Wave (dining with Kent)

Backtracking to Tuesday night here. It's kind of late (for us) on Friday night, but we're a little hopped up on all the sugar from tonight. I'll get the photos uploaded, and then try in the morning to add some text.

(Saturday morning now. Sunny out. Conrad is off to a work event, and I'll swim soon)

Kent came to town earlier this week.We happily get together with him (and his partner, Geoff) at any opportunity, and it gave us a chance to revisit Wave. We'd been there twice before: once, when it had only just opened, we had lunch with a friend; the other time was earlier this year when Dave treated us to a cooking demo/dine event on a Saturday afternoon. This was our chance to have a proper dinner.

Kent had an overseas flight to catch that night, so it made for a very early dinner - our reservation was at 5:00. The hip and trendy bar and lobby were hoping at the W Hotel where Wave is located, but once we ran the gauntlet of "beautiful people", we found that we were the only people actually dining in the restaurant. That's always an odd feeling, but we didn't pay it much attention for the most part.

The restaurant's menu features a number of small plates and a smaller selection of larger ones. We decided to dine family style and share all the plates we ordered. I think it worked out well. We started small and enjoyed marinated cheese, olives, and peppers;

the yogurt dip that came with the bread service;

heirloom tomato caprese salad (which Conrad and Ken liked enough to quickly ask for another once the first was done);

a dish of grilled octopus;

fish of the day, an Arctic char served with eggplant and preserved lemon;

a side of garlicky broccolini (and not pictured was a clay dish of very good garlicky spinach)

duck breast (in the foreground) that was fine but also kind of took a back seat to that ultra-smooth cauliflower puree(!);

and a trio of dessert tastes, including pistachio cannoli that I thought were the prettiest and nicest of all.

Kent brought a bottle of good Spanish wine for us to enjoy, so we're grateful to him not just for his company but also for the delicious tipple! We're just sorry that United would not fall for his southern charm and upgrade him, gratis, on his red eye to London.