Welcome Commerce

I finally ate at Commerce with a great buddy last week. When we arrived, the place was hopping and we instantly fell into the good spirits. Having not seen him in a while, my friend and I spent a long time after being seated to catch up—chatting and laughing—without a single glance at the menu. Instead of our waiter getting frustrating or giving up on us, he remained patient until we ordered and courteous throughout the meal. We even remarked at the end of our meal how pleasant the waiter was—helpful but not hawking, enthusiastic but not overly gushy, an overall excellent balance.

This balance was not in our food. No. We were the ones who overly gushed. We loved our food. We effervesced and ooh-ed and ahh-ed when the waiter came to ask how everything was.

We couldn’t get enough from the start, with just the bread: a warm basket of homemade mini soft pretzels, olive rolls, sesame sweet buns, ciabatta, and sourdough. We could care less if we disobeyed parents across the country and filled up on bread.

To be fair, we were lucky that we didn’t, because our appetizers were
perfection. Roasted sweet potato tortelloni with hazelnuts, pomegranates and beurre noisette were rich while remaining light. The potato puree inside the homemade pasta was a velvety texture that was irresistible. Fluke sashimi was also irresistible. Served in a wide bowl with lime, lemon, jalapeño, and slivered radishes, the grapefruit-section-like slicesof fish carried excellent flavor. We couldn’t decide which starter was better. I also saw two dishes of oysters that I vowed to get next time.

Entrees didn’t slow the pace of deliciousness. I smiled with every bite of a soft shell crab nightly special while my friend was busy cherishing each morsel of braised beef, bone marrow, and sirloin steak as if he were dining at grandma’s house. The meaty dish came on a bed of cauliflower mash, which helped to sop up the jus of the cuts of beef. When the waiter asked how things were, we practically jumped up to kiss him—but then we would have had to put down our forks.

Dessert capped off the meal in the form of a delicate, creamy,cakeycoffee something or other. By that time, we didn’t know what call anything except outstanding.