An All New Dining Experience.

I enjoyed an uncommon evening out yesterday. The locosguys have revamped their restaurant in Lewes, both dining room and kitchen, and about 25 regular customers and a few employees were invited to a "tasting" of the new dinner menu.

JD's has always been the best and most reasonable dining option in Lewes for breakfast and lunch and they wanted to spark up the dinner menu and get away from the comfort food that diners seem to be moving away from these days.

As at Dos Locos, most menu items are prepared in-house using all fresh ingredients - and as much local produce as possible.

The new chef is a gem.  Creative and innovative. It was decided that the dinner menu would change every other week with the more popular items being reintroduced from time to time. The idea is to offer dishes that one either cannot prepare at home, or wouldn't want to. Most salads and entrees are available in two sizes - taste, or full plate - the "taste" being a half-plate or appetizer portion.

I was seated with 2 regular customers from DL (Dos Locos) and we chose to taste as many items that appealed to us as possible and offer feedback as the evening progressed. It was a very smart idea. Here's our sampling from the menu:

Mixed Artisan Lettuces and other greens with roasted shallot balsamic vinaigrette, grape tomatoes, dried cranberries,  and crumbled goat cheese. 

Caprese Salad: Fresh tomatoes, house roasted red peppers with a balsamic basil pecan pesto reduction served with herb-crusted flat-bread.

Pan Seared Scallops with bacon drizzle, wilted baby spinach and risotto.

Lobster Ravioli: House-made diced lobster filled ravioli with a lobster cream sauce, lump crab meat and shoe string vegetables. (See the image at top.)

Blackened Shrimp: Seasoned jumbo shrimp topped with a roasted red pepper sauce with asparagus and creamy shrimp grits. Yes.  Grits!

We never made it to the chicken or steaks, but did have tastes of desserts: Vanilla bean brulee and a chocolate chip/banana bread pudding. The house cut filet Mignon and the NY strip au poivre were given high marks by other diners.

That was a lot of food, even in small portions, and rich too. Everything was amazing and perfectly seasoned.  I hate having to add pepper or salt to dishes and this made the 3 of us happily wide-eyed and satisfied.

My dinner companions are also good cooks and the new chef was delighted to sit and answer as we peppered (no pun intended) him with questions and offered our take on all the dishes we sampled.  I think this will be a winner, especially for the Lewes residents.

I drove home feeling pleasantly full, but not stuffed.  The cream sauce was rich, but light and everything made my mouth happy and sat lightly in my stomach.  It was nice to have a night out and to enjoy the company Sam & Joyce, two of my favourite customers. 

I really need to do this sort of thing more often. 


And so it goes.
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