Table 45 - Blast From The Past Dinner

A few weeks ago it was my friend Charlene's birthday. She wasn't excited about this milestone and insisted on telling all of us it would be 'her last one'. But then something strange happened. She started getting really lucky. Lucky like scoring tickets to the Rock Hall Induction Ceremony, having a long fabulous weekend of celebrating with the best of friends and winning Table 45's Blast From The Past contest.

She was done. Seriously, the next logical step was for her to play the lottery. The windfall came my way when she asked me to be her date on Tuesday. Uh, YEAH. I'm there! Now I'm the lucky one.

Table 45 is probably Zack Bruell's least visited restaurant by locals. We're spoiled with Parallax in Tremont, everyone loves L'Albatros, Chinato on East 4th and his newest gem, Cowell & Hubbard. I for one, always overlook Table 45 since it's connected to the InterContinental and Cleveland Clinic. But it just might be his best.

The concept of the contest was to pick your favorite dish from past years/menus. Winners were picked at random and treated to a multi-course best-of dinner. At the Chef's Table. There were 4 winners and each could bring one guest.

I'm not a food writer, so here's my pictorial recap. Girl About Cleveland was there, so be sure to head over and read her recap. It will have your mouth watering

Our place at the Chef's Table - View of the kitchen - Chef Thomas Schrenk 

-Menu of the night-

top - grilled hearts of romaine salad

bottom - vegetarian lasagna

top - rice paper wrapped crab cake

bottom - Thai coconut broth 

rack of lamb w/ Indian mint sauce 

apple gillette w/ mint & creme anglaise

Not only was each course better than the next, and paired with wine, but we had wonderful dining company. Great conversation ensued as we realized we all follow each other on twitter. There were many inappropriate food tweets that evening that may or may not have included a smoked sea salt smelling like 'sexy man'. Ideas about a summer backyard potluck from the lovely Cara and her husband Jeff. But the best moment of the evening came when Chris asked if they still did the scotch egg to which the Chef replied that they did and could we hang out for a bit while he fired one up. So even though we were all beyond stuffed, no one was passing up a taste of that lamb chorizo scotch egg.

It was an exquisite evening and I cannot wait to get back!

A huge thanks to Charlene for bringing me as her date, Chef Screnk and Table 45 for a lovely evening. I'm quite the lucky girl.