Mountain View Brasserie #13 – February 2019 (dt)
7.41 – 7.5, 7.5, 7.5, 7.4, 7.3, 7.25,  

Our close-to-home, support-local, winter-time visit once again led to MVB, for only the thirteenth time in DP8 lore. ‘Tis comforting to have only a few miles to traverse on a cool February night.

Although the MVB menu covers our comfort zones, it is the Specials list that often snares us as it did for five of six of us this evening.
            From the regular menu:

            From the Specials:

            All was excellent, made even better by the day-long anticipation. A choice of baked potato or au gratin was the promised starch, except for Ross’s spaetzle.
            Entrees were served with choice of soup/salad, and a side medley of snow peas and sweet peppers.

            A bottle of Domaine Delagrange 2017 Hautes-Cotes de Beaune Rouge for all six of us red wine drinkers disappeared in short order and was deemed good enough to order a second.
            A note about MVB wine prices. The wine was $36, close to our top figure but the online pricing was in the $18-$23 range, meaning a mark-up of about 100%, a figure rarely matched by the other establishments we have visited. Other restaurants have charged us the same price for an $8 bottle. Thank you, MVB.

Two baskets of white-linened French bread appeared within five minutes of our seating, pleasing all. An additional couple cheese crisps were found in the pile, consumed by those who snatched first. Two ramekins of softened butter accompanied.

The included soup or salad is always a pleasant starter. Two chose the regular salad (the house dressing is a keeper), two the Caesar, and two the tomato basil bisque—one of MVB’s signature soups.

The dessert course:


            Excellent, again, was our collective judgment. (However, our experience with a certain someone’s sorbets lie in our memory banks!)

Ambiance has been described enough times that I will forebear this time.

New to us, server Luke proved himself to be another asset to MVB and testimony to Terry’s training. Luke was attentive without being cloying, personable, adept, quick with requests and oversights, and tolerant of us old-timers who welcomed him to our DP8 experience. Excellent service, Luke.
            Timing this evening was the usual Bra-esque two hours. The pacing was again quite agreeable with us, with no long pauses in between. It seems that the dozen “small things” that always get done well at MVB, in contrast to more than a few of our experiences elsewhere, makes us appreciate the MVB standard.

The bill for the evening, covering tax, drinks, and tip, came to $126 per couple. It was another understatedly excellent meal for DP8.

Being a group pick and close to home, four cars drove (a rare instance), with no earlier convening, and thus all the conversation topics are from the dinner table, subject to which ones I heard.
            The first topic, of course, was the absence of Deb T and Lynda. One was felled earlier in the day with the stomach bug, and the latter was having her one off-day after chemo. Thus, we were DP6.
            The other topic worth a paragraph was Chay’s dealing with his ailments. The hand is getting better, and surgery for the other part is next month.
            And Cin says hello to the old regulars who were not present this evening. She gave the two minute summary of her family and her urge to not face more snow.  
            Other topics: our appreciation for someone not bringing photos of the uterine cyst (no, not Ken’s, ha), the legend of Ken’s coffee, the whereabouts of our snowbirds, Lynda and Ross heading for Florida in between treatments, the dozen paintings of Deb’s on the wall, proof of painting with spots on Joyce’s forearms, Mark working on the house to be flipped, Deb K was the only real world-er at last year’s MVB dinner, the Notars heading to Florida for a few weeks soon, February’s changeable weather, tough snow conditions for deer and turkeys, Deb K wanting life to be more about her, Valentine’s Day coming, Catskill Transmission up (or down) in flames, snowshoeing, our being notified by MVB earlier in the week that the planned Thursday date for DP8 was not a good idea, our appreciation of MVB for guiding us to a better evening (Friday! whodathunk?), Kiki being put down, Mah jongg, updates on other pets, stories of pets past, snow days (some of us are so past that that we do not even notice any more), morning walks, Finger Lakes wine clubs, tipping, a recent blog taking a vote whether posting different percentage tips on the bill was a good idea, restaurants visited since last DP8, later sunsets, and Spring is almost here (not forgetting Cabin Fever however). There might have been more but they have faded with a whoosh of the door leading to the cars and home.