Fun With Carbs

Island Creek oysters by way of Duxbury, Mass.

Our friends Kat and Ben are even wilder foodies than we are – they’ll spend their weekends scouring Whole Foods for exotic ingredients, traveling all the way to New York to visit a Bobby Flay restaurant or in Ben’s case, smoking a pork shoulder for 12 hours and topping it with homemade ancho-chipotle sauce.  So when they recommended we try Lattitude in West Springfield,  we sat up and listened.

They didn’t steer us wrong. Small but cozy, modern yet warm and inviting, Lattitude is an exciting and welcome shot of upscale in otherwise pedestrian, chain-heavy West Springfield.

Grape champagne martini

The vast cocktail menu stumped me right away. How was I expected to choose between a pineapple upside-down cake martini, an eggnog martini, a special Christmas punch and a watermelon Cosmo? Instead of ordering one of each, I settled on the sophisticated-sounding  grape champagne martini, made with 3 Olives grape vodka, white cranberry juice and sparkling wine. The drink was smooth and tasty, with a subtle grape flavor. It could have used a little more bubbly, but the blueberry garnish was a nice touch. My dining partners stuck with beer and wine.

Clam fritters

Last summer, the four of us  spent a whirlwind foodie weekend in Maine, where we cleared an upscale sushi restaurant out of its Friday-night oyster supply after ordering their remaining mollusks for ‘dessert. ‘ Which means there was no way we were skipping Lattitude’s offering of Island Creek oysters. A dozen good-sized bivalves arrived on ice with cocktail sauce, lemon wedges, and a dark sauce that we thought was soy, but turned out to be balsamic-olive. The oysters were briny with plenty of fresh ocean flavor.

Lamb shank. no mint

Kat and Ben also ordered the Kenyon’s grist-mill clam fritters, eight or so hefty nuggets of crispy, doughy goodness with plenty of clam chunks. They were somewhat disappointed by the accompanying caper-pimiento aioli. The fritters stood well on their own without the dipping sauce, though.

Venison loin

Choosing entrees proved to be difficult, as everything looked great. Ben asked about the bison steak special, until the waitress kindly shared that it cost  $46. He ended up with the mint-and-Guinness-braised domestic lamb shank, which came with whipped sweet potatoes, carrots and a ‘spiked’ apple sauce. Curiously, the dish arrived with absolutely no component of mint, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying the meal.

Following in the red meat path, Kat chose the venison loin special, sided by purple fingerling potatoes and topped with a ‘huckleberry jus.’ I sampled a bit – it was my first taste of venison and probably won’t be my last. Very juicy, very flavorful. She cleared her plate.

Beef tenderloin

Rob finally decided on the grilled beef tenderloin, which turned out to be spectacular. Nestled on a bed of whipped white sweet potatoes, the beef was topped with asparagus and a beer-infused bearnaise sauce. It was a rich, delectable plate of comfort food.

Lobster mac and cheese

The star of the night for me was my plate of lobster macaroni and cheese, though. Expecting it to be a heavy gut-bomb, fettuccine alfredo-esque dish, I asked the waitress about it. She said it was more ‘rich’ than heavy. I took a risk and for that, I’m grateful. Orecchiette pasta was tossed in a light cream sauce made with parmesan, brie and goat cheese, mixed with perfect tender-sweet pieces of lobster tail. A small mixed-greens salad came on the side. I will be ordering this again and when I do, I’ll ask for a small side of grated parmesan to sprinkle on top.

Chocolate mint cheesecake

As the portions were somewhere between small and manageable, we all had room for dessert. Rob and I split a piece of the house-made chocolate mint cheesecake, which was made with a chunky, rocky crust of chocolate mint candy and (crushed chocolate chip cookies?) It was kind of puzzling, and the cheesecake itself was on the dry side. Melting fresh whipped cream and candied walnut topping just added to the confusion.

Pineapple-rum, mango and apple harvest sorbet

Kat and Ben fared somewhat better with a sorbet trio of pineapple-rum-Malibu, mango and apple harvest. The pineapple-rum tasted like a pina colada, and the apple harvest resembled delicious frozen cider. The mango flavor was bland, but incorporated real fruit chunks.

Lattitude updates their menu daily and makes a concerted effort to buy the freshest and most local products available, from meats to seafood to produce. Their servers are warm, welcoming and incredibly attentive without being the least bit overbearing. We’ll be back.