I wonder how much research went into the naming of Seven Restaurant in Halifax. Apparently it is located on the site of Fire Station 7, but a more superstitious person, especially one of Greek origin, might be very pleased by its numerical significance.
Known as the "perfect number" to the Greeks, one wonders if the owners take comfort from this.
A planned group trip to Lunenburg was altered by the weather, and we ended up going to Seven instead (peoples gotta eat). Of course, this was a party made up mostly of employees of Seven, or past employees. But they were all interested in eating there, as the menu was only a day old, and most had not tried any of the new offerings.
For a first course, I ordered the Spinach Salad, which came with hazlenuts, crumbly goast cheese, and poached pear. I think it was poached in Sambuca, or Pernod, as there was a nice licorice character there.
Discussion was focussed on which of the steaks to order - now they are not new items to the menu - Seven's wood fired grill simply cooks great steak. On the advice of the lovely Tab, I order a rib eye - the same way she does - "chef's choice". I learn that this is the way to order fatty steaks in good restaurants, as the chef can match the cooking with the meat's character, so you get it as it best tastes.
In my case, that was about medium rare (I would normally order rare). It was huge, and I traded a chunk of it to my neighbour for some of his halibut. The steak was not super tender, but it was really tasty, an excellent source of protein for a growing boy! The black pepper they have is great stuff, earthy, and rich, with not too much heat. I had a lot of it on my steak. The course included some baby vegetables, and perogies stuffed with leeks and blue cheese. The perogies were extremely yummy.
The Halibut was the best I have ever tasted, though this is not saying a lot, because I almost never have it. Clean, flakey, and done the way I like fish done (just barely cooked).
Wine with the salad was the Spy Valley Riesling, which was excellent, both as a drink and with the salad. It had some serious petrol notes, in nose and taste, and some pear fruit in addition to the normal riesling grape tastes, and the typical linear acidity. One of the smelly-eye-eh types at the table selected the Stump Jump Red (d'Arenberg) to go with the main course. It showed remarkably well.
One thing I was not quite sure about. It turned out that the young lady sitting across from me, who was not really taking part in the conversation until I kinda drew her out, was the girl friend of one of the servers, actually the manager. When he poured me wine, topping me up, he tended to tap me on the shoulder on the side he was coming in on. And not exactly lightly. I don't recall that technique being used on me before. Then again, maybe he was just swatting me for chatting up his gal?
Dessert arrived - one large plate, with blobs of tasty treats arranged on it in Pythagorean perfection. These included four of those chinese type soup spoons with homemade ice cream on them. One of those was a sour cream ice cream. Now that may not sound promising, but that was the best "new to me" thing I have tasted in a long time. I could have eaten a quart (sorry, litre) of it in about 3 minutes, given the chance.
I got the chance to tell the chef later how much I liked the ice cream. Brad, his name is, I believe. Turns out he made it himself.
Dinner, including wine, tax and tip for one (I had more than two glasses) was about $100. The point of sale system they have is amazing. The server was able to split shared things any number of ways. For example, some of us split a bottle of still water, others, sparkling. My wine share was larger than my neighbour's because I drank more than he did - they can estimate a share on refill count, or whether you take the red or white or both, for example. The servers love it.
Oddly, we were seated with women all on one side, and men on the other side of the table. And although there were eight of us, on this night, the sum of two sides was a perfect Seven.
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