If the French Laundry and
Whole Foods had a love child... You'd wind up with the Green Grocer. For Windsor, not a bad baby.
Having shopped there frequently, enjoying the duck burritos, produce, protein, and Joe's cooking advice, my wife and I decided to check out their dinner service. On a Friday night, we rolled over to the tucked away gem hiding in Windsor's town green, near a great restaurant called Odyssey.
We sit down, get brought our still water and the menu perusing begins. After asking for Joe's recommendations we start what turned out to be a fantastic meal. Before the food arrives Joe brings over a glass of Preseco for both of us. Then an amuse bouche. Yeah, you read that right. In theory we are in a grocery store. The difference being the owners/ accomplished chefs. We get a beautiful presented plate of pickled green onions in red wine vinegar and what appear to be water lilies. It all tased fresh and perfect for a starter.
Then some amzing bread got brought over... and devoured. We both ordered the three course, three pour tasting dinner. At $33 each, this is a crazy steal. My wife started with the asparagus soup, because she is a lover of the pee altering vegetable that happens to be in season. With Joe's recommendation, I began with the beet and goat cheese raviolis (pictured above).
Three sweet pillows of pasta free ravioli lay in front of me, topped with candied walnuts and micro greens. I had to ward off my wife's fork. Amazing. Her asparagus soup with morel dumplings and I believe truffle oil also had a nice flavor and was also tasty, but the dumpling texture was slightly disturbing. Think of a brown, squishy lump floating in your soup bowl (albeit a tasty brown lump). The wine pairings worked well with both dishes.
Next, her two little crab cakes appeared with a grapefruit, citrus aioli and some micro greens. Despite being slightly enamored with my steak, I did managed to try one of these and it was quite good. Not your typical crab cake, which tend too have too much in the way of bread crumbs and not enough crab. The crab tasted fresh and everything on the plate was beautifully presented. As she savored her crustacean cakes, I devoured a plate of flank steak with asparagus. Perfectly cooked to medium rare. At this point, we were both full and borderline tipsy, which is why, unfortunately, I can't remember the wines that he paired our food with at this point.The last dish arrived and for me it was a rack of lambed served with a white bean puree. My wife had the pulled pork sandwich on a cheddar scallion, which turned out to be a little to spicy for her liking. Turns out the pulled pork is done with a jalepeno rub, which I thought was great, but left Jenny searching for a water refill. The night ended exactly as it started, with impressively prepared food and wine pairings in a friendly, casual environment. For me, what separates this place from other restaurants around here are the people behind the counter. They are passionate about good food and quality local ingredients and they are more than willing to impart some knowledge to you if you ask. My hope is that the Green Grocer will be here to stay (where else can I get a duck burrito and french pressed coffee on a Saturday morning).
