Farewell, Mary Elaine's.

JT and I spent a wonderful evening at Mary Elaine's saying farewell to the beautiful restaurant that has been a highlight of our 13 year relationship. We spent our first date there the night of our senior prom, my 19th birthday, our 3rd anniversary, and lastly and finally, we celebrated our 9th anniversary on April 2, 2008. This article in the Arizona Republic speaks so eloquently, much better than I, of this beautiful, elegant restaurant...we're so sad to see it go.

Here's a look at how funny JT and I looked some 13 years ago! Don't laugh...it was the 90's!

This pic is at my parents house when JT came to pick me up.

And 13 years later...Still at my parents house when we dropped the kids off for the night.

There are two ways to eat at Mary Elaine's. You can select from the regular menu, or you can choose the tasting menu which is a 6 course sampling chosen by the chef. Both of us opted to order the tasting menu. This is a great way to sample all sorts of exotic foods and receive a well-rounded meal full of many different taste experiences.

The menu:

The Apartif: A small corn pancake with a salami slice, drizzled in maple syrup
(I wish I would have taken pictures of the food, but at the time it seemed it would be a little weird...)

First Course: Chilled Oysters with Celery Puree and beluga caviar, garnished with lime gelle'
(I've never had oysters before. It was a bit like taking a bite out of the ocean...very salty, but the caviar was yummy!)

Second Course: Oxtail Canoli with granny smith apple, brussels sprout garnish and oxtail connsumme'
(Now, I'm not really sure that I actually ate oxtail, but if I did, it was really good! This was one of my favorites of the night. The combination of flavors was so interesting and original.)

Third Course: Turbot with blood orange sauce garnished with coconut foam
(This was the fish course. It was interesting, and the coconut foam was different. Can't say I've ever had coconut in foam form before.)

Fourth Course: Duo Rabbit: Rabbit fillet with beluga lentils and a rabbit pot pie.
(Nope, never had rabbit before either. This was my other favorite, and yes, rabbit tastes like chicken. The pot pie had this amazing phylo crust with wonderful fresh peas and potatos in it.

Fifth Course: Venison Mole' with sweet potato and huckleberry sauce
(I think this one was JT's favorite. It was spicy, and served very rare...it makes me less scared of eating rare meat. : 0)

Palette Cleanser: Mango ravioli infused (always sounds better than "stuffed") with passion fruit puree, garnished with ginger gelle'

Sixth Course: Dessert: Creme brule' with a corncake base, topped with parmesan (tasted like butta) ice cream...Yummy!

Then we ended the meal with a plate of petit fours and some French press coffee.

It was so wonderful to walk into the beautiful lobby and hear the piano playing softly. We were shown to our table, where my purse got to spend the evening atop their signature "purse stool." We were seated right at the window where we could see the resort grounds below and the entire valley beyond that. The food was really good, but not quite as good as we remembered...Perhaps, that is fitting...it is meant to remain only in our memories as one of the most elegant places this side of heaven of which we were blessed to partake.