Lineage

It wasn’t until I typed the title of this post that I thought about the interesting and coincidental meaning of it. You see, this evening, we had dinner at a restaurant on Harvard Street in Brookline, Massachusetts called “Lineage”. We went there with Chuck’s newly 87 year old aunt on this, her birthday. Hence, lineage had an extra depth to it!

The restaurant was lovely - spare, with white tablecloths, unusually shaped white plates and bowls, clam shells as salt and pepper dishes - a nice mix of formal and casual. The service was good - my standard of being attentive without being intrusive was met and exceeded. The only problem was when the restaurant suddenly filled up and there was significant delay between ordering dessert and coffee and its arrival at table. The daily menu was fresh, tasty and inventive without being pretentious or self consciously clever. I began with the roasted beet salad with goat cheese, greens and balsamic. It was delicious. Chuck had the cauliflower soup with curry - delicate and also delicious. The birthday gal definitely enjoyed her entree of grilled salmon with beluga lentils. Chuck chose pan seared striped bass with cippolini and tasso ham. While I ordered the ricotta cavatelli with butternut squash, spinach and shaved black truffle. Both dishes were delectable. For dessert, Auntie chose the butterscotch pudding with pecans, Chuck the apple streusel tart and I the pot de creme. Chuck was the clear winner there. The pot de creme was not nearly as complex as I had hoped. I guess years of savoring and cooking with Scharffen Berger chocolate has spoiled my taste buds!

All in all, it was a very nice way to kick off Tante’s “88th year”!