5626 W Bell Rd, Glendale, AZ
I went to this club expecting it to be something else, La Grocerie to be exact. And I thought it was… until I got home and looked at my receipt for their address. New owners or just a new name? I’m not sure, but it was a similar experience to my last visit.
I get the impression that they thought I was a food critic of some sort (I guess, since I am writing a review, I am) – I was dining alone, I asked some very specific questions about their menu, I solicited my servers opinion on two of the dishes, I let her know I planned on having dessert, and asked her to leave the wine list so I could pick the perfect wine to go with something chocolate. Then I took pictures of my food and was writing notes on my MDA. All in all, pretty suspicious looking. Sorry the pics are dark and blurry, but the restaurant is dark – go figure.
I started with the Crunchy Apple and Gorgonzola Quesadilla with prosciutto and candied walnuts.
Really interesting mix of flavors, great presentation. This may have been a bit better for me with just a slight tweak, however. Most of the flavors were so mild that the gorgonzola was a bit much. I think this might have been even better with a more subtle cheese, something with just slightly less bite/tanginess.
On to dessert. I had tried the Flourless Chocolate Cake on my previous visit and was seriously disappointed, so I skipped it this time. Had I realized it was a different restaurant (and so possibly a different cake) I may have tried that again. Instead, I went with the Chocolate Covered Strawberries – how could you possibly go wrong?
This was a good-sized serving, six large berries for $5.00. The berries were perfectly ripe and juicy. The chocolate, however, was too thick (did I just say that?) There is a balance to be achieved and the chocolate should not be that heavy. They were served covered in whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup – yummy but messy. My one suggestion there would be to keep the chocolate syrup off of the stems – easy to do and much less messy for your customers who are trying to navigate their way through eating giant hunks of solid strawberry flavored chocolate 🙂
The servers were friendly and attentive, not to mention adorable, and the atmosphere was pleasant. On the Friday and Saturday nights they have live music. Their line-up rotates through NuGruv (not familiar with them), Subterranean Jazz (a bit too contemporary for me), Royce Murray (B-3 blues), and the John Shea Trio (no idea).