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Fri, 12 Mar 2004

The Black Crow (13 February 2004)

This evening's dinner takes us to the small city of Beatrice, Nebraska, population 13,000. Beatrice is about 45 minutes south of Lincoln, and is a pleasant town with a traditional downtown and tree-lined residential streets, an old county courthouse of classic design, and, of course, a Wal-Mart. It is probably best known for being the original home of Beatrice Foods, which has long since been divided, sold off, merged and re-merged into large conglomerates like ConAgra and Parmalat.

Downtown Beatrice features at least one first-class restaurant, the Black Crow. It's a single, somewhat narrow high-ceilinged room in a block of brick storefronts, decorated unobtrusively with rich woods and mirrors, with a bar running much of the length of the room. On a busy night, in the middle of the dinner rush, with the clinking of glasses, laughter and pleasant conversation, you can lean back and imagine that you're in New York, London, or Paris, which is a remarkable achievement in Gage County, Nebraska.

We arrived a bit early and repaired to the bar to await the rest of our party, and ordered steamed mussels, which were classic and delicious, accompanied by a Nautilus (New Zealand) sauvignon blanc, 2001 (tasty, but a little less crisp than most). (It was a disquisition on mussels, you may remember, that planted the seed that launched Berch on Food years later.)

At the table we shared a smoked meat and cheese platter as a starter, and I went with the grilled venison chops with wild mushroom sauce as a main course. The medium-rare venison was a perfect counterpart to the rich sauce and the variety of mushrooms and the roasted potatoes. Not yet attuned to my current low-carb discipline, I shared a chocolate fudge ice cream sundae for dessert.

With the venison we drank an Australian shiraz, St. Hallett's Faith Vineyard, 2000, which was the nightly wine special, and its deep spiciness went perfectly with the venison and its sauce. (The Black Crow's chef is undoubtedly a game fan, since rabbit, wild boar, and venison are frequently on the menu.)

If you happen to be in southeast Nebraska it's worth a detour.

Posted at 19:47 | permanent link

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