birthday dinner at the grange
The Grange is beautiful. It's a restaurant situated in a quintessential Vermont landscape, housed in a quintessential Vermont barn. Looking out from the warm atmosphere through the window to the right of my table, I'm greeted with the sight of two llamas chowing down on some grass. The menu is equally as appealing. Every item on the Grange's menu goes with every other- it is a dining experience that hasn't been thrown together haphazardly.
A perfect view.
Focaccia Bread
We started off with the Focaccia bread with black garlic butter. The bread was quite fluffy and warm, and had a distinctly sweet taste. It wasn't your typical start-of-meal bread. And that's good. The butter was also very sweet, and together they paired for a fantastic opening course.
Fluff- 10/10
Taste- 7/10
Butter- 8/10
Overall- 8.5/10
The Salad
Next, we went with the house salad. This was also quite good- the cheese was a nice touch, and the dressing was perfect. The lettuce was not the absolute best, but still pretty good. The croutons were by far the best part.
Croutons- 9/10
Lett- 6.9/10
Dressing- 8/10
Cheese- 8/10
Over: 8/10
Carrots
I think the theme of this meal was “beauty”. The plating was beautiful. The sauces and veggies were prepared with beauty. Everything was so pleasing to the eyes and to the tounge. These carrots were no exception- the texture was perfect, the sauce had a surprising mild kick, and the taste was excellent.
Carrots- 8/10
Sauce- 9/10
Texture- 10/10
Overall- 9/10
Sirloin Skewer
Probably the best steak I've ever had; the meat was so tender and well-prepared. The sauces were also great. Nothing more to say on this one.
Overall- 10/10
Mushroom Risotto
The least noteworthy of the dishes I ate. It was a pretty good mushroom risotto; the mushrooms themselves were definitely the highlight of the dish.
Mushrooms: 9/10
Ingredient combination: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Chicharrón
Yes. Yep. Yeah. This was good. This was really good. The tendon was crisped to perfection, but the spices were a game changer. They kept it simple- fried tendon with a dusting of melodious spices. What a good end-of-meal snack.
Tendon Preparation: 9/10
Spices: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10