The first this that impressed me about the restaurant was how much of the old building (the Morse's Tea building) they kept and used in the decor. Exposed brick walls and old, rugged beams blend seamlessly with crisp white crown moulding and the signature dark-wood-and-red-leather decor of the chain. Old black and white pictures of Halifax grace the walls.
Also impressive is the fact that a whole page of Nova Scotia wines are highlighted in the menu, as a separate list from the usual California imports and so on. I ordered a glass of the Rose from Domain de Grand Pre - yum! (That's as technical on the wine descriptions as I get...)
I had perused the menu online before heading out, and Trevor knew he wanted to try the ribs prominently and tantalizingly advertised on billboards around the city, so we ordered pretty quickly. We started with the Cheddar Dip, which came with warm tortilla chips, and was pretty much what it sounds like - melted cheese with chips to dip in it. I'm sure it wasn't exactly low-cal, but man was it yummy! I also got an order of grilled calamari, which came in big spirals with half a grilled lemon, tomatoes, capers, and olives (which, yes, I left on the plate).
I had the steak salad, which is meant to come with blue cheese but the waitress very helpfully offered goat cheese as an alternative when I declined the blue. She was also willing to suggest her favourite dressing for the salad. The steak was tasty as were the other toppings - walnuts, sweet grilled zucchini and red peppers, and of course the cheese. The lettuce mix was a little heavy on the white, rib part of the lettuce, but the salad was big enough to discard those pieces and still be filled up.
Trevor wanted chicken + ribs, but wasn't sure whether to go with the breast or the tenders. Again, the waitress was very helpful and showed her knowledge of the menu. She recommended the tenders, with their crunchy tempura-like batter, as a nice contrast to the ribs, whereas the breast comes with the same sauce as the ribs and could be BBQ overload.
I tried one of the ribs, which were so tender they came apart with a fork - and even though I'm not a big fan of BBQ sauce, these, with their in-house sauce, were pretty darn tasty. I also snagged one or two of the accompanying fries, which were hot,fresh, crispy and lightly seasoned - I'm not a huge fry lover, but these were delish!
Our only complaint was that we had to ask three or four times for a refill of our water glasses, while my wine refill came right away!
We decided to forgo dessert in favour of a visit to one of our fave spots, Freak Lunchbox. A light walk up the hill would be good for us, we thought... until it started pouring while we were inside the store!
All in all it was a great first visit to Baton Rouge and a great last anniversary!
