So this past weekend when I went up to Sacramento for Kevin's law school graduation, the plan was that we would go to a restaurant in Davis afterward for dinner, and my initial response was something along the lines of "Davis? What the heck is in Davis?". I spoke too soon... way too soon.
So we get in all the cars and make the 15 minute drive out to Davis. I didn't know Davis was so close to Sacramento. I thought it was farther. Anyway... as we pull into Davis, I get the small town kind of feeling, which well, Davis is a pretty small town. But I actually mean that in a nice way. Almost immediately, my impressions of Davis being nothing but cowfields quickly went away. And let me tell you, when we pulled up to the restaurant, I was almost blown away. It was right on the corner of the street and as I looked down to the far end, I got even more of the cute, small town feeling. The only thing that would have made it perfect was seeing Buick's and Pontiacs from the 1950s.
The restaurant we went to is called Seasons. As you can see from the photo, it is right on the corner of the street. The restaurant itself is moderne with dark wood tables and cream-clothed seats. We had arrived before the dinner crowd, so it was empty upon walking in. We were greeted by a 3 course prix fixe menu. There was a choice of 2 appetizers, 4 entrees, and 1 dessert. The appetizers were either a dungeness crab quesadilla with monterey jack, served with housemade salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. The other choice was fried calamari with an arugala and sweet pepper salad. I selected the calamari.
The calamari was a little overdone, but the arugala was a nice peppery balance to the sweetness of the calamari. I actually did decide that I should have gotten the quesadilla instead. Oh well.
The entrees were a choice between sea scallops, roasted chicken, cioppino, or a grilled ribeye with foie gras butter, potatoes au gratin, and roasted broccoli. I think you can guess what my choice was. And with any tender cut of beef, I always order it at most medium rare. I haven't been brave enough to try rare, but I don't think it's the best idea anyway.
*Sorry folks, I was so entranced by the beauty of my steak that I forgot to take a picture. It was big too, I'd say it was about 16oz. My kind of cut.
So, moving onto dessert, which was entitled "Scharffenberger Brownie" and it came out with a very simple and clean presentation. The brownie sat on the plate, swimming in a small "puddle" of chocolate sauce, and had a large scoop of caramel gelato resting on top. The plate was garnished with cocoa nibs and a light dusting of powdered sugar.
The brownie was not too sweet and a little bit more cakier than your typical fudge brownie. It had a nice texture to it. The caramel gelato was pretty light in flavor. Like, I didn't really have much of a caramel flavor. I liked it. Wasn't the best, just REALLY honest, but I would definitely order it again.
Overall, I really like the restaurant and if I ever go to Sacramento again in the near future, I would definitely want to go back to Davis and to Seasons restaurant. And actually having been to Davis really changed my stereotype of that town.
