So we went to Jason Dady's newest restaurant, Restaurant Insignia at
The Fairmount Hotel downtown. Because John and I like to take our friends to eat bone marrow with us, we asked Kate and Sam to come, and newlyweds Jarret and Casey, who have not eaten at home for more than a week. Kate and Sam's friend Faith was in town and staying around the corner from Insignia, so she joined us.
I forgot to get pictures of
Luke, the Fairmount dog. Luke is enormous! And, as Kate said, like a grandpa. He lets you rub his tummy while he sleeps. He opened his rheumy, red eyes to look at us and immediately go back to sleep. He was slayed out on his back and was easily the size of a small pony. Oh, Luke, never change.
Now, on to Insignia!
The menus are in file folders, like a doctor's office. Sam and I discussed our ailments: intense hunger and extreme lack of bacon. RX: Insignia.
We had some fun with the decor. At Tre Trattoria and Insignia, they put wine bottles of water on your table. We all had a silent moment of panic when Sam poured himself some water, because we thought the bottle was filled with wine.
Cocktails! Insignia has a whole page of signature cocktails. This is Jarret's coconut drink and Casey's cherry soda. I had the soda too, which was fruity and sugary and delicious. I could drink many more of those. Faith and Kate split a bourbon drink with egg whites (interesting) and Sam had a pear cocktail. It smelled exactly like a pear and tasted like one too.
Cornbread is merely a receptacle for butter, right? I mean, you eat it because you want to eat some of that whipped, creamy butter, but society forbids you from just eating it with a spoon. So you eat it on cornbread. Obviously.
OK, so this is where the food gets freaky-deaky. Bone marrow pudding, shredded beef and brioche. Freaky, but delicious. Seriously, so good. Just don't talk about bone marrow until AFTER you eat it. We learned that lesson.
I dared Sam to eat the marrow by itself, and he did. Which surprises none of you, I'm sure.
The San Antonio pizza, with avocado and barbacoa. So good! We were starting to get full at this point, so I didn't eat as much of it.
Chef Jason Dady everyone! We also saw his daughters when we came in. They are adorable. He is our new best friend, in that we try to be best friends with him by going to his restaurants and he perhaps finds us a bit stalkerish. That's OK though - we ARE a bit stalkerish. But in a good way. We just like food, OK?
Pork chop with grits and mustards. One of the best pork chops I've ever had. I was so full, I had to keep stuffing myself with food. The perfect bite was pork chop, the onions, grits and mustards all together. Seriously delicious and tangy and sweet all at once.
Chicken and waffles! Haha! I've only ever had chicken and waffles at Roscoe's Chicken 'n Waffle House in LA, and it was not as good as this fried chicken. This was good fried chicken, y'all. Jarret says it's the best fried chicken he's ever had.
Desserts! As if we weren't full enough, out came the desserts. We ate them all, like greedy, glutinous animals. This is the key lime pie in a glass. You'll see it again later in this post.
Nutella mousse and dark chocolate cake with jam. It's like the one at The Lodge, but with jam. I feel about jam like I feel about bacon and butter - when in doubt, add more.
Crostada! Kate loves the crostada at Tre Trattoria, so of course we had to have this one too. Flaky and hot inside, mmmmmm. Tastes like autumn.
The tres leches cheesecake was my favorite dessert. I love tres leches and it was even better and tangier in cheesecake form.
I could not bear to let the key lime pie go to waste. I don't like wasting delicious food, and I deeply love pie. So I tried to chug the pie, with mixed (read: messy) results. A cook watched me, seemingly disgusted. This happens to me a lot. People being disgusted, I mean.
It was a great, delicious, fun night! I had a great time trying all of the food. It was one of those nights that remind me of how much I love San Antonio: it's an easy city to get around, where I can actually try all of the different restaurants and meet the chefs. I can go to a nice restaurant like this one in jeans and get chicken and waffles. San Antonio is fun and low-key and small in a good way. There's enough kookiness that it never gets old.
It helps that Insignia is here now too. Go try it! Also, they'll validate your valet parking at the hotel if you spend more than $25. Which you will, because you will want to eat everything on the menu.
I loved the pork belly and pancakes! I'm a sucker for any kind of pork. I haven't had a lot of pork belly in my life, but I am developing a taste for it. The blueberry pancakes were, as Kate said, the perfect size. She like them, and Kate doesn't even like blueberry pancakes.
I always like salmon, but the white beans and chorizo stood out to me. I wanted to lick the plate after I ate all my beans because the flavor was fantastic. It was subtle, but the flavor grew the more I ate.
