A^2 Restaurant Week Review: Logan

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Tonight, for my final night of reservations for Restaurant week, Logan wowed me with a prime example of what restaurant week should be. Everything was perfection. I'm walking on clouds after this meal. :-)
Brad and I arrived to Logan during a break in all the rain we've been having, which was just about 7pm exactly. I was a little nervous as we entered the restaurant, since it seemed somewhat busy, and there were several couples eating outside. I was going to be really bummed if our reservation was outside because I hadn't even brought an umbrella with us. Instead, we were greeted by the super friendly hostess at the door, who immediately showed us to one of the two white linen covered tables in the only window facing Liberty street. Did you just read that correctly? We got a two-top in the window! There are only two of them! I felt like royalty.

Our view from the window

Fairly soon after being seated, we were greeted by our server for the evening. She knew the menu well, suggested several things, and even mentioned that chef Thad had prepared a special wine flight for the evening to accompany our menu choices. How could we turn that down? With our drink and dinner orders in hand, she disappeared off to the kitchen to fulfill them. She soon returned with our first glasses of wine, explaining the varietal and the region from whence it game. There's no way I was going to remember each of them without having written them down, but I think the first white was from Australia, the second red from Chile, and the third red was a mixture of Cabernet franc/syrah from somewhere on the west coast. The wines were good though. Darn good. They were also reasonably priced at $12 for the whole dinner flight.
While we were enjoying our first glass of wine, our appetizer arrived. Brad and I both ordered the asparagus tempura, and I just want to take a minute here and honor it. This was by far the best dish I've had in a long time. The tempura batter itself was incredibly light, the asparagus was perfectly balanced, and the sauces, oh my goodness the sauces. The combination of what I think was tahini, soy, chili and sesame flavors, was unrecreatable in my mind. I tried so hard all evening to think about how I would made that dish, and I just can't do it. That's perfection.

Asparagus Tempura

Just after Brad and I were still relishing the last taste in our mouths from that awesome mouth teaser, our pasta course arrived. Brad went with the lemon asparagus penne, while I chose the green olive gnocchi. I really wanted the penne, but decided to go for the gnocchi in order to compare it with the gnocchi from Vinology that I'd had a few nights prior. Since Brad was getting the penne anyway, I knew I could sneak a few bites of his. Turns out, I liked the gnocchi a lot though. While the green olive sauce could have been a bit better incorporated into the gnocchi itself, I thought the texture of the gnocchi was dead on. Much better even than the ricotta gnocchi at Vinology. Brad's penne had a lovely little lemon sauce, that was oh so tenderly blended with the thin angled slivers of asparagus. Again, perfection in our mouths.

Lemon Asparagus PenneGreen Olive Gnocchi

After the pasta course, I think Brad and I were both excited and afraid for our main courses. Excited, because everything up to this point had been so good, and we were just waiting for what else Logan could wow us with. Afraid though, because what if our main courses ended up being a disappointment? I didn't want to leave Logan on a sour note! Our main dishes arrived, and thankfully, they did not disappoint us. My sea bass had a glorious crispy flavored skin, the fish itself was perfectly cooked (you should always judge a restaurant on how well they cook their fish), and the coconut sauce, while looking a bit drab in color, made up for itself in flavor. It was spicy without being overpowering, the scented jasmine rice complemented both the fish and the sauce, and I thought it was a good dish. Brad's pork tenderloin on the other hand, was even more amazing if you can believe it. The bourbon sauce was absolutely incredible and highlighted the pork in a way I haven't experienced before. In addition, the parmesan potatoes with the tender center and crunchy outside crust also helped to mop up the extra bourbon sauce, which we were thankful wasn't going to waste. And speaking of mopping up sauces. Along with our main course arrived four of the cutest, most tender little biscuits I've ever seen! I almost didn't want to eat one they were so cute. If only I had a picture.

Jerk Sea BassBourbon pork tenderloin

After finishing out such an amazing tasting menu, Brad and I were both completely blissful. The wines matched well with each individual course, our service was impeccable, and the portions for each course were exactly the correct size. We lounged at our table for a few minutes after our plates were cleared, discussing our meal and commenting about how we almost didn't want to leave. Of course, this was the precise moment our server came back over to us with a display tray of Logan's dessert offerings. Just when I thought we were done with our meal, my mouth started to water all over again. You would not even believe how lovely each of the desserts looked and sounded while being described. From the six made to order fresh cookies (2 each of peanut butter, chocolate chip, and snickerdoodle) served with a cold glass of milk, to the nearly flourless chocolate cake, to the giant chocolate truffle, to the pear roulade, my brain was on overload trying to comprehend just how many of these delectable desserts I could fit into my stomach. Thank goodness Brad came to my rescue though, and limited me to just one. So the red wine pear roulade it was, while he chose the flourless chocolate cake.
Without getting too verbose here once again, Logan did not disappoint. The vanilla ice cream served with each of our desserts was surprisingly cold and definitely homemade. The roulade had a depth greater than the Grand Canyon with it's wine marinated pears and it's delicate pastry shell. I almost didn't even get to try Brad's chocolate cake, as he was devouring it like it might actually disappear. It was delicious and dark though, almost like the cake was made with so much dark chocolate that it tasted like coffee. Yum.

Red wine pear roulade with vanilla ice creamFlourless chocolate cake with cashews and vanilla ice cream

I think my descriptions above have more than adequately stated that this dinner at Logan was a good meal. So good in fact, that Brad and I even discussed coming back for a special occasion later in the year. Which is good, because I love finding new restaurants that I love!