Fossett's - Keswick Hall

Date
7/19/09

Location
Keswick Hall
701 Club Drive

What I ate
Summer bean bisque with scallop ratatouille
Bouille of Gryffon's Aerie beef, parsley pappardelle, beets, pea shoots
Virginia Gentleman cake with surrey peanut ice cream
Who went
Kelly

Website
http://www.keswick.com/web/okes/fossetts.jsp

Thoughts
First a little disclaimer - I'm writing this a little more than a month after we actually ate there. I was busy preparing for veterinary school and I'm going to try to write it from memory in a very short amount of free time I have (read: while I'm in class).

This place has the look and service you think of when you hear the term "country club". That is to say, at least what I think of when I hear the term. We had a great view overlooking the golf course, everything was very clean and shiny, and everyone was dressed quite nicely. Our waiter was conversational, but not overly talkative (see P.S.) and the other, umm, table attendants said nothing aside from asking if we wanted more bread. I did feel made fun of when I opted for tap water over the $8 bottle of water - the guy said I was in for "Albemarle's finest" with a bit of a mocking tone - but everyone was very nice otherwise.

The food was really delicious. My soup was very flavorful and had a great bean-y taste. The scallops were cool and refreshing. I'm going to have to learn how to make a bean soup like that. They also gave us some crusty bread and home-made cheese spread as an appetizer which was great; I could probably snack on a whole lot of that stuff. The two cuts of beef were, unsurprisingly, really tender and both well cooked and well seasoned. The vegetables didn't add all that much taste, but they did give a nice balance. Really, this is very closely related to a fancy beef stew, but it didn't matter because it was delicious. Regarding dessert, those of you who know me know that I'll be very content with most things bourbon-related. The cake was actually a little on the bourbon-y side for a dessert, but it was awesome and the peanut ice cream was both a good compliment and scrumptious (I'm running out of synonyms for "delicious") by itself.

Recap
Pros - really tasty, great service, great view
Cons - expensive, even for RW
Overall - I can see why it's so expensive to eat here usually. The food was really delicious - up there with the tastiest of RW - and the service was great. It had the atmosphere of an uptight, hoity-toity dinner but I really felt comfortable. I probably won't be back, but that's definitely not because of the food.

P.S. Ask me for the funny waiter slip-up.