Restaurant Week - Gigi's

Jared, Heather, Tommy and his wife Jamie and I went to Gigi's at 3rd and Market to take advantage of the final night of Restaurant Week.

The weather was awful. It rained all day, it was windy, which made the wet cold. Jared and I were talking about how when we were kids, a day like this would have been all snow and we would have been sledding the next day. Global warming, I guess...

Jared had wanted to try Zot, which is a Belgian place in Old City, but by the time he got around to making the reservations they were all booked. He settled on Gigi's. He didn't know anything about it, but the menu was interesting so we gave it a shot. All in all, it was a rather good meal, but it didn't blow any of us away. In fact the best part of the night was the parking spot we got. When you get a spot right in front of the restaurant, you just have to take a photo to prove it.


Gigi's presented a four course menu, which was a little bit of a change from the three course menus that most restaurants offer. The started us out with a salad, then appetizer, entree and dessert. I picked the Belgian Endive Salad, which came with bartlett pears and walnuts. Generally, I find that pears really compliment a salad well and this was no exception. The appetizer that I selected was the cornmeal dusted calamari. The cornmeal gave a different texture and flavor to the calamari, but what really stood out about the dish were the dips. A scallion aioli and a creamy chipotle sauce were excellent. The main entree was a coffee rubbed rib eye. This was an interesting slab of meat. Coffee is not the first thing I would think to pair with a steak, but it was certainly not a bad combination. A nearly flavorless flourless chocolate cake was a disappointing finish to the meal. Jared and Tommy's lemon and vanilla flan was a much better choice.

After dinner, we went around the corner to visit one of Max and David's mashgiachs whose apartment is on top of a gallery. Since it was First Friday in the city, the gallery was had an open house with wine and sushi and these tasty little rice krispie brownie thingies. I've never been to a gallery where they performed Kiddush for Shabbas. I felt horribly under-Jewish there. Faygie gave us the tour of her apartment, which is really nice. Jared sat in an odd little chair that didn't quite fit.


The hardwood floors were beautiful, old worn wood. I suppose it is a little odd that the floors are what I remember, aside from the extremely steep and narrow stairs that would be difficult to navigate up or down while intoxicated.

It was good to get out of the house on Friday night, but sadly in our old age, we were back home by 9 pm and wondering what to do next.