Harvest Wine Bar

I have to confess I was a little worried about going to Harvest Wine Bar and Restaurant this afternoon. We were going at the urging of T-Comm member Stephanie that works there. She has such confidence in the place she works. If I didn’t like it, could I really be mean enough to tell her that and give details on all the terrible things about it like I did her neighbor Briccos? Well we will not find out the answer to that today. Because I thoroughly enjoyed Harvest. What a difference a few feet make? Located next to Bricco’s on LaSalle Street in West Hartford, I suggest people that are looking at the two from the street to “GO LEFT YOUNG MAN” or woman and old man and woman too. While we are at it add the kids in there, although they probably should be going where the adults are going anyways. Harvest is left of Bricco’s and is the right place to be.

I met a friend there an hour early of our reservations to try out happy hour drinks and appetizers. This was a brilliant move on our part, not only because we got the extra food, but we missed a traffic jam in Avon that our other friends got caught in who weren’t trying to get there so early. You know the old saying, the early drinker gets the calamari and misses the traffic jam. And we did get the calamari and the crab cakes, and the tater tots, and the empanadas. Did I mention our friends were late because they were caught in a traffic jam? The Crispy Calamari was not the tender little rings of Briccos. There were arms in a heartier breading, that were a little tougher, but had more flavor. There were two dipping sauces, a lemon aioli, which was just ok, and a honey sambal sauce. I have no idea what sambal is or means, but it had a nice kick to it and the mixture with the honey was a little spicy and a little sweat and perfect for the calamari. The crab cakes, where actually little crab balls, five bite size ones, well I do have a big mouth. As I was saying bite size little balls with a chipotle aioli, pineapple mango slaw, and arugula, (like I was going to eat arugula with all these great appetizers). These were golden brown little balls, that were sweet, crabby delights. It was at this point we found out they were going to be late and went on to round two with the cheddar risotto tater tots, which were served with a truffle aioli dipping sauce. These were not your mothers tater tots. These would stick their noses high in the air and sniff if they ever saw your mothers tater tots, and you know what unlike most people that put on airs, they would have every right. As a matter of fact you’d be cheering them on “walk proud, walk proud.” Finally for happy hour appetizers we tried the beef empanadas. I would describe them in more detail, except I couldn’t find them on the online menu and if I could cook I wouldn’t be going out to dinner so much to write these reviews. The shell was tasty as was the beef, although I would have liked them filled a little more. There was a green sauce that enhanced the flavor. I believe it was chimichurri, but remember my aforementioned cooking skills. Thankfully the rest of our party came at this time and saved us from having to order more appetizers. Damn them.

I am just going to describe what I had as I didn’t taste the other peoples and my reviews are too damn long already. I will say that 5 out 6 were very happy with what they got and the 6th just said they ordered wrong, as they don’t like certain flavors yet ordered items despite the menu saying they were in them. An example they are Italian and don’t like basil. I know kind of like an Italian restaurant not serving bread, right Buon Appetito? Despite that he ordered the meatball appetizers which clearly stated they had basil and oregano (another spice he doesn’t like, we are doing an Ancestry.Com test on him about this Italian claim as we speak) and the damn place didn’t lie to him and actually had basil and oregano in the meatballs. The nerve. So besides him we all enjoyed everything and he tried his wives and liked that, but she wasn’t about to part with it. OK back to just describing mine. I guess I am less trustworthy than Harvest. We did the Restaurant Week Special, which came with an appetizer. This time I got the Eggplant Parmesan. There were two large circles of breaded eggplant, covered in fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil pesto. The only thing wrong with this was that it was an appetizer and not the main course so I couldn’t have even more of it. For the meal I got the Sausage Tagliatelle, which was described as “house made fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, garlic, pesto, chili flakes and parmesan cheese.” This was outside of my normal order regimen, but it was a nicely done dish. I liked the sausage a lot, remembered as I ate it that I have never been a big fan of broccoli rabe as it is a little too bitter for me, but in this mixture it worked fine, and the best part was there was a nice sauce, perfect for dipping bread in, and guess what they had bread. Can we all say this together now, you hear that Buon Appetito?

Unlike most of the Prix Fixe dinners for restaurant week this one did not include dessert, which considering all the appetizers I had tried I was thankful for, because you know damn well if it came with the meal I would have had to have eaten it, just so I could report back to you. No thank you’s needed.

In conclusion, (I know your happy to hear that), Harvest was very good. There was not one thing I tried that I wasn’t happy with and considering how many items I tried that is saying something. Stephanie, I thought you were brave or crazy for wanting me to review your restaurant. Turns out you were just rightfully confident.