Each year, it’s the same song and dance. I spend winter wishing for summer, spring anxiously awaiting summer’s arrival, and every fall, I’m sad to see it go. This summer, like most of my summers, has been non-stop. I’ve been traveling, laughing and dining my way through these sunny days (or not-so-sunny days in Pittsburgh)… which leads me to one particular dinner date I had a few months ago at Park Bruges in Highland Park.
Park Bruges is a neighborhood French infusion bistro right around the corner from the apartment I used to share with my college roommate, Molly (Susan). Yet, in all my time in Highland Park, I never set foot inside. When it graced Pittsburgh Magazine’s 2014 list of best restaurants, I added it to my to-do list. A year later, I finally stumbled inside for a spontaneous and long overdue dinner date with Molly.
For dinner, I ordered a cup of the spinach chowder and the Roasted Beet Salad. I have pretty high standards for anything called “chowder,” given the time I’m able to spend in New England each year, but the soup was absolutely loaded with veggies, so I overlooked the fact that the chowder wasn’t thick enough to keep my spoon standing. (Hehe.) And then there was the salad. In my opinion, the most killer food trio to ever exist in the summer time is beets, walnuts and goat cheese. Park Bruges layered on some bacon (and come on, who doesn’t die for bacon?), and I was in business.
Susan got the steak frites which, in her opinion, was bomb. The steak was served over sauteed julienne vegetables with a red wine and whole grain mustard sauce, which did some work to balance the flavor of the fries that quite possibly could have come from McDonald’s — extraaaa salty.
The food was fine, the atmosphere was okay, but the company? That was sure hard to beat.
Cheers to you, Susan, for being an amazing friend and a badass woman. COUNTDOWN TO GRADUATION: 16 DAYS!
Tiny Tales 