Kelly's birthday at Coi

For Kelly's big birthday we wet to Coi, a two star Michelin restaurant in San Francisco oddly located on Broadway next to a strip club. We had read many things and heard reviews from our friends. Stuffy, expensive, etc. So we wanted to hate it, but we loved it.

Chief Daniel Patterson serves a nightly 11-course fixed price tasting menu ($120), with some choices, and each dish is crafted like a fine piece of jewelry. The food was innovative, creative and delicious; service was excellent; and the wine selection was nice (although it was a Tuesday so we went with a safe bet of Peay).

Every dish was as innovative and scrumptious as the last and the menu changes daily as Chef Daniel Patterson seeks out local ingredients and then transforms them into delectable gifts for the mouth. Our favorites included an amuse bouche that was a light grapefruit juice served in a skin which burst in your mouth; the “Abstraction of Garden in Winter”

which contained seasonal root vegetables with cocoa (excellent who knew cocoa went so well with vegetables) greens and herbs; “Earth and Sea” which was a soup with steamed tofu mousseline, yuba, fresh seaweed and mushroom dashi; and of course the “Chocolate Mesquite Cake”

which looked like a mini chocolate brownie but the subtle flavor of the mesquite paired with smoked pepitas praline and kabocha squash sherbet set it on a new level of sophistication for chocolate cake. YUM!