Chez Panisse Cafe for Duckie's Birthday

The Great Plotnik and Great Ducknik had thought about going to Chez Panisse ever since they moved to the Bay Area, but somehow never had quite gotten there -- until last night. Plottie figured Duck's birthday was a good enough reason to drive across the bridge in Friday night traffic, and it certainly was.

They ate upstairs in the Cafe and split four of the items you see on the menu above -- the jellied chicken terrine and escarole hearts salad, plus the wild nettle souffle and Monterey Bay squid.

Plotnik looks at that list of foods and realizes there are very few people he knows who would think this was even a meal, let alone a good one. But man oh man this was special stuff!

The squid -- usually rubbery like eating a smurf action figure -- at Chez Panisse the chef bakes it in a cast iron pan in the 800 degree pizza oven and it comes out tender as a mama squid's love, with a little sea brine in the taste but not much else except the deliciousness of the calamari.  This was the best since South Africa and that is saying a lot.

The wild nettle souffle -- Duck loved it, Plot thought it was more of an appetizer than a main course, but it was tasty and very light. It came with a relish of corn and chantarelle mushrooms which was as good as the souffle. The terrine and salad, as well as the main courses, were not the kind of dishes you tuck your napkin into your shirt, roll up your sleeves and dive into -- which is to say you got five bites each. Each bite was fantastic -- where do they GET those tomatoes? -- but Plottie WAS thinking (he's only admitting this to you) he might need a rack of ribs after dinner.

But no. He was stuffed. OK not stuffed, but quite satisfied.

The straciatella ice cream was to drop over dead.

Wines: a pretty good Syrah and a delicious Italian weiss burgunder, which means white burgundy in German, though the wine was from Italy and was not a burgundy at all. Go figure. It was delicious.

Plot took no pictures of the food. He sort of -- couldn't.

The Cafe is half the price of the restaurant below. It's not cheap but it's not overstuffed expensive either and you can't get better tasting ingredients. You feel a little bit like you're kneeling at Alice Waters's feet, which is to say you know you're eating at the place that began the entire movement of locally sourced food prepared by French chefs, so you sort of have to love it.

But he did love it, even though he was thinking, beforehand, that he would probably be underwhelmed. He was anything but. He and Duck would go back in a heartbeat with anyone who truly loves to eat.