Nectar, Cincinnati

Thursday 31 July

Have we really not been to Nectar since 2007?  It seems impossible, since we really like Julie Francis' restaurant, and were delighted when Lynne and Tom suggested going out there.

The place was very quiet even for a weeknight, but we liked the hushed atmosphere, and the close attention of the waitstaff.  Since even Julie's lighter dishes are well-seasoned, we went with a red wine, Château Lamy Corbières 2012, all the way through.

For openers, we had a jerk shrimp and fried plaintain succotash crêpe topped with green mango slice salsa, and a martini-glass full of octopus ceviche with tomatoes, chiles, citrus, and coconut milk.  The little octopus were a mite tough (as if they were going to crawl out of the ceviche glass), but otherwise the flavors matched the outrageous colors.

The pause between courses brought a pleasant palate clearer of cucumber and yogurt soup dusted with sumac, which made way for a plate of perfect pan-seared Verlasso salmon with black beans, squash calabacitas, mole verde, and a droozle of lime crema; and slices of grass-fed beef strip steak with de Puy lentils, oyster mushrooms, roast carrots, green beans, and heirloom onions.  

You can see that Julie was enjoying fresh pea shoots, as they turned up on top of most everything.  There was even some Blue Oven bread to sop up the sauces.

We enjoyed it all so much that even Lynne couldn't make room for dessert.