by Laura
Last night we had a meal at Four Square that was – to put it eloquently – so, so good. Although, one must keep in mind that our standards have lowered since we started subsisting almost entirely on Trader Joe’s (this generation’s slightly healthier version of living off ramen noodles) with the occasional biscuit thrown in for good measure.
Four Square is one of those nicer restaurants that you take your parents to when they come down South to transport you from college, in between desperately trying to fit all of your junk into the back of their Ford Focus. Except, when my parents came to pick me up, they were not so interested in helping me pack. They would go out and have adventures while sticking their head in my door every few hours or so to yell, “You have too many things. Throw them all away! We want to go eat some BBQ!” So, this is why I was just getting around to visiting Four Square many years after its arrival on the Triangle foodie scene.
The place itself is within a very old house, which I would normally find charming, except that the formality of the restaurant made the atmosphere a little blah. So, minus points there. However, they made up for it with an amazing bargain – a $35 four-course dinner in honor of their 10th Anniversary. The chef picked his favorite dishes from over the years, and created a special tasting menu for each night this week.
Since the dishes were picked as individual favorites, rather than dishes that particularly flowed together, we ended up having crab salad gazpacho, beef & veal cheeks over cabbage and pasta, a Mexican-inspired chicken entree, and chocolate brioche-toffee bread pudding. Although no one was complaining, especially when it came to that last part.
Since I won’t be able to afford a return visit unless they decide to celebrate their 11th Anniversary in the same fashion, this picture will have to help sustain me:
Life lesson: you simply cannot go wrong with a toffee-based dessert.
Laura
Harold
Yum! Remember the toffee pudding from the little tea shop in the Village? My mouth is watering just from thinking about it. Also, have we discussed restaurant.com? Where you can buy “gift certificates” (really coupons) for $3-$10 for $25 value for area restaurants? Check it out if you haven’t already.
Ah – Tea and Sympathy will always be one of my favorite New York places. And restaurant.com has indeed been oft used in my household. If you get on their mailing list, they’ll send you codes for even further discounts. But, it was slightly nicer in NYC with more choices – around here there are only 2-3 places listed that I might go to. Le sigh.