We headed up here to the Berkshires for two nights to specifically see a performance of FAUST at the Berkshire Opera Festival with two wonderful young singers who graduated from the Cafritz Young Artists Program at Washington National Opera and then had the pleasure of taking them to dinner last night. The area does not have a lot of fine dining, but with some research, I found CAFE ADAM just around the corner from our hotel and while quite casual, the food, service and wine were all superb.
We ordered some great starters to share:
Cape Oysters from Massachusetts were plump and tasty with a simple homemade mignonette, while the Old Bay Smoked Bluefish Dip was full of flavor and came with tortilla chips for dipping and some confetti pickles. One of our guests had dined here the week before and said we had to order the Truffle-Honey Bread which is made with fresh grated black truffles; it was an excellent choice and came hot to the table and was gone in seconds. Osetra Caviar Potato Chips were large homemade chips with a dimple of caviar and some dill sour cream that just needed more caviar.
Cape Oysters from Massachusetts were plump and tasty with a simple homemade mignonette, while the Old Bay Smoked Bluefish Dip was full of flavor and came with tortilla chips for dipping and some confetti pickles. One of our guests had dined here the week before and said we had to order the Truffle-Honey Bread which is made with fresh grated black truffles; it was an excellent choice and came hot to the table and was gone in seconds. Osetra Caviar Potato Chips were large homemade chips with a dimple of caviar and some dill sour cream that just needed more caviar.
We ordered a bottle of "Baby" Sancerre from Isabelle Clemente in Mentou-Salon in the Loire which we loved but switched to a delicious and citrusy 2023 Jack's Hill Chardonnay called "Le P'tit Paysan" which we had with our Caesar salads. They were yummy and made with romaine, escarole, pecorino and garlic croutons and some of us added white anchovies!
Our server Jen was awesome and gave us just the right amount of time between courses so we could chat and catch up and discuss the wonderful performances that everyone had that afternoon in what will be a most memorable Faust!
Our red wine was a yummy full-bodied Shiraz 2021 from Barossa Valley Estate in Australia which was great with the Korean BBQ Pork Ribs with Forbidden Black Rice, Red pepper, Asian pickles, curried peanuts and grilled scallion. Two of us had the d'Artagnan Steak Frites which one was a Grass-fed 16 ounce ribeye and one a bavette. They came with mustard butter and fabulous fries. The New Bedford Scallops were some of the largest I have ever seen and came with sweet corn, red peppers, summer squash zucchini, basil and local cherry tomatoes.
We stayed for over 3-1/2 hours and decided to try some desserts with the Key Lime Tart & Raspberry Sorbet being the least exciting, while the No.6Affogato was Espresso, Vanilla Gelato, Chocolate ganache and homemade Biscotto with Toasted Almonds.
Summer Fruit Pie came with Vanilla Ice Cream and was declared a tad too sweet and my Banana Napolean was a monstrous portion of bananas, pudding, cinnamon, mille-feuille and bourbon-brown sugar syrup. It wsa made largely of the shredded wheat pastry known as kataifi or kanafeh and was delicious, but portion to share. 2014 Alvear Pedro Jiminez "de Aurida" sherry was the perfect finish to a great meal with two great isngers who will be on a route to major stardom!
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