Double Dutch Yum

'Tis the season to be indulgent.

To that end, the not-yet-open new restaurant Dutch and Co. in Church Hill was offering to-go lunches today.

While they're putting the finishing touches on the restaurant, they decided to tease Richmond with their to-go lunch program.

As a long-time fan of Acacia's very occasional to-go lunch program, I was all about it.

And while I don't usually get up much before lunchtime and Dutch & Co. was only serving from 11:30 to 1:00, it seemed worth making an adjustment for.

So while I didn't get up up until 11, all I had to do was skip my morning oatmeal and fruit to be in Church Hill by 11:40 to collect a brown box.

They were serving right out of the kitchen door onto 27th Street, making for a mix of clandestine and casual.

The guy in line behind me peered around me at the kitchen, saying, "Wow, that's a great ceiling!"

The pressed tin beauty was handsome and, as I said to him, no doubt the dining room will be even more so.

On the menu today was a triumvirate of Church Hill talent.

Meat master Chef Caleb had made sandwiches of housemade country pork pate with Brie, mustard and pickled fennel.

And get this: it was served on Sub Rosa bread, made by the talented baker Evrim a few blocks away.

With the sandwich came a savory salad of mixed greens, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts taking up half the box with its generous portion.

Dessert came courtesy of WPA Bakery, caddy-cornered from Dutch & Co., and encased in a wax-paper envelope.

It was a canele, a small French pastry with a soft center and a nice thick crust.

Yea, so for my first meal of the day, I was happily chowing down on an incredibly rich sandwich along with a mound of seasoned greens less than an hour after I woke up.

And you know what? Neither my stomach nor my body clock objected to country pate before noon.

As a matter of fact, they kind of reveled in it.

Sometimes you just need to start the day as indulgently as possible.

Once I finished, I did my usual walk through the cold, windy air, but with a feeling that the long holiday weekend had officially begun.

Once home, the phone rang and a friend who lives in Church Hill called to give me the inside scoop on a new restaurant in his neighborhood.

Picking pate out my teeth, I told him I was well aware of Dutch & Company.

He was sorry to have missed the tease of a boxed lunch.

I'm only sorry I have to wait to be indulged again by the new kids on the block.

Way to go, Church Hill.