My Birthday Dinner

Last night Jen took me out to celebrate my birthday at Farmicia, an old city restaurant that puts an emphasis on local and organic food. We—well, Jen—had looked around online a bit to find those type of restaurants in the area since, as anyone who knows us knows, we're into that kind of thing. We, again really Jen, found a number of different places in Philly that fit the bill.

Jack's Firehouse – A cool looking place in the art museum area that used to be a working firehouse. We first saw this place taking Darby for a walk. As we passed we noticed that the large door that the trucks came in and out of was opened and there was indoor seating that spilled out onto the sidewalk. It turns out that they try to support local farms, but to be honest the menu was kind of boring and they only had 5 simple items on the menu that were local.

White Dog Cafe – What can be said about White Dog? It has become the standard for these types of restaurants. They even have an offshoot foundation focused on social change. The place has a great victorian feel, though it's a little dark inside, and a fantastic menu that even lists which farm the ingredients came from.

Chresheim Cottage – Located in Mt. Airy, just outside of Chestnut Hill this place is beautiful with its old stone farmhouse style that continues inside, too. My problem with this place is the same as with most of these types of restaurants. Many of the selections on the menus are from far across the globe. I can see the need as a restaurant to diversify your menu, but when your whole vibe is based around local/organic you need to be more careful about where all the ingredients come from. In the case of Chresheim Cottage I noticed that they have a dish with green mussels from New Zealand. I don't know if green mussels are something special or not but I can't imagine that they are so special that they couldn't pass up putting them on their menu.

Farmicia Restaurant – This is the restaurant that I chose. They seemed to be the next best thing to White Dog, which we have been to a number of times. They have a nice varied menu with local ingredients, obviously some dishes more than others. But they also partner with a local bread company that makes fantastic bread, The Metropolitan Bakery. They are also proud to be part of the slow food movement.

So like I said, I chose to go to Farmicia. Jen met me outside my office at around 5:30 and we strolled down to 3rd Street, where the restaurant is. It was really nice that the place was empty with the exception of one family dressed in shorts and t-shirts. I mention this because I made sure to dress nicely for work because we were going out, and Jen was wearing a really nice outfit. So the "fancy" place that we were going to was just a place to eat for these people. Anyway, the decor was simple yet somewhat elegant. The tables were set with fresh cut orchids, except the table in the front window of the restaurant, which had a center piece of a single green apple. Even the silverware was nice and different enough to comment on.

Jen ordered the Pocono Springs trout with sweet potatoes and sauted kale. I made myself order something that was a little past my normal boundries since we don't often go out to eat at places like this, so I got the Duck Breast with crisped skin, sun-dried cherry glaze, native grains pilaf and sauteed sugar peas w/ sage. Jen's was very tasty and I especially liked the sweet potatoes, though they really weren't anything special. The presentation was nice with the potatoes and the kale pushed next to each other on the center of the plate and the piece of fried fish with tail intact laid over top and garnished with sweet corn and diced peppers. My duck was tasty as was the sun-dried cherry glaze. That was the part that was a stretch for me. My only problem was that it was supposed to have crispy skin, and it really didn't, the skin was more likely just fat. But all in all it was delicious. The native grain pilaf left a little to be desired, though Jen really liked it. It was a little chewy for my taste. But the sugar peas were perfect, firm yet tender.

We didn't stay for dessert because I was really full and we had a dog waiting for us to get home.