Would you like Frites with that?

Was at our new favourite restaurant for lunch recently, a pseudo-French place. Lady at the table next to us was eating French onion soup and French fries. I was like, how cliche.

I really need to edit my profile a bit but I live in Houston and I'm a major foodie. This place, Brasserie 19 is on West Gray across from the River Oaks Theatre, two doors down from JosABank. There was a lot of buzz when it opened so we tried it expecting to be umimpressed, but something keeps pulling us back. I think the food. (I have since found it's a sister restaurant to Ibiza which gives me pause, but that's a tale for another time.)

 Waiter greets us with "Hey guys, what's up?" and I did my "I'm not a guy" thing. He straightaway segued into "ma'am" and "sir", but the service has always been stellar at this joint. A sign a of a true Texan; Californians grow flummoxed when I insist they call me "ma'am" and not "guy".

Although the food this lunch was not as yummy as it has been. I got the steak & frites, ordered medium-rare. It came back on the high side of medium. My companion's salmon was a bit overdone as well, I think more a result of sitting too long under the lamps than actual overcooking.

It's also one of these places that has reasonably priced wine, tho red wine by the glass is heavily skewed to Meritage. Which is okay, but I'd rather have a Zinfandel.

OMG! How cool is that! They have definitely improved the picture imbedding tools. Now I need to start acting like a weird food fanatic and taking my camera along when I dine, whipping it out for each plate of food. These pictures are from a previous lunch taken with my phone camera. First one is of some truly excellent quail on couscous, the second of the cheese plate. With figs! Left to right goat, aged cheddar, bleu and triple brie.  Third picture is what happens when mussels are truly awesome. (they get demolished)