My New BFFs Ryan and Scarlett

For my birthday we tried a new restaurant which is a block away from our apartment. We've been watching them construct The Lincoln for about a year--as it is nestled in the Lincoln Center, everything about the restaurant is, not surprisingly, artistic--the building is slanted, all glass, and the top is astro-turf that has already become a sunbathing hotspot. Random, but cool.

The restaurant serves Italian cuisine and is delicious. The chef used to work at Per Se and is a protege of Thomas Keller, so we expected a tasty and beautiful presentation and we weren't disappointed (also, I expected to only understand about half of what was listed on the menu--again, I was not disappointed. Let's just say we may or may not have discretely used our i-phones to google a number of the menu descriptions).

Anyway, I can't pronounce most of what I ate but it was all SO good. There were some things that were especially awesome. 1) They had TWO bread courses. They first brought us some homemade crackers and breadsticks that had been treated with all kinds of weird herbs. It all tasted good, and I was satisfied. Then, 10 minutes later, a guy came out to tell us about our second bread course, which consisted of a variety of more traditional breads, served with some sort of imported olive oil and "Vermont butter". Since I automatically think anything from Vermont tastes better (see below), I was impressed. I will probably now judge all restaurants that don't have a second bread course. 2) After our two bread courses, an amuse-bouche (fried chickpea with eggplant and garlic puree), a pasta appetizer (a sort of sweet-ish pasta (Caramelle?) filled with pumpkin and topped with hazelnuts and broccoli rabe), our entrees (chicken and veal chop with all kinds of wacky but awesomely-combined components), and our dessert...... they brought us a tray of tiny cookies. The tray probably has a more proper name, but I think tiny cookies pretty much sums it up. It was like I had arrived at my perfect restaurant.

Oh yeah, and one other thing... halfway through our appetizer, this guy walked right by me on his way to the restroom.

Coincidentally, this is exactly what he was wearing. Since he is married to her:


we thought there was a good chance she was at the restaurant too. We each tried to subtly walk by their table, but they were tucked in a far back corner and there was no way to paparazzi them. So, we waited them out. Sure enough, just as our dessert arrived, they emerged (holding hands! ahhh so cute!) with four friends. Other than us and a couple waiters, no one even noticed them and they stood in the entryway for about 3 minutes saying goodbye to their friends before leaving out the back (we left the same way a half hour later because we also wanted to make a hip exit). Both Ryan and Scarlett were tinier than I would have expected. Ryan was pretty short. Scarlett was super short. But adorable. She has short short blonde hair which was tucked inside a very cute hat.


We finished our dessert as we (ok I) basked in our celebrity citing. I snagged a pic (wish I could have gotten a pic of the Hollywood power couple but it was pretty dark). The actual title of the dessert is this: Monte Bianco--Buttermilk Gelato, Chesnut Sorbetto, Tortino de Ciccolato, Panna Montata Alla Grappa e Cioccolato. Yeah, I didn't understand it either. Here is my description: a super fancy chocolate-dipped ice-cream cone. The big dome is chesnut ice-cream inside buttermilk gelato coated with a milk chocolate shell, sitting on a piece of shortbread. I have no idea what the thing on the left was, but it tasted really good. The white stuff is whipped cream with some spice added to it, and then there was some nougaty stuff on the back of the plate. Combining a little bit of each onto the fork to create one big bite = incredible.

All in all, a perfect birthday night.

Unrelated, a couple weeks ago we took a weekend trip to Vermont to see the fall foliage. I have been wanting to see the leaves change in Vermont for like 10 years and it was as beautiful as I had hoped. We stayed in an absolutely lovely, recently-renovated old mansion called the Snapdragon Inn, which is owned by some friends of mine and their extended family. I highly recommend it to anyone planning a trip to Vermont. Between the mountains covered in autumn colors, the picturesque farms and the rustic charm of the small cities along the highways, I could not get enough of all things Vermont.