Divine Dining

On Friday night, I had the glorious opportunity to try out our newest restaurant in the area, Persimmons.  The wonderful thing about Persimmons is that all of their food is locally sourced, from the same vendors I shop with at the farmer's market.  Their menu changes every few weeks, based on the availability of the season.  That may sound like a fairly simple concept in a large city, but in this rural area it's revolutionary.  No one else does it this way around here.
   

The dinner prices are no higher than other comparable restaurants in the area and their lunch menu is also available all day, which means sandwiches, salads, and burgers for just $8-10.  For local grassfed meat and seafood, that is an incredible deal. 

I was with a group of coworkers before we saw another coworker's play.  My college roommate was with me & we were excited about sharing so that we could taste more of the multitude of options.  We each decided on the fresh salad, but she got salmon & I got steak to go with it.  The salmon portion was as big as my hand for only $6!  The salmon and steak were both perfectly cooked.  Next time I will have the salmon again, if it's on the menu, because it was just so wonderful.  

Then, dessert.  Luckily, they only had two options so that we didn't have to make a difficult choice.  Creme brulee and peach crisp with fresh blueberry ice cream.  Absolutely heaven.  The creme brulee was creamy and decadent, the peach crisp was like summer in a bowl.  Absolutely no way to go wrong.       

I have recently decided that I will not eat meat in restaurants unless it is ethically raised and hormone free.  (It was almost impossible to eat at Hardee's, except that they added some Mexican items recently.)  I am moving towards better meat at home & I eat vegetarian at least 3 days a week.  I decided the next step was to just cut out the meat in restaurants and eat wild caught seafood or vegetarian dishes instead.  I've only been doing this for 3 weeks and I did break my rule once, but it's all a process.  Anyway, my point is that at this restaurant, any menu option is available to me again without breaking my new rule!!!  And I have met the farmers who provided the food, which makes it more enjoyable.   

I was exceptionally impressed by the entire evening. The bathrooms have real towels instead of paper towels (big green yay!!) and the view of the river from the dining room is stunning.  Our entire table loved the food and we all agreed that this will be the place for our monthly ladies night from now on.  I cannot wait to go back!!  10 stars!