artichoke spread :) yum! Barbara suggested we snack on the delicious cheese while Joel prepared our apps - so dig in we did! And in addition to the amazing cheeses, tried the artichoke spread and homemade tomato jam.I was busy diving into the 234927987 + questions I had ready for Barbara while Javs was diving into the brie wrapped goat cheese. My last meeting with a caterer taught me that Ash Lawn, while gorgeous, is a bit of a pill for catering. But the more I talked to Barbara, the more excited I was to learn about her experience at our venue. (She, at one point, flipped the piece of paper laying in front of her over to sketch an impeccable map of Ash Lawn - so that she could more easily talk about where they could set up for cocktail hour, ceremony, etc - I was impressed!)
Then it was Joel, head chef, who had an opportunity to impress :) He brought out our lovely looking apps: butternut squash with brioche grilled cheese, crab cakes with lime sauce and bacon wrapped dates. I knew we liked Joel when he mentioned their kitchen motto 'everything tastes better with bacon.' - y
es! The butternut squash was super good and filled a desire of Javs' to include some butternut squash in our menu. We agreed that the grilled cheese was a must and proved helpful when scraping the last bits of soup from the ramekin. The crab was good, but just good - not our fav. The bacon wrapped date though...'candy in your mouth' - was kels' description. SO GOOD! After we shoved our faces, Joel came back out to chat about what we liked, what we loved and what we didn't. So we talked a bit and I was happy that he and Barbara were so open to changing up the crab cake for something else if we wanted - yay for flexibility in vendors!
Then it was salad time! We were served a nicely plated salad of mixed greens, goat cheese, candied walnuts and pears. We were warned that January pears are not nearly as good as October pears and to keep that in mind while tasting. (It made me happy to hear they were planning for fall foods!) The salad was super good - just what you want, light but with some 'good stuff' (you know-all the stuff besides lettuce). We talked a bit with Joel and Barbara afterwards about how to serve the salad. We want a family style dinner, but they suggested a plated salad might change things up a bit and provide some variety - and the more I thought about it, the more I agreed! Javs also thought it might be better - so that one person didn't dig through the family style salad bowl and take all the 'good stuff' before passing it! (not that any of our guests would do that...)
Next up - main course! We had pumpkin ravioli with wild mushroom and sage butter, pepper crusted beef with red wine ju, seared salmon with gremolata sauce and sauteed broccolini with garlic, pine nuts, lemon zest and Parmesan (yeah I'm starving just typing that!). Kelsey put it best: the pumpkin ravioli tasted like fall. :) Which I just loved! The beef was perfectly cooked and we all agreed the wine ju was good! The broccolini was a surprise star, it was the garlic lemon combination really worked and made it a stand out veggie addition! Javs did not love the salmon, more particularly the gremolata sauce (which we learned is made from lemons and capers). Since capers aren't his favorite, we asked for other options for how to prepare the salmon. Joel did a great job listing several: crusted salmon, beurre blanc, or creme fraiche. Yay again for vendor flexibility! I was feeling truly satisfied because of both the wonderful meal (evident by my empty plate....) and discussions with Barbara!
We stuck around and continued to ask some questions. I couldn't help but devour all of her knowledge! (she even gave us some recommendations for other vendors) We also got to try the chair options we could use at the ceremony and reception. (we want to ensure your bottoms are comfy!) And left feeling super good!Since my Mom and Dad couldn't come we're still chatting with them about what should be our decision. Here is how we see it: -Andrea/Cafe Torino's food was better. It was out of this wold, good pasta. And it would be really different/not the typical wedding menu and food. But Andrea is very opinionated and has never worked at Ash Lawn before. -Harvest Moon's food was very good! But their experience with Ash Lawn and how to make an event for 200+ guests work seemed to be above par. They are also super open to being flexible and hearing our desires for the day!
Hopefully news of another decision coming out soon!
and some even knew Cafe Torino when we mentioned it! As you can see from the picture I swiped off their website its not exactly something you'd write home about from the outside. But it wasn't their decor that we were after - it was their food!
I had been looking forward to trying the chicken marsala (pictured to the right) and it absolutely did not disappoint! I think my quote was 'if you put this sauce in a pitcher I think I would pour it over everything.' Again, so rich, but somehow light! (how does he do that?) The tilapia was no one's favorite which did not please Andrea, so he made us a new salmon dish with a mustard based sauce and sauerkraut (we were a little skeptical). But it was awesome :) Our menu (if we go with Cafe Torino) was set!