The Upstate Life

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Review: Table 21 @ Volt (Part I – A Preface)

Our experience at Table 21 simply cannot be captured in one post. So instead, I'll be making this a four-part series where I'll break down our meal into three 7-course posts throughout the week. But first, I'll start off with a prologue on how this came about since the back-story deserves a post of its own.

Rachel's 30th birthday was a few weeks ago, and since this was one of those milestone birthdays and all, I had to make sure that this would be a memorable one. You see, despite Rachel's reluctance to admit that's she's 30 (which she thinks automatically labels her as "old"), she was still carded when she bought a movie ticket to Tropic Thunder last year. So, um, yeah.

Anyway, we had been meaning to go to Volt long before chef Bryan Voltaggio was slated to be a contestant on this season's Top Chef, but it wasn't until September that we had found out about the amazing 21 course menu served inside the kitchen. This sounded like quite the experience so when it came time to plan her birthday, I decided to make the reservation later that month in fear of it booking up because of Top Chef starting around the same time.

Furthermore, I wanted to keep this dinner a surprise, and since Table 21 is a communal table that sits up to four people, I called up our friends Kim and Brian to see if they wanted to be my partners in crime for this instead of being paired up with some random patrons. They went with the plan since they also had an upcoming wedding anniversary to celebrate, plus they're awesome. Our only problem was how we were going to surprise Rachel when Volt is situated all the way up in Frederick.

Well, leave it to Kim to create a fake invitation for an early holiday party her coworker was supposedly having up in Frederick the very same day of the reservation. Rachel amazingly bought it since Kim begged her go as her beau had work to do that evening. Kim had also said that they'd stop and grab a drink at Volt first so Rachel could take a peek at Mr. Voltaggio since she blatantly has a crush on him (dare I say even had a dream about him? But I digress).

Anyway, Rachel just made the MARC train up to Frederick while it took me nearly two hours to make the drive up to 270, but I was still able to arrive early enough and meet Brian before the two of them showed up. The surprised look of Rachel's face seeing Brian and I standing at the bar had already made my night.

The hostess then took our coats and guided us past the dining room which created even more confusion for Rachel until we were ultimately seated at a table inside the kitchen that was literally within arm's reach from where the chefs were working, including Mr. Bryan Voltaggio himself. Rachel could not stop gawking.

Coming Up: The first seven courses of our dinner at Table 21.

Posted by Brett at 1:01 PM |