Talk to Me, Arcadia

If it's good enough for Daniel Day-Lewis, I guess it's good enough for me and a friend.

That was us at lunch, tucked away in an enormous back booth and sorting through the multi-ingredient descriptions of food attempting to decide what to try.

He made an executive decision and ordered the deviled eggs over basil gremolata to buy us more time.

You can't swing a dead cat without hitting deviled eggs in restaurants these days, but he was curious anyway.

Noshing on them, a server (one of many), appeared with a refill for my drink. I laughed and told him that I hadn't even realized I needed more.

"I'm here to see that you don't have to," he said. I appreciated the humor as much as the service.

I was tempted by the duck bacon BLT once I learned the bacon was done in house, but instead chose the Ashley Farms braised chicken thighs with ricotta spaetzle, beet oil and that basil gremolata 'cause my friend was dying for a bite of it.

He ordered purple rice crushed rockfish with spinach absinthe cream and arugula, deluding himself that he was "being good."

Hello, cream sauce?

While we waited for our food, the bartender came over with the brunch and wine menus in case we were interested in checking them out.

He was funny, asking if my friend and I actually knew each other or if we'd met on the street and decided to have lunch together.

I assured him that we were long-time buds and he complimented me on my skirt, saying he'd noticed it when I came in.

Forget celebrity sightings, I like a place where they say nice things about your Diversity Thrift flowered skirt.

We enjoyed our meal, trading bites and discussing the dinner menu, mainly for its 8-hour leg of lamb, a favorite of us both.

How soon do we come back and try that?

The dessert menu yielded only one chocolate option (a torte with sea salt caramel ice cream) which, as it turned out, they were out of.

Usually that's when this friend and I cut bait and forego dessert, but we made another choice for a change.

The Della Nona, a lemon filled pastry crust with nuts and confectioner's sugar on top, did a surprisingly fine job of addressing our sweet tooth.

On the way out, my friend admired the handsome wood bar while I admired the reasonably-priced wine list  where everything is $20 or $30, with some excellent values listed.

I have to say, I appreciate places who don't feel the need to do the typical restaurant markup on wine.

So unlike Mr. Lincoln, we didn't get our picture taken because we're not important enough to have our lunch documented.

Yea, but did anyone notice his skirt when he came in?

I think not.