Dinner at the Silver Grille in Silverton, OR

We drove into Silverton last night for our anniversary dinner. We'd talked ahead of time to the chef, Jeff Nizlek, and he said he had a large party of 20 coming in and that they were fun but that they might be loud. He said he'd be happy to have us, could seat us on the other side of the room from the loud party (no big deal, really), and even agreed to make a special tasting menu with wine pairings just for us (yay!). The large party turned out not to be very loud at all, and we had a wonderful evening.

Our menu (with a couple of slight modifications along the way, but this is pretty close):

That gorgonzola bruschetta!! Yum!

And here's a list of the wines we had:

Everything was very good, but my favorite course was the goat cheese cavatelli with lamb ragout. It was amazing, and we're told it's usually on the regular menu. 

The sous vide sirloin with garlic mashed potatoes and was also delicious, but I forgot to take a photo until it was gone:

Desserts were both great, but the creme brulee was one of the best we've had. It was served in a shallow dish, so the ratio of crunchy sugar on top to the creamy vanilla custard was just about perfect.

We will definitely be back here. Our only tiny "nit" was that the courses came a little too fast. It could easily have been due to the party of 20 on the other side of the room (it's not a big place)…with that many courses and wine pairings, sometimes the next wine was arriving before the other was gone, and the next course soon followed…it was all so good but consequently we ate a bit faster than we would have normally. Other than that, no complaints. Service was good, atmosphere was nice, and the food was excellent. Thanks guys!

Visit the Silver Grille here.

(Posted by Laura)