One of my very favorite places to dine is The Herbfarm Restaurant, which serves a regional, hyper-seasonal - each themed menu lasts but a few weeks - nine-course tasting menu that will set you back a couple hundred bucks a person. Unless you look at the wine list. Do that and all bets are off.
The last thing you might expect to find at the Herbfarm is kids. Yet they do go. (And yes, they behave - aided by Borage and Basil, the resident pigs that can be fed between courses...a welcome distraction in a multi-hour meal.)
Better, some of those kids wrote a detailed review of the Chambers of the Sea dinner a few nights ago. (They are standing at the 'pass' watching half a dozen or so people plate the next course. I know because I have stood there myself, with that same rapt expression on my face.)
How was dinner?
Well, it was greatly educational:
"It was great! I learned that tulips are edible flowers (they’re great)."
Cool:
"The foam was really cool, especially for foam."
"It was actually really cool, because we got to eat the tulip and sniffing the little leaves."
"Meeting the pigs was kinda cool."
Philosophical:
"Despite the Rockfish can be ugly, when it’s served it can be beautiful."
Not always perfect:
"The rockfish was nice. I didn’t like the asparagus, and quite frankly, I detested the foamy stuff. Kinda grapefruit dipped in fish oil and left out for a few days. The potatoes were very salty. I liked the drink."
...and yet, awesome:
"The awesome guitarist was playing awesomely."
You should go read A Menu for the Chambers of the Sea, and as you do, keep in mind that "K" is 7 "G" is almost 11 and "I" is between them. Their parents are a particularly awesome combination of brave and crazy and I salute them.
How about your kids? What's the fanciest place you have taken them? Would you consider going to a place like the Herbfarm with your young'uns in tow?
