Low-light-blurry-cam photo...

In honor of our birthdays we recently made dinner reservations at our favorite restaurant, Morton’s Bistro. We armed ourselves with our recently acquired bottle of Marietta Cellars 2006 Angeli Cuvee and sallied forth.

We have a toddler of whom we are rather fond (the most brilliant and beautiful God’s gift, etc, etc) and we’re loathe to let her spend the night anywhere but our house (faint cries of Grandparently protest and complaint in the background here). That means that a wild ‘n crazy night out for is usually over at about 8 o’clock…woohoo…

Morton’s opens for dinner at 5pm so we made reservations for 5:30 thinking that would give them 30 minutes to warm up or something (an get us home by 8…). Apparently, though, 5:30 is a little earlier than their typical customer arrives since we had the whole place to ourselves for at least another half an hour. This totally ruled.

Fortunately chef/owner/guru Steve Morton & crew appear to maintain a constant state of warmed-up-edness and our unfashionably early reservations had no discernible ill effect on the quality of our food and service. It all still rocked like Ozzy Osborne. You know, the younger pre-reality show Black Sabbath and Randy Rhodes era one…

It should be noted here that the Angeli Cuvee was a hit with us and our hosts. Our server (whose name i don’t remember, sorry!) asked about it so we offered her a taste. She then shared the taste with the other server (sorry to you, too! Same reason…) who then told us she loved it and asked us where we got it and told us how beautiful the bottle was, etc, etc…

FYI – this is all a very good way to start dinner at a nice restaurant.

We eased into our gluttony with the Smoked Salmon Fondue. This is such subtley smokey, silky, rich goodness that you’ll find yourself scraping up the last bits with a spoon when the bread for dipping is all used up…just like we did.

Then, to keep our stomachs guessing we mixed up the pace with some fresh, cool, & crisp greens. Morton’s has quite possibly the best simple green salad on the planet. Perfectly prepared mixed greens and thin slivers of red onion, grated Parmesan, fresh-cracked Black Pepper, & ever-so-lightly dressed with a Marionberry (I think) Vinaigrette.

And then on to serious business with our entrees. Julie had her favorite Salmon Fillet served with (the best ever) mashies, wilted greens, and drizzled with Buerre Blanc. I (of course) had the New York Steak – medium rare (of course)- in Red Wine Reduction, a lovely little wedge of a potato tart thing, grilled Asparagus spears, and garnished with onions two ways: Balsamic Marinated Cippolines and crispy fried rings.

At last we finished our meal in style with a Creme Brûlée that had a perfectly crispy & crunchy top like a sheet of amber colored glass and a cool & creamy custard underneath. It was divine.

If you’ve never eaten at Morton’s Bistro you owe it to yourself to check it out. We can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s the one of the few restaurants in Salem that’s worth the money every time.

Happy Birthday to us!!