Estia

I enjoyed dinner last night at Estia, one of Philly's many fine restaurants. The meal was enormous and delicious and had wonderfully personal touches.

We ordered so many appetizers that we weren't sure if we'd be hungry when our entrees arrived. The best appetizer was some eggplant and zucchini chips with dip, presented in a fancy tower-pile. I asked the man to my left what he thought they were and he guessed that they were homemade potato chips, which of course they were in a way. Although he seemed surprised and disappointed to discover that they were made out of vegetables. The wine was excellent, but I'm sure that's because we had a vintner and a sommelier in our group.

We prayed before eating our entrees and the head server at our table was thrilled. He rolled up his sleeve, shoved his hairy arm in our faces, and said, "Look, you gave me goosebumps." I'm pretty sure this lead to the desserts on the house at the end. My meal was Chilean sea bass, surrounded by vegetables. The man to my left pointed out, with the help of his smart phone, that the real name of Chilean sea bass is Patagonian toothfish. I can see why they changed the name for the menu. Estia prides itself on super fresh fish. (The whole fish, which I was too scared to try, are cooked with only olive oil and lemon. I've eaten whole fish before, but I don't prefer to deal with the skin and the bones and the staring-the previously live thing in the face.)

The desserts were incredible--our waiter brought us several platters full. The baklava was incredible, as was a house dessert with custard and cream layers on top of shredded phylo, which reminded me of shredded wheat. And there was yogurt topped with wild cherries from an island off the coast of Greece. All in all, the meal and the company were delightful--I sat by one man who is a lobbyist intricately involved recently with Vanderbuilt v. the Tennessee legislature, a fascinating and complex issue. And another who explained fundraising to me--that's one job that I can't imagine ever doing: the problem is, when I don't like someone, it doesn't matter how much money he or she has.