Expectations Met

I don’t know if others have this experience but to me it seems that expectations and actual experiences are often at odds. When you have high expectations, disappointment often follows. And the opposite, no expectations lead, a great experience can often result. Thus when expectations are met it is, for me anyway a pleasant surprise.

This was my experience Friday night when I took my partner Frank out to dinner in Omaha. We were coming back from our two days in Sioux Center, IA (not a culinary highlight). Frank and I had recently had a deal that we had been working on for over a year close and had our fee paid (the two events not always being a given). Getting paid is of course always a plus but what made this particularly sweet was this was a bitch of a deal to get closed. It had all the elements of a non-closer; service business, highly dependent on its owner for its success, remote location, and losing money to boot. In spite of all this, we somehow managed to find a great buyer and get it closed. OK enough of that, the point is I felt that Frank and I needed to celebrate. Since we were going to be in Omaha, I thought well it should be steak right?

Getting on line I research for the ‘authentic’ Omaha steak experience. Every place I check out the comments are erratic. Not one has a consistent high level of reviews. Then I get to a number of commentators talking about the “mythical” Omaha steak experience. What to do. Finally I find some comments on a place called the Paxton Chop House that are uniformly positive. Paxton it appears is not the ‘authentic’ Omaha experience (which evidently means minimal décor, good meat, some standard Italian fare, etc.) and is fairly new. I like the look of the menu and wine online, representative of a high quality steak place and decide this is the place to go.

The décor of the Paxton is classic. Lots of dark wood, the main dining room has booths around the outside with tables in the central section. Each booth has leather seats (or at least they look like leather). Lighting is dark but not oppressively so. The service I’d describe as quietly pleasant and professional; attentive but not overbearing. There when needed never interrupting.

Our choices for dinner were for the most part very traditional. We each of a shrimp cocktail with four very large, juicy, nicely flavored shrimp. The bread is a nice thick crusted very slightly sourdough variety. The accompanying butter looks like a European style (very hard to resist). We opt for the lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing featuring local Maytag Blue. I really appreciated there dressing which was not a goopy mass but a relatively light dressing with a hint of the blue cheese so one could really taste the lettuce. (My friend Steve would be proud of me for supporting the lettuce industry). For the main course we decide to split a 24 oz porterhouse, a rare treat for me. I do the honors cutting off the strip and the fillet and splitting them. Frank is not a gnawer so I get the bone…no way I’m going to pass up on that! The meat is very nicely done and extremely enjoyable. Frank is going with shoestring fried potatoes (he is Belgian and fries are de rigueur). I decided to try something different, horseradish mashed potatoes. They were very interesting with only a hint of the horseradish flavor so it didn’t overpower the potatoes, but overall I found them too heavy for accompanying the steak. The shoestrings were a much better complement.

I was having a tough time with the wine selection. There was a quite extensive selection and I was having a tough time making a pick because I wanted to do Frank right. Fortunately, the Paxton’s general manager, Christopher Logan, who also acts as the sommelier, came to my rescue. Explaining some of my desires he suggested going to the half bottle section and chose an Oregon Pinot Noir, Rex Hill (www.rexhill.com) to start and 1998 Chateau Potensac from Medoc. The Rex Hill went wonderfully with the blue cheese dressing and of course a Bordeaux with steak is a pretty classic combo as well.

Neither of us really wanted dessert and we have a mutual love of digestifs, especially Calvados. Looking at their list of cognacs, armagnacs and calvados, nothing was singing to me. Once again we appealed to Chris. He says he has two calvados, the one on the menu which is ok (I’ve had it) and he has this 1963 calvados that isn’t on the menu. “OK Chris”, I say, “How much is a shot of this baby going to set me back? I’m already on grandchildren so I can’t even mortgage my first born.” It’s going to be 60 bucks a shot. Frank’s a great guy but I’m not sure he’s worth that much. So being half expansive and half a cheapskate I tell Chris to give us one serving that we’ll split.

Out comes Chris with three glasses and the bottle. He pours us each a full serving and a touch for himself. He tells us that he personally picked out this bottle and it’s the first time anyone has ordered it since they opened the restaurant 9 months ago. It was fabulous! The aroma was incredibly potent and when you took sip into your mouth the flavors and aromatics exploded into your mouth – truly a peak gastronomic experience. Our waiter stops by and asks if we wanted dessert and I said that the only thing that could compliment this would be a small piece of very, very good dark chocolate. He nods his head knowingly and apologizes that that is one thing they don’t have. The only disappointment to a very, very enjoyable evening.