A Posh Birthday

I made reservations for Michael's birthday and didn't tell him where we were going because I thought it was such a cool idea. The restaurant is called Posh and it describes itself as "Improvisational Cuisine." It was right across the street from where we used to live in Old Town Scottsdale.

Ordering is like this: first you decide how many courses you want. 4, 5, 6 or 7. You can also order however many courses accompanied by customized wine selections to fit your food. They have a list of protein options for the evening and you are supposed to cross off the ones you aren't willing to try. Normal things like red snapper, prime rib, soft shell crab, but also thinkgs like kangaroo, monkfish, frog legs, cod cheeks, uni (sea urchin roe). You also have a place to write down general things you don't like, such as tomatoes, asparagus, etc.

YOU DON'T ACTUALLY SELECT YOUR MEAL. The chefs just take a look at what you wrote down and they create however many courses you decided to get based on what you tell them. I was so excited to see what came out.

This is a nice place and I felt a tiny bit apprehensive about taking June there. We have been very lucky in our experiences at restaurants with June. We normally keep her on our laps, let her look around and play a bit before she gets tired. When that happens (usually before the meal even comes out), into the baby carrier she goes and sleeps for the whole meal. But still, at a nice restaurant like this, I was worried that the other patrons or the servers would see her and give us the stink eye. Well our flamboyant waiter came over and was all, "And who is this?!?!" and I knew we were in good. Besides, who could give the stink eye to this face and her sailor girl/Jackie O. dress?

And as nice as this place is, it's not stuffy, you know?

And she proved herself a Martin by going after Daddy's Crown Royal:

Pop-Pop would be proud.

The rest of this post is pictures and descriptions of our food, that's how excited I was about this place. So if you're not interested in that kind of blogging, read no further!

Before our first course came out we were given a little treat to cleanse the palete. An "amuse-bouche," which Wikipedia defines as a single bite-sized hors d'oeuvre. (Thank God for Google auto-correct because my first attempt to search for this was spelled "a mouje bouche." I'm that klassy.)

Here's my attempt at describing what was in this: orange zest, some kind of greek yogurt, watermelon and/or watermelon radish? They do tell you what it is they're serving you, the problem is that you're so excited to eat and so preoccupied by the pretty presentation that you are hardly paying attention.

I didn't get pictures of our first courses. I had a chilled avocado soup with pumpkin seeds and Michael had a wild greens salad with a fancy poached egg on top.

Second course: I had a soft shell crab with basil pesto and corn salsa, Michael had cod cheeks with artichokes.

For the main course I got wild boar bacon! My main protein was bacon! I was psyched - I had even put a star next to this on the menu, so badly did I want to try this little slice of heaven. Served with lentils and asparagus.
Michael had filet mignon:
And for desert Michael got creme brulee that was spiced with anise or fennel or something fancy, and I got a white chocolate mousse with a berry compote on top. So so good.
Overall I'd give this place 4 amuse-bouches out of 5. The courses were pretty small but we walked out of there feeling full and satisfied. I loved that we got to try all these crazy things we hadn't before. It is pretty pricey ($50 per person for 4 courses), so this is definitely a special occasion type of place.

Which is good because it was Michael's birthday, and I hope it was a great one!