Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Coastal eating, one for two
I’ve mentioned Hoppe’s before (see #9), site of our Best Meal Ever. They’ve moved from Morro Bay to Cayucos, so on our first night on the coast we decided to stay in Cayucos and indulge in Hoppe’s. Well, they’re not Best Meal Ever territory anymore, I’m afraid. We think the son must have taken over from the father, since one of the menu listings (my main course last night, matter of fact) was “My Father’s Roast Duck.” And the son is not the father.
One of the things we liked about the old Hoppe’s was their consistency. Bread, appetizers, main courses, even the side vegetables were all spot-on excellent. The new Hoppe’s, not so much. Our appetizers (a cheese platter and raw scallops in a spicy sauce) were great, but the main courses . . . um. My roast duck was tasteless. Sort of a duck confit, inasmuch as it seemed like someone had simmered the duck in duck fat for a few days, but not tasty like a confit. Honestly, it didn’t even taste like duck. Karen had pheasant, and it was tasteless too. Even salt didn’t help. Jake had the only hit of the evening, a perfect bouillabaisse.
The dessert was kinda sorta interesting — a baumkuchen, which sounded a lot more interesting in its Wikipedia entry than it was to experience up close and personal.
You can’t go home again, or at least you cannot count on it. Kinda like my experience with La Pergola’s, a North Beach restaurant that had amazing scampi in 1982 or 1983, and just so-so scampi by the last 80s. Haven’t been back since.
So we were oh-for-one last night, and we went to Cass House tonight with some trepidation, since it’s more than a bit on the pricey side AND we had just been burned by Hoppe’s. But we needn’t have feared. Everything was perfect tonight (although the watermelon consomme “palate cleanser” wasn’t really to my taste), and I’d have to say I enjoyed tonight’s four-course price fixe than The French Laundry’s twelve-course lunch, which lacked only a vomitorium.
I’ll add some specifics on the meals, maybe in the comments. Time to relax into this food coma.
D.
