Dinner at Floataway Cafe

Our July AIWF dinner was at Floataway Cafe. Seats for this one were extremely limited and we managed to snag two seats by responding to G's email immediately. It was definitely a larger crowd than usual. Chef Drew Belline came out to greet us and describe the first two courses when the evening began.

First course: silver queen sweet corn custards with fresh Georgia white shrimp & tarragon foam. This was an amazingly good dish. Creamy, corny sweet custard paired perfectly with the shrimp and tarragon. And it was a good-sized serving too, served in little goldfish-like glass bowls.

Second course: wood fired oven patty pan squash pizzas with mozzarella and basil. Though different than the other patty pan squash pizza I had had here, it was still very good. I was a little disappointed at the serving sizes (one pizza per half table which was about six people) but then again, not everyone is a big ole pig like I am.

Third course: wood grilled black angus hanger steak with small tomatoes, local baby leeks & cucumber vinaigrette. Okay, so I was a bit disappointed with the hanger steak. It was cooked perfectly and lightly smoked, but I have to say that I really like this the way that I make it much better. It is, after all, the same meat. The side of tomatoes, leeks, and cucumbers in the vinaigrette was ... kind of weird. It was very acidic and a little sharp. The tomatoes were good but I thought the contrast too great.

Dessert: local blueberry brown cutter tart with creme fraiche & lemon. This was just plain good. J even said the crust was better than usual. Maybe they have a different pastry chef here than at Star Provisions.

To go with dessert, M opened a 2000 Hungarian Oremus tokaji which was simply amazing. We had a lot of good wines that night, but certainly this took the cake.

On the way out, I tipsily asked Chef Drew if they ever planned to open a Star Provisions To Go at the Floataway location (it's only like ten minutes from our house!). He said no, but that calls in advance could possibly result in getting certain cuts. I guess I won't call and try that. That's what Sawicki's is for. G said I should definitely call them to get stuff or just contact Riverview Farms directly, get my butt up early on a Saturday, and save money doing the pickup myself at the Morningside market.