City Restaurant Week: Green Room

EDITOR'S NOTE: City Restaurant Week is off and running. Keep reading Second Helpings this week. Staffers will be grabbing tables at all participating eateries.

By RYAN CORMIER

For my first-ever dinner at Hotel du Pont's Green Room, I felt the same way I do as a Yankee Fan visiting Fenway Park: I'm in a place where I really don't belong.

No matter how many times Green Room folks or city officials downplay the Green Room's prices -- their dinner entrees average $31 a pop -- it's just not a place that I am drawn to.

I usually try not to drop that kind of cash for dinner. I avoid formal spaces as elegant as the Green Room dining area. And I tend to enjoy being around people my own age.

But since this is City Restaurant Week, my editors thought it would be interesting to send Mr. Pulp Culture to one of the the city's finest dining rooms just before I head down to Dewey Beach this summer -- a place where you're more likely to spill Bud Light on your shirt than Esperto Pinot Grigio.

Before heading into downtown Monday night for my 7 p.m. reservation, I decided to test the Green Room's dress code, which was relaxed last year to business casual -- jackets are no longer required for men.

I wore a button-down shirt and a crisp pair of jeans. (I added the word "crisp" to make it sound a little less white trash.) Walking in, I expected the same reaction the goober gets in that old Polaner All Fruit commercial when he yells across the table, "Would you please pass the jelly!?!" I expected elderly women to take one look at me in my casual dress and shriek before passing out in their seared foie gras.

Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, no one looked at all. Actually, I was the one looking. The dining room was half-full and I was the youngest one there. (By the time we left a little around 8:15, the room was filled and there were plenty of diners in their 30s.)

I was seated next to two nice older women (possibly half of the "Golden Girls" cast) celebrating a birthday. I heard one of the classy Greenville types say, "Happy birthday dah-ling," and I felt like I suddenly felt like I really should have a top hat and a monocle to fit in.

I kicked things off with a special "Green Martini" ($8) from the City Restaurant Week menu -- a very sweet lime concoction made with Belvedere vodka. I'd recommend finishing it before eating or having it after dinner -- the drink didn't exactly go with my steak.

My friend had a Yuengling Bock beer ($6), which was also on the special menu. The beer is a seasonal offering from Yuengling in celebration of their 180th anniversary. My friend, who is from originally Texas and considers Shiner Bock his favorite beer, had no complaints.

For my first of the three courses, I had Georgia sweet corn soup along with the complimentary warm and crusty rolls. The soup consisted of corn shoots, a truffle-corn reduction and a dollop of corn pudding in the center. It marked my first time ever consuming corn shoots, a truffle-corn reduction or a dollop of corn pudding. Still, it was excellent, seemingly stripping the flavor down to a pure corn essence. (I'm sure I broke some sort of haughty etiquette, but you're damn right I wiped the bowl with a piece of bread to get every last drop.)

My friend's arugula salad, complete with Pekin duck prosciutto, Manchego cheese (a sheep's milk cheese) and covered with an apple and pecan vinaigrette was also a hit. Both my bowl and his plate were wiped clean.

Then it was entree time. Did I feel guilty about eating my petite filet mignon while looking out the Green Room's grand windows overlooking Rodney Square and some of the city's homeless population standing there in the stifling heat?

The answer is yes.

But once I turned my full attention to my steak -- with a perfectly blackened outside and a medium rare red inside -- I was lost in my meal. The steak was topped with smoked toast and served atop cheese grits, surrounded by a regiment of grilled grapes with sea salt. (Note to self: warm grapes are never to be eaten ever again.)

My friend had the pan-roasted organic salmon surrounded by green beans (haricot verts for the cultured among us) and a sweet bread almond salad. An almond puree caramelized half lemon used for lemon juice on the fish was the only thing left on his plate.

Before heading out, I dove into a creamy flourless chocolate mousse cake and my friend tackled a generous raspberry Creme Brulee.

I must admit, it was probably the best dinner I've ever had in Wilmington. From top to bottom, it was flawless. Really good.

With two $35 charges for the City Restaurant Week dinner and our drinks, the bill was $84 before tip -- not bad for two people considering the quality of the food, the service and the surroundings.