Date Night at Market

I felt like a little giddy school girl the night of our last date. All I knew about the evening was our meeting place... Boston Common at 6PM. From there we took a little walk down the street to the W Hotel. The plan was drinks at the lobby bar then dinner at Market by Jean-George. When we got to the hotel we discovered that they were filming a movie at the lobby bar so we walked right past the doors into the hotel and ended up at Avila for our pre-dinner drinks.

We sat down at the bar and ordered our drinks. A slightly dirty Grey Goose martini for Matt and a Hendricks martini with a twist for me. I forgot how potent gin martinis are and had to leave half of my gin in the glass. I knew that if I had finished my martini I would not have enjoyed (remembered) much of dinner. We really liked Avila and I made a mental note to come back for dinner some time.


On to Market! We felt so special walking into the restaurant; walking through velvet ropes to get to the lobby, having our names checked off on a list and passing through the movie set to get to our table. From our table you could see some of the film equipment outside the restaurant windows.




The restaurant was beautiful. I loved how the table was set with different dimensions and textures.


We ordered a bottle of Barbaresco for dinner. It was a very young wine that needed to open a bit so we decanted the bottle.


After a short perusal of the menu we figured out what we wanted to order.


We started with the arugula and Boston lettuce salad with a mustard vinaigrette and fine herbs.


For my dinner I ordered an appetizer; rice cracker crusted tuna with a citrus-chili emulsion.


To make my dinner a little bit more robust I also ordered the fine herb and Comte fritters. They were the most delicate, mouthwatering cheese fritters I have ever had! I definitely didn't want to share but after much bickering I finally let Matt have one or two.


Matt ordered the Parmesan crusted organic chicken with white asparagus and a lemon-basil butter. It was really good but it was basic enough that I think I can recreate this dish at home.


My man's dish was lacking a little bit of substance so he also ordered a side of mashed potatoes.


Dessert was the most amazing part of our meal; caramelized banana cake with a praline crunch and salted caramel ice cream. Words can't even begin to describe how much we enjoyed this dessert!


Our date was so much fun and delicious. I can't wait until Matt plans our next one... sometime in July!