WOW!

Friday night my husband and I went to Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, NY (where I grew up). It's a combination working farm and restaurant on the beautiful grounds of the Rockefeller Estate. Although the $100 gift certificate barely cover 1/3 of the meal, it was a quite an experience. Look at this review for a write up and photos. http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/06/blue-hill-at-stone-barns-pocantico-hills-new-york-dan-barber-working-farm.html In winter about 30% of the food served is from the farm, in Spring and summer it's over 75%. It's not like any other restaurant we've been to, you don't order an entree, you look over the ingredients list and tell the waiter any allergies, food dislikes and preferences.

I'll do my best to describe our meal. I started with a Black Current Cosmopolitan (that can now be legally grown in NY after a ban of many years) made with fresh lime juice, it was amazing:)
They brought out many starters (for lack of the "sophisticated" names). 1st we had the veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, and snow peas) on the stakes as shown in the review photo, they were slightly blanched and perfectly salted. Delicious! Next they brought out a wooden block with dried veggie "chips", paper thin, some purees, others just dried; beets, butternut squash and turnips. They were all very flavorful. Then we had a fingerling potato wedge that was coated in something and then encrusted in sesame seeds on a skewer. Very unique. We had fresh squeezed grapefruit juice to clean our palates. One of our highlights of the evening were the beet sliders: quarter size fresh baked buns with finely chopped beets, topped with goat cheese and a very little green leaf. Very tasty for the minuet bite. (Plus I got in some beets, Kate:) Lastly there were 2 paper thin slices of fennel salami.

The homemade Potato Onion bread (with a rare small piece of cooked potato in it, and a crusty outside was amazing. I could have eaten only that and been happy. It was served with farm churned butter, fresh ricotta, as well as carrot salt and arugula salt. I tried the salts but didn't find them necessary. The bread was good enough without anything, but the fresh ricotta was delicious.
The Fruit and veggie platter was a mix or pickled (cabbage) and salted (broccoli, cauliflower) veggies as well as fruits (sickle pears, apple) and others (another beet, I couldn't identify all on a platter) with pureed sauces. My husband said it was the best vegetables he's ever eaten.
Then they brought out our Smoke Maine Lobster (1 claw and 1 small tail), it was on a bed of winter veggie puree with whole pistachio nuts in it. I really enjoyed it.

After that they brought out 5 mini tortellini, with 3 different fillings, chestnut, cheese and greens, in a pureed green sauce and topped with pea greens. The fillings were hard to differentiate as they were so tiny, but they were all enjoyable.

Finally it was time for the entrees. Manny had Veal cooked in a sauce with these sweet roasted carrots and a parsnip puree. There were about 4-5 slices of meat, not a ton, but probably a serving size. He really enjoyed it. I had Grouper in a green soup base, kind of like a Vegetable bouillabaisse with white beans and pistachios. It was good, not overly salty and very satisfying.

My only disappointment came at dessert, as I forgot to mention that I didn't like chocolate, plus the $5.75 pot of tea for 1. Manny enjoyed the Hazelnut brownie with cocoa bean ice cream as well as the chocolate mousse that was served with a Beer ice cream (made from Beer from Captain Lawrence's a local brewery, Pleasantville, NY). I tasted the ice cream, it really did taste like beer:) I had Linden Tea for the 1st time, it was good, but not worth $5.75, and Manny enjoyed his $4 cup of coffee, as well as the 2 miniature coffee meringues.

It was definitely a worthwhile experience. I would suggest to go in the warmer weather when you can enjoy the grounds and the more plentiful produce. We were glad to have had the opportunity, thanks to my sister in laws:)