craigie street bistrot

back when bastille day was coming up, craigie street bistrot announced that they would have a "french speakers only" table at the restaurant to celebrate. shortly thereafter, they announced that they would be extending that special, which came with a $30 prix fixe menu.

we made a reservation for seven (miriam, allie, keith, v, josh, carrie, and me) for the "french connection." i'm afraid that i ignored my common sense again and didn't look at a map before we left for the restaurant. 45 minutes later (or was it an hour?) we made it to the restaurant, having made phone pleas to various friends to look at a map on our behalf.

the restaurant is unassuming, with a sign near the sidewalk in an otherwise residential neighborhood. the restaurant is on the bottom floor, so you descend into it. it seats maybe 40 or 50 people, with soft lighting (the best lighting i've experienced in the recent past has been lumiere, which managed to make an entirely white-walled room warm and inviting, which a sort of glowy light that you don't often see in restaurants - it's a type of light that is bright without the glare).

the "french connection" special didn't really seem to exist, but after we explained that we were here for that experience, we got a waiter who spoke french to us. he started out by speaking to us as if we were the typical americans who know a little bit of french, but ended up asking us if we knew the word for blackberry, later on during the evening.

however, the really high point of the evening was (and always is) the food. one of the strengths of the food is that it relies upon traditional foods and quality of flavor, rather than a fancy, overcreative confection. our appetizers: salad, corn soup, and pork rillettes. i ordered the rillettes, not knowing what it was, and was really pleasantly surprised. the dish came in three parts: a large ramekin of the pork rillettes (which are apparently a sort of pate) with a layer of lard on the top, a small plate of toasted bread, and a plate of "traditional accompaniments:" cornichons, pickled onions, tiny piles of salt and pepper, a tiny salad, and an unidentifiable thick maroon sauce that was piquant, spicy, and nothing short of fabulous.

the other highlight of the evening was dessert, after an excellent but slightly less exciting main course (which included the best chicken i have ever had, due to the fact that it was happy, farm-raised chicken from vermont). we had a couple of berry crisps with canela ice cream, the chocolate mousse with chocolate mint ice cream, and the sorbet trio. the sorbet trio was comprised of blackberry, raspberry, and wild rose petal sorbets, all made in-house, and all exquisite. i think i may finally understand why people like the flavor of blackberries (which the seeds take away when you eat the berry itself). the raspberry sorbet tasted like summer raspberries - much like the difference between the mathilde raspberry liqueur (summer raspberries) and chambord.