The Farm: Redlands, CA

I had an amazingly delicious supper tonight at Farm Artisan on State Street in Redlands. If you aren't familiar with it, feel free to click over to their website then return to Bama Drifter for my review. OK, so my wife Eliz and I really enjoy good restaurants. We make a point to have a date once a week. And at a fancy place once a month. Without cable TV or car payments, this is our main splurge. Since my mom was in town for my valve procedure, we made sure to take her along with us.

The food is primarily why we go to the Farm, with atmosphere being a close second. Most of the ingredients are locally produced and the menu changes regularly to reflect what is in season. Tonight they had a price fixe option three course dinner for $19. Choice of soup or salad, trout or tofu with vegetables, and strawberries with cream for dessert. Luckily tonight's soup was our favorite: carrot ginger over a bed of buckwheat (other times it is over jasmine rice). Not to forget, you get fresh bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar after placing your order. Similar style but way better quality than Macaroni Grill. The carrot ginger soup isn't overly spiced and has a pleasant hint of coconut. We get it every time that it is available and heartily recommend it. The ladies heirloom tomato salad was pleasant.

For my main course I had the pan seared trout over corn cake with fresh vegetable medley. Accompanying this meal was a glass of Pedroncelli Zinfandel which we'll discuss further later on. The fish was prepared just how I like, lightly pan fried skin on. Fresh carrots, squash, and onions also tasted great. A large medallion sized corn cake made another special touch. A bit more pepper would have been helpful, but overall I would say this was one of my favorite Farm meals yet.

For dessert, we had fresh strawberries with almond cake and cream. The presentation was lovely with a dollop of cream in the center, surrounded by a ring of sliced strawberries and a biscotti-like almond cake cut into three strips. This I washed down with the fabulous 2008 Trentadue Petite Sirah Port. If you've had their exquisite Chocolate Amore, you may find this offering a bit dryer and plummier with a slightly fruiter mouthfeel. The Farm continues to make progress in desserts, but still lacks in the coffee area. We hope they will advance beyond basic coffee soon and offer cappuccino, espresso, or our old standby: the sugar-free hazelnut decaf soy latte.

The award winning wine I enjoyed is worth mentioning again. A bold red, Pedroncelli Zinfandel 2010 from California's Dry Creek Valley scored 88 points in Wine Spectator. Jammy, blackberry, with mild floral notes and hint of pepper. My tasting notes overlap those of the pros. I think I have a decent nose for quality and Zinfandel is probably my favorite grape. Usually I try to stick to the budget wines like Trader Joe's Reserve, Rosenblum, or Bogle so this was a treat. A glass a day keeps the cardiologist away!

In a word this evening was scrumptrulescent.