Eighteen 27

Tuomo writes: my entries are not in chronological order, so sue me! :-)

On Friday night, we were in the mood for some booze and entertainment. We were heading up to Fort Langley where Dave had his 7PM haircut appointment, so we decided to dress up a bit, which for me meant putting on my gray peacoat instead of the usual leather bomber jacket, and go to Eighteen 27, the piano and martini bistro across the street from the hair salon.

We were greeted by a nice gentleman (owner/bouncer?) who, after a short wait, guided us over to the piano to enjoy some drinks and music until a table would come up. The first impression was that the bistro was hopping, the music was enjoyable and appropriate - no Miss American Pie sing-alongs going on! The crowd appeared local, casually dressed (making us feel a little over-dressed but what the hey!). The staff was young, well-dressed, and easy on the eyes.

The drinks menu consisted of an impressive array of martinis, all of which seemed juicy and delicious, just as we like 'em. I ordered a Crantini (gotta love these names, called blends in linguistics!): smooth and delicious, yet strong without giving you the sensation that the drink is scraping the brain cells off the lining of your skull, like so many martinis, prepared by bartenders who appear to think that more is more. In fact, had we been in Rehoboth Beach and in our favourite watering hole there, the Blue Moon, I would have downed five of them by the end of happy hour and been delightfully tipsy the rest of the evening. However, this was not the case, and I was also the designated driver du jour, so I had to drink responsibly, i.e. abstain from further sampling. Oh well... Angie ordered an 1827, a Chinese pear and lychee based martini: simply delicious with a capital LISH! I gotta have one of those the next time! Dave's Cosmo was just as consistently delicisious, giving us that we had arrived in the right place. Oh and most importantly, the drinks were also served appropriately filled in big glasses, an aspect we learned to pay attention to - the hard way - when a recently opened tapas restaurant in Baltimore failed to do so.

While I continued to nurse my Crantini, Dave and Angie went for a second round of drinks. I can't remember what Dave ordered, but Angie, who loves her Bellinis, got a Bellinitini (another blend there!): peach juice, champagne, and vodka (I believe). Lemme tell ya: that was just as delicious! Bartender, I'll have one these too... next time!

Right when we had placed our third round of orders, we got seated at the window. This time, something happened to our drinks. We suspect that Angie's choice, an Orangesicle, was missing Cointreau, the key element without which her drink tasted only like half-and-half with orange rind. This was remedied somewhat when our waiter brought her the orange liqeur though unfortunately the result of adding the Cointreau at this point gave her cocktail a visually unpleasant look. I had ordered a mocktini (yet another blend!) of pear juice and non-alcoholic champage; the drink, though served visually pleasingly in a fabulous tall glass, did not quite live up to the expectation. Although I could both see and feel the bubbles, the c... mocktail was not served chilled enough to get over the fact that I had ordered a non-alcoholic drink. Yummy and faboo looking, but not faboo on the palate.

As for the food, we ordered the Italian fondue, beef Wellington, and phyllo. The waiter pointed out that the dishes were sharesies for two, which we three (!) were OK with. The fondue was to die for as was the beef Wellington: excellent quantity/quality ratio. The phyllo was a bit of a disappointment being as pricey as the beef, yet the portion size and flavors did not quite justify it in our opinion. In addition, having been hungry when we walked in, once we had polished off our plates we were still hungry! With martinis at $7 a pop (the mocktinis were $4), our final tab ran underrstandably quite high (we paid the first three rounds separately).

In sum:
Service at the door: Welcoming and chummy; the doorman was attentive to us while we had to deal with the inconvenient but unavoidable wait.
Service at the piano: Very prompt, professional, and very friendly.
Service at the table: Professional and very friendly; could have been more prompt.
Drinks: With the exception of the Orangesicle and mocktinis, juicy, smooth, and delicious. Mm-mm-mmm!
Food: Appetizer-sized, delicious though possibly pricey at times .

So, on a scale of one to ten, we give Eighteen 27 a solid eight... plus. It was our mistake not to eat something before going there : it's a piano bar, for crying out loud :-) The next time we feel we want to indulge ourselves in something more classy without driving all the way to Vancouver, we'll definitely consider Eighteen 27. Definitely recommended; just don't arrive hungry :-)