Dinner Out

We went to Beacon to hear an old friend play chamber music in a beautiful old hall originally built as a library. Afterwards, we went to a place called O II for dinner. Inventive, hearty as the season calls for, and reasonably priced, although the wine list is awful. We ordered 5 small plates and shared them all. First mushrooms in a rich meat reduction with a cap of puff pastry and a crab cake with rhubarb chutney. Then BBQ spare ribs and ravioli with a foie gras filling and lemon sorbet, and last little blue corn soft tacos with short rib filling. The tacos were quite good as a closer, but the ravioli were under-filled and what filling there was had no taste. The sauce and sorbet were nice, but had no richness to contrast with. The crab cake was crispy, savory, and the rhubarb preserves went pretty well with it, and the mushrooms were delicious but the pastry seemed superfluous and the bottom piece was completely soggy. The ribs were competent, but after being used to my "happy ending" ribs it's hard not to be let down. Still very enjoyable, though, and a great and much-needed date night.