Our First Valentine’s

This year was our first Valentine’s as a married couple! And we decided to make it a 24-hour celebration starting with dinner on Sunday night. Joel took me to a very nice French restaurant in St. Louis, Chez Leon. You walk into a beautiful brick building with large windows facing the street, that I imagine on warmer nights might look out on patio tables. Don’t you love patio tables and sidewalk cafés? I do. However, though Sunday was a breakthrough of warmth compared to the frigid snow and ice we’ve been experiencing for weeks, it still wasn’t warm enough for outdoor dining.

The interior of the restaurant was a luxe atmosphere with navy blue walls featuring art by local artist, Daniel Byrne, crystal chandeliers and intimate seating with white linens and candlelight. They normally have live piano music, but their pianist was out of town. Though we still enjoyed the soft tinkling of keys via CD :). This was our first time dining here, and we have agreed it has become a favorite, albeit a special occasion one. Our server, Tim, took excellent care of us – as well as all of the staff from the busboys to the hostess and maître d’. But let’s talk about the food…

A – mazing! We are not big wine drinkers, so we passed on that, but they do have an extensive wine menu. Our meal started with hot French rolls – and I’m talking about perfectly French rolls: crisp and flaky on the outside and soft on the inside. Yum. There were many starters available from appetizers to salads and soup, an onion soup featured daily as well as a du jour option. Sunday’s was lobster bisque, which is one of my favorites, but as we were eating an early dinner neither of us felt we could do starters and still enjoy our main course, while saving room for the requisite dessert ;), so we opted to pass. Joel decided on roast chicken at the suggestion of Tim, and it was divine! Roasted to golden perfection with delicious crisp skin, with a truffle mushroom sauce drizzled on top. Though neither of us are real mushroom lovers, he did decide that truffles are delicious.

We love to watch all things Chef Ramsey: Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Master Chef. So naturally I’ve seen Beef Wellington prepared and thrown out countless times (“This meat is bloody raw!”), however, I’ve never eaten it. So when I saw it on the menu I decided to take the opportunity to try it. The presentation was beautiful, a gorgeous fillet wrapped in puff pastry with a savory sauce drizzled over. As I cut into it I realized it was very rare inside – too rare for my taste; I’m a medium, medium-rare kind of girl. So I requested it cooked up a bit. Only a few short minutes later Tim returned with a brand new Wellington fresh out of the oven cooked wonderfully. The fillet was so tender and the puff pastry full of buttery goodness. But the hands-down best part of the meal was the potatoes au gratin that came with it. I can’t even imagine how much butter was in them, but they were simply divine! If I worked at Chez Leon I would gain a pound a day just from eating those potatoes.

We finished our meal with a made-to-order French soufflé that came with chocolate melted inside. I’ve only had a chocolate soufflé one other time, so I didn’t quite remember the texture. It was a springy, moist, airy almost-custard with a crisp top that the melted chocolate soaked into. Very light and very delicious!

We ended the evening by taking a few pictures to document this momentous occasion (as you can see below) – every first holiday when you’re married is momentous. Then spent the remainder of the evening being home together. Perfect night.

Shannon