with a thinly sliced pear.  It was wonderful!

The third course was chicken breast stuffed with dried fruit and thyme with roasted fingerling potatoes.  This was not a full chicken breast-that didn't make it any less delicious.

The drink paired with this course was Le Melon Mule.  Grey Goose Melon vodka with ginger beer and lime.  I have never been a huge fan of mules (the drink, not the animal; I have no experience with the animal) and this concoction was no different.  For me, it was too sour and too strong. I have decided I am not a fan of ginger beer.  I did, however, eat the cantaloupe ball and piece of candied ginger it was garnished with-that I liked.

The entree course was a petit filet with parmesan crusted cauliflower, served with sides of chevre & bleu mac and cheese and fire roasted corn.  I'm picky about corn and this rendering of it was not appealing to me, but my husband enjoyed it.  He also loved the mac and cheese and he does not like mac and cheese; again, a testament to the chefs at Ruth Chris.  I liked the mac and cheese, but it was nothing earth shattering.

The steak, however, was fabulous.  Perfect medium rare, melted in your mouth.  Hey, this is a well known steak restaurant-they better know how to do steak!  The cauliflower was very good as well.

The drink paired with this course was a big ass martini.  That's my description, not theirs.  Because it was!  It was Ruth Chris' famous dry martini, with Grey Goose vodka, olive juice, and a big olive stuffed with bleu cheese.  Very big, very strong.  If I had this drink at the beginning of the meal and could sip it throughout, I would have liked it.  But after a little more than 2 drinks, I could have taken a nap on the floor.  So I took a few sips, ate the olive, and left it at that.

The dessert course was probably the most disappointing.  It was a small chocolate cake with almonds and chocolate almond bark.  No real wow factor and the bark was just simply too dense for me.  It did have almonds and dried fruit in it; the cake was just chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream.

The drink paired with it was, honestly, awful.  I think it was called Francois' coffee.  It was Grey Goose Cherry Noir vodka, kahlua, coffee, and maybe something else.  I thought the coffee would be hot; I was wrong.  It was just....blecch.  And we weren't the only ones who thought so.  As we looked around the room, we noticed the dessert drink going largely untouched.  Sean said it tasted like cough syrup-I think that's a pretty accurate description.

All in all, it was a wonderful dining experience.  Don't worry-my husband did not drink all of his drinks, so he was perfectly fit to drive home.  And luckily there was a Starbucks across the street.  The dinner cost $95 per person plus tip (which they added in for us) and that may seem expensive, but the food was delicious and these were full sized drinks, so I would say it was totally worth it.

Our servers and bartender were wonderful-very professional, very friendly, very accomodating.  The master of ceremonies....I can't say I was impressed with him.  He admitted he was more of a "wine guy" and didn't know that much about vodka.  He was reading off of a tablet device, so it couldn't have been that hard.  But he put no enthusiasm into the descriptions and stumbled over the presentation somewhat.  Worse, when he joined a table to dine, he positioned his chair that almost totally cut off a major walkway for the room.  That's bad enough for a large person like me; it's terrible for the servers that have to squeeze through with trays of food and drinks.  And the gentleman really did nothing to get out of the way-very unprofessional in my book.

I look forward to the next Ruth Chris dining extravaganza!  Might I suggest....tequila? ;)