Dinner at Bacchus

In an effort to cut down on the time it takes for Brian and I to decide on a restaurant, I recently started keeping a list of restaurants we know we want to try (yes, I'm a list-person). I can't tell you how many hours our indecisiveness has cost us in the past. All these places just seem so tasty! Creating a list has helped narrow it down, so now we only waste time deciding between those that are already listed.

Many of the restaurants in the Fan are on my list, including Bacchus, which I'd heard great things about. When I was growing up here, dining out at nice restaurants wasn't really part of my budget. I mean, it still isn't now, but I do bring home slightly more than I did from my hostessing and babysitting gigs in high school. Slightly.

I have to give this place props on its creative name. According to Roman mythology, Bacchus was the god of wine and debauchery, and the equivalent of the Greek god, Dionysus. I think we would have been friends.

We arrived on a Thursday evening to a crowded restaurant with one table available by the window. It was cold, but we had our own personal space heater! Yay?

The scene was small, intimate, dark. I liked it. We had a nice waitress who brought us rolls to start and gave us time to look over the wine list and the rather large menu. Everything was a la carte, so if you got the rockfish, you could also get your own salad or vegetable on the side.

I started with the Fried Goat Cheese Green salad (below), which came with beets, walnuts, pecans, and a shallot vinaigrette. It was great and it really helped that I'm getting into beets these days - especially roasted! But the thing that made this salad for me was the fried goat cheese. This delightful ball of creamy, rich goat cheese with a bread coating was unique and impressive. It seemed easy enough to make at home, and after a few Google searches, there are some fabulous recipes out there. Stay tuned for an experiment!

The expansive menu made for another difficult decision. There is a whole mix and match pasta menu that was very intriguing and pretty genius which I totally would have experimented with had I not already eaten pasta twice that week. As a sucker for scallops I landed on the Seared Sea Scallops with Prosciutto and Truffle Oil (below)...hard to resist, right? There were perfectly chewy, seasoned, and salted. Pairing them with prosciutto was a welcomed twist.

As much as I am a sucker for scallops, Brian is even more so with sausage.  He ordered the Spicy Lamb Sausage with White Beans and Escarole (below). As you can see, this was absolutely enormous with four huge lamb sausages! The white beans in a tomato-y broth was a nice pairing with the lamb other than standard potatoes.  Having filled up on rolls and salad, Brian was able to bring a good portion home for leftovers.  Lucky him.  My scallops were gone almost as fast as they came.

I enjoyed this place and would love to come back and try their pasta bar!

Have you ever eaten here? What did you think?