My gal and I went out to dinner at a newly opened Seasons 52 in Rockville, MD with friends this Saturday, and we were moderately impressed with this chain’s efforts in the upscale use of seasonal ingredients, but in the end it came off as just another chain restaurant with interchangeable staff rather than a serious restaurant. The calorie, and even sodium, counts on the menus, and the thought that has gone into making it possible to enjoy restaurant dining without binging are good points, but the experience lacked focus. I may have rolled my eyes when our server included her business card with the bill so that we could request her whenever we dined with them.
Actually, we do have a personal server in a restaurant, even though we don’t eat out that often. Bar none, the best server we’ve ever met was Daniel at the Capital Grille, and his attention is probably what pushes them over the four stars for us.
Of course, I had to have the soup of the day, which was a fresh corn chowder. The flavor was ok, but they’d added in whole corn kernels at the end to give it texture, and they were actually a bit tough. My assessment: I can do better than that.
Hence this week’s Corn Soup.
Links / Sources
- Seasons 52: http://www.seasons52.com/
- Gwyneth Paltro’s Corn Vichysoisse: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/06/corn-vichyssoise
- Hot or Cold Corn Soup: http://localfoods.about.com/od/summer/r/SweetCornSoup.htm