De La Coeur, Saturday Night

Once a year, the sales manager at JP's dealership takes all the other managers out as an end-of-year  thank you. This past Saturday was that night and it was probably the best one yet. 

It's always held at some fabulous restaurant and Saturday night's choice - De La Coeur Café et Pâtisserie in Wilmington, Delaware -  fit that bill.  The entire restaurant had been rented out just for us, a group of 16, so it was delightfully intimate.  As a highly sensitive person with very strong aversions to too many people and too much noise, I wish I could always go out dinner where there's only 16 people.

Upon arriving, we were greeted with a glass of sparkling rosé with a cute little berry floating in the champagne glass.  Lovely.  In fact, that word can be used to describe mostly everything from that night.
Anything sparkling will almost always give me a massive headache but I indulged in one glass. 

Charcuterie and a cute little berry swimming in my rosé.  I concur with the sign at the end of the table.

We were told that there were to be five courses, the first of which was a petite charcuterie board at each place setting consisting of sausage, cheeses, bread.

Course #2 was a Caesar salad with shaved parmesan.
Course #3 was a divine roasted pepper soup with gouda.
Course #4 was beef brisket on the bone served over pureed cauliflower along with french green beans and a pile of shaved apple.  I don't really eat red meat but I did try it and it was melt in your mouth tender.  I would have traded it all in for a large bowl of the pureed cauliflower.  I wanted to lick my plate to get every little bit of that cauliflower but figured my husband would probably not appreciate me doing that in the company of his peers.

Course #5 took me to heaven by way of the flourless chocolate cake we were served along with a dollop of real whipped cream.  Heaven, nirvana, utopia...all of those words and more describe that cake.  Listen, I would have done a lot of things to have had more of that cake but, again, I didn't want to embarrass my husband even though I considered it.  Most of the people who were there know me pretty well and know I'm a little bit nuts so I should have thrown caution to the wind and asked "are you gonna eat that?" to those around me - but, alas, I restrained myself. That cake was so freakin' good that I am going to the grocery store for the ingredients to attempt to make one as soon as I'm done writing this.  If it comes out okay, I'll post the recipe.

In the meantime, if you are anywhere near North Wilmington, Delaware, and want to indulge your tastebuds, I strongly recommend that you visit this place.  They also have a boulangerie not too far from the patisserie.  I haven't been to it but I am certain that I will be making a trip there very soon.

Once a month or so, they do a special dinner very similar to the one I just described to you.  Check out their website and newsletter for more information on that.  We'll probably see you there.