Gregory’S In Sandpoint A Feast For Palate And E
It was love at first bite.
From the grilled prawns appetizer to the pretty presentation of strawberries Romanoff for dessert, a recent meal at Gregory’s Fine Wine and Dining in Sandpoint elicited more mmms and aaahs than a Hugh Grant movie.
It wasn’t just that Gregory’s menu was innovative, that the flavors in the dishes were assertive without being overwhelming, or that the prices were reasonable. The food at Gregory’s is also pretty, a visual feast.
Gregory’s is owned by chef Greg Glass, who headed the kitchen at last summer’s trendy eatery du jour in Sandpoint, the short-lived First Avenue Bistro. After the owners of that restaurant unexpectedly closed up shop, Glass was determined to have more control over his livelihood. He bought an old furniture store and turned it into his own restaurant.
At the new venue, Glass offers a menu of a dozen or so appetizers and entrees that change monthly along with another 10 items from the daily fresh sheet.
Some of the more tempting creations can include grilled lamb rack with jalapeno marmalade, flank steak served with a basil and threecheese calzone, chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and served on a bed of toasted orzo pasta and medallions of pork with gorgonzola and spicy pecans.
For starters, I ordered the grilled prawns ($5.50), which were served on a socca - a crepe made with garbanzo bean flour. It was a pleasant backdrop for the sizable prawns. The dish was garnished with a savory tomato concassee, which is a fancy name for a relish that looks a bit like salsa, but isn’t spicy.
The prawns had been marinated for 24 hours in a mixture of calamati olives, feta cheese, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Those vivid flavors permeated the crustaceans, which were cooked succulent, not chewy. With the exception of some great garlic shrimp I once had in Mexico, these were possibly the best prawns I have ever tasted.
My dining companion ordered the Dungeness crab cakes ($4.95) from the fresh sheet. They were moist, chock full of generous chunks of crab and nicely complemented by a red hot chipotle mayonnaise.
I couldn’t resist the urge to splurge on a half bottle of Perrier Jouet champagne ($19.50), which was a magical match for the appetizers.
Gregory’s has one of the region’s best selections of wines, representing most of the world’s most important wine regions, accompanied by sometimes very honest ratings and reviews from wellknown wine publications. But what makes this comprehensive list so special is that wines are extremely affordable, just $2 above the retail price. Gregory’s sells a lot of wine.
Seafood is one of the restaurant’s specialties. The night I ate at Gregory’s, there were five fresh fish entrees, including boneless trout piccata, cioppino and fresh Dover sole. I opted for the seared albacore tuna served with wasabi and soy sauce.
Unfortunately, it arrived just shy of being overcooked, even though I had asked for it cooked medium rare. Still, the steak was enjoyable and the dab of wasabi (a Japanese horseradish) added a welcome bang to the full-flavored fish.
The dish on the plate that stole my heart, however, was the mashed potatoes. I’m a sucker for spuds and this unusual preparation included sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and shallots. They were coarsely blended, for a texture similar to a baked potato, and had a rich, rustic flavor that went well with the fish. It was the kind of concoction you might expect from Grandma if she got together with Wolfgang Puck. Mashed potatoes are the standard Saturday side dish.
My dining companion enjoyed the linguine puttanesca ($8.95), which she ordered without the anchovies. The huge portion of pasta was redolent of garlic, capers, tomatoes, but came up a little short on the pungent calamati olives that are a trademark of the dish.
Entrees include a choice of salad or soup; the slightly sweet hazelnut salad dressing is a must.
For dessert, our server and the extremely dutiful busperson - urged us to try the strawberries Romanoff, thus earning a bigger gratuity.
The berries picked that morning just north of Bonner’s Ferry at a tiny farm called Twin Berry Enterprises were as sweet and juicy as the backyard variety, but almost as large as the typical mass-market strawberry. With stems still attached, they were artistically nestled onto a mountain of crushed ice and served with the Romanoff cream, a subtle mixture of sour cream, Grand Marnier and brown sugar.
More sighs.
On a separate visit, I checked out the restaurant’s Sunday brunch, ordering the smoked salmon and cream cheese omelette. It was tasty, with garnishes of capers and red onions adding a salty-crunchy dimension to the dish.
With my meal, I was offered a choice of three breads, freshly baked by Glass’s wife, Lori, who also makes all the desserts. My raisin toast was impressive, thick slices of wonderfully flavored bread served with butter and jam on the side.
Along with omelettes and egg dishes, brunch can include some of the fairly straightforward sandwiches and burgers offered on the daily lunch menu and pizzas cooked on brick tiles.
I would love to give Gregory’s an unequivocal rave, a five-star rating, if we did indeed bestow stars, but the restaurant’s atmosphere is not a worthy showcase for the food.
The dining room with 20 or so tables is one large space lacking in warmth and, even on a fairly slow night, it seemed a bit noisy. We requested several times for the background music to be softened to the usual restaurant-type commotion.
The one point of interest, a wall devoted to a built-in wine rack, is appealing, but it doesn’t feel comfortable to stroll over and take a look at the bottles because tables are situated close to the display.
And, finally, the vinyl-covered chairs are purely institutional and less than comfortable.
Still, these nitpicks about the surroundings melted away when a plate of pretty food arrived. With a few minor adjustments to the atmosphere, Gregory’s could easily be one of the best restaurants in the region.