We had a lovely meal last night at Bar Tartine, the restaurant belonging to the Tartine Bakery, the super popular bakery down the street. The restaurant has a real nice relaxed feel with understated and subtle french bistro style. We started with the Gorgonzola stuffed Medjool dates with aged balsamic which are salty and sweet and could also serve as a nice dessert option. The aged balsamic reduction was sweet and perfect. For the appetizer we shared a whitefish crudo with petite grapes, radish, a sesame crisp and fennel-light and every bite was full of flavor. For the main courses Jose had cod and squid with spinach and fava beans in a cilantro pesto sauce and Kelly had Veal with sweet breads, chanterelle mushrooms and petite peppers that was amazingly suculent. The desert was truly amazing. A fruit tart baklava with goat cheese icecream. VERY GOOD!
So on to the economic slowdown. The amazing thing was that we were able to get prime time reservations the same day(Wed), and there was an empty table or two around us. Very shocking for a restaurant that just two months back was impossible to get into without having made a reservation weeks in advance. We have been noticing this slowdown over the past few months at other tier 1 restaurants (e.g. Fleur De Lys). It is reminiscent of the dot com bust when restaurants went from being packed to empty over night. Our wonderful waitress (did we mention the service was excellent, finally someone who knows that if I am not finished you shouldn't clear my husband's plate and make me feel like I too need to gulp down my food) confirmed that things had slowed down considerably and that the night before the place was even more vacant.
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