i had not been to the heights in a long long time as it is expensive, but yesterday was amanda’s birthday, so a nice celebratory dinner was called for. who is more deserving of one after all?
the heights used to have an awesome host/front guy who unfortunately is not there anymore. he was a tall, solid, well-groomed guy, who was amazing at what he did. he was the type of person who could flip open menus at the right height for a person effortlessly (he also always made sure they were clean). when making room on the table for your food or extra glasses or whatnot, he moved everything around absurdly swiftly and gracefully. i remember watching him prowling by the bar where he could view most of the tables, and then walk through the dining area surreptitously removing trash, replacing silverware, removing dishes all in a blink of the eye. perhaps there are many people like these in all the higher class restaurants that i never go to and don’t exist in ithaca, but, damn he was good.
anyways, even though he was not there, the rest of the service was still very very good. martina was our waitperson. for some reason, i remember the names of random people in stores, restaurants, and other public places much more easily than, say, people i am introduced to more formally.
the heights gives a bread basket with various types of bread (sesame and kalamata olive bread come to mind) with xxxtra virgin olive oil and balsamic and roasted red pepper hummus. we also had a saganaki fondue appetizer with garlic toast. the fondue was good, but the cheese did not cooperate by staying more on the liquid side; the tea light under the large ramekin that contained the cheese could not keep it warm enough after it came from the kitchen.
we also ordered a burgundy wine (the producer escapes me, but it was a generic regional one). amanda spend some time poring over the large winelist, but later just let me choose one. it was very good; we both remarked on how much better wine can taste when it is served at the right temperature. maybe there will be a eurocave in our future… but probably not.
amanda was going to get a totellini entree, which actually sounded very tasty, but was convinced to get the tofu “stack” by the waitress, who made the point that one can get tortellini anywhere really. as their website describes, the stack is composed as follows:
tofu “stack”
with Sweet Potato, Asian Vegetable, Roasted Red Pepper, Portobello Mushroom & Mozzarella Cheese
Smoked Cherry Tomato Couli
i got one of the specials, which was a rare seared tuna steak (a huge one) glazed with some fruity thing stuff with various sauces and carmelized carrots, eggplant, and garlic mashed potatoes. the tuna was good, but perhaps not particularly stunning, but all the accompaniments were very good.
btw… for those who may be surprised that i am eating tuna, i have become more fishytarian (the horror) than my previous ovolacto vegetarianism of the latter half of my life. actually, i am vegetarian except for occasional lapses of raw tuna a few times a year. i am also not very vegenazi-ish about other things (e.g. white sugar, rennet in cheese even if it not on the label, etc etc there are animals products in crazy amounts of things) as you know, otherwise one could never eat out.
amanda is much more hard core than i am. she lets the white sugar thing slide nowadays, too, though. she denies it; she says she had a moment of weakness, but now is back on track. we do try to avoid obvious things tho (except for my occasional raw fishy… slurp).
how about a haiku?
beware kind fishies
so-called fishytarians
with insincere smiles
i had a bananas foster for dessert, which was quite divine, and amanda had a dessert sampler with creme brulee and two other things which i do not recall. she was going to get a lava cake, but we found out that the heights uses purity ice cream (which has gelatin in it), so amanda passed on it. she said they they were “great”. she also got a simple coffee, which given what they give with it is not so simple (unprocessed sugar, various types of alternate sweeteners, chocalte chips, those wooden stirrer thingies with brown sugar crystals on them, cinnamon sticks, cream, whipped cream, and god knows what else). actually, now that i think about it, the bananas foster was stunningly divine.
we watched animals are beautiful people afterwards… we had to go to work since we don’t have a tv or dvd player in ithaca. it was one of the gifts i had gotten her. i also got her o brother, where art thou?, two jingly indian anklets, and a wide open gift certificate for massages by one of my coworkers. she seemed pleased.
a good night for us. piglet was not pleased with our extended absence and her lack of foodstuffs tho.