The Last Supper?

As belated birthday celebrations for two close friends who have been amazingly supportive and helpful throughout our whole pregnancy (and really throughout the whole time we've known them - Jonathan made our wedding cake!), last night we went to The Herbfarm. It was also likely the last time for a while that we'll be able to enjoy what ended up being an incredible 5+ hour touring and dining experience!

I'd apparently gotten my facts wrong before:

• The Herbfarm is actually a "AAA 5-Diamond" restaurant, the only one in the US north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. (For those wondering, Michigan actually does possess one 5-diamonder, in Grand Rapids no less.)
• Upper 20s on Zagat's 30-point scale (alas, looks like you have to pay to look up the actual current numbers online).
• Its executive chef is a James Beard award winner.
• And of course it's collected an impressive array of other culinary/"foodie" awards; as usual, Wikipedia has far more info if you're interested in that kind of thing.

Anyway, enough about the awards. The restaurant itself was incredible - looks like a cozy cottage, with incredibly detailed and rich/warm decor. The evening began with glasses of tasty punch while we strolled around their library (on the second story, overlooks the main dining room) and incredible wine cellar (largest in the Northwest I think?). I'm not a wine connoisseur (or even know if I spelled connoisseur correctly, though the spell check seems happy enough with it), but it was fun to see floor-to-ceiling stacks of well organized and labelled (white marker on the bottoms) bottles. The oldest wine was from 1795 (and cost about $8K). Jonathan and I couldn't resist looking at the Kosher wine part of the catalog - they clearly know their stuff, the blue bottle Bartenura moscato (our favorite) was at the top of the list. Gosh we're sophisticated.

After that, we toured the grounds, though unfortunately in the continuing summer rain (so weird in July!). They grow all of their herbs right there, and the owner passed around a variety of flowers and plants they'd be featuring in tonight's dishes for us to taste and smell. We also got to meet The Herbfarm's resident recyclers (and truffle hunters in training), two cute and happily snorting pigs who live in a pen in the middle of the herb gardens.

From there, we came back inside and were individually seated at our table. The table service (well, and the wait service too!) was amazing - I think I counted 5 wine glasses plus a Kiddush cup-looking metal water glass, 4 forks (plus a fifth 'flying' [at the top of the plate]), etc. They briefly reconfirmed our dietary restrictions (Meh had tried to explain them over the phone) while we admired the set up. Next the sommelier (hah! I did spell it right - blogspot isn't frou frou enough to have it in their dictionary) immediately came around with the first wine pairing - Meredith tried to block the pour, but they explained that hers was actually an herb-infused non-alcoholic tea. Shari made the switch one drink later, and their drinks were indeed excellent - a variety of teas, sparkling ciders, and exotic fruit drinks. They were serving different wines with each course as well, and they were all tasty too, though I'm sure I'm boorish enough to have missed the brilliance of the pairings.

Once the first course was served, the entire staff came out from behind the open kitchen to welcome us. The executive chef and the sommelier then round-robbined descriptions of each of the course we'd be enjoying along with its wine pairing. They introduced the entire kitchen (and entertainment - the guitar recording I'd been enjoying was actually a live Spanish guitarist playing 10 feet away!) staff, with employees from culinary institutes and restaurants from all over the country and world. (Even a USC restaurant management student as a sever - fight on!)

And so began the remainder of the 9 courses. Believe me, they had us at hello. Morels with snap peas, salmon with rau om (Vietnamese herb), just-foraged potatoes and mushrooms with goat cheese, squab with blackberries and basil (or for the non-bird-eaters, a delicious fish substitute), cheeses with roasted apricot, a "fruit circus" with perhaps my favorite (blueberry cobbler), and I'm sure I've missed several other courses. Oh, the fresh (and tiny) rolls/bread they served alongside were amazing too.

(Many more pictures on our photos site.)

The pacing was perfectly leisurely; we even took a break to stroll the grounds and go feed the pigs (they honestly let you, even providing a tiny pail full of scraps from the day's food preparations) before returning for an amazing selection of teas (I had fresh chocolate mint, straight from their garden), and capped off with tiny little treats. They also served a nearly 100-year-old 1910 madeira with dessert - a bit bitter for me, but interesting to be able to taste something bottled so long ago.

All in all, an incredible evening with our friends. Hopefully not the last time dining out, but maybe the last on this scale for quite a while. Hm, any chance I could get a salmon like that at McDonalds?