Dahlia Lounge

by Judy Schwartz Haley | Food, Living Well

This afternoon when I was visiting Grandma, I told her Aaron and I were planning to go to the Dahlia Lounge for the first time. She said, “have the pie.” When Grandma tells you to try someone else’s pie, take notice. She knows pie.

So we’re not rich and I’m trying to lose weight – yet our favorite thing in the whole wide world is to eat really good food at nice restaurants. We’ve found that the best way to protect my waistline and his wallet is to share a starter and entree rather than each of us getting our own. This doesn’t always work well for us when it comes to service. Sometimes the server will just bring us a spare plate. Sometimes this results in distainful looks from the wait staff. But at Dahlia Lounge we were treated like rockstars.

Our Tuscan grilled bread salad with pesto, olives, mozzarella and spicy coppacola was artfully presented on two separate, smaller plates – with a smile. This salad was amazing. Very earthy with warm smoky tones – I feel like I’m describing a wine – yet the salad was good enough to warrant such pithiness.

Also artfully presented on two smaller platters was our shared entree. The five spice Peking duck was delicious: perfect herby crust, juicy inside, served with a super hot teriyaki and plum jam. Yummy.

And by the way, Grandma was right. The coconut cream pie was heavenly, topped off with a towering mound of toasted coconut and white chocolate shavings.

The meal was not cheap, even sharing the dishes. One soda, one scotch, one salad, one entree and one desert came out well over sixty dollars. But definitely worth it.

Come if you can, save up if you need to.

Save room for pie.