Prime: A Review

This isn't exactly a story, but you WILL in the future find many restaurant stories here. So on that note, I just thought I'd share a few thoughts on my recent first dining experience at Prime, Oxford, Mississippi's newest hot spot.

I should first note that I might be just a BIT biased. Both head chef Crash Hethcox and Assistant Manager Terry Moon are former coworkers of mine, and Assistant Manager and Events Coordinator Michelle Rounsaville is one of my sorority sisters...so obviously I very much walked in wanting to love the place.

Thankfully, I wasn't let down. The atmosphere is warm and inviting, and enveloping without feeling claustrophobic. Nothing too hip or too cliched, but definitely posh and celebratory. I especially enjoyed the music...an upbeat mix of jazz standards from Ella, Louis, etc. Something about those songs always makes me feel chic. Good acoustics are always a selling point for me, and Prime has them. My party of five was seated at a round center table surrounded by other diners, but in spite of the music and the packed house, I never had to strain to hear the members of my party seated across from me, which is one situation that always puts a damper on any festive dining experience. The wine list looked great, and there was a pretty extensive specialty martini list, which is always fun. Possibly the only truly negative thing I have to say about the entire experience is that the straight up, very slightly dirty martini i ordered arrived VERY dirty and almost too salty to drink. Coming from a restaurant background, however, I know that this could easily be chalked up to the restaurant being a mere two weeks old and the night clearly being an insanely busy one. It's quite possible also that the waitress just missed my emphasis on the "slightly" part of dirty, but in every other respect, the service was informed, attentive, friendly, and not too pushy.

Now for the food. We ordered a side of the truffle fritte to start, which is comprised of house fries sprinkled with parmesan, asiago, parsley, and truffle oil. They arrived in a metal pedestal cone with wax paper...a very cute presentation I thought. Beware of these...they'll sneak up on you! The first bite was just so-so, but then they began to taste dramatically better and I eventually found myself picking stray bits from the bottom of the cone.

For dinner I ordered the pork chop with a side of the truffled mac and cheese. Important note about the sides: unless you're absolutely starving, don't order one for yourself alone, as the portions are quite large. My party wound up passing the sides around family style, which worked well. However, I'm afraid I was a little stingy with my mac and cheese. This side is sort of like a couture version of shells and cheese...just replace that orange powdery velveeta with mascarpone, parmesan, asiago and orecchiette truffle cream. Simply divine. The pork chop wasn't my favorite, but that's simply because I tend to like a little more going on with my food. I'd order it again, as it was a great portion and cooked perfectly, but I'd probably try pairing it with one of the excellent sauce offerings, like the bleu cheese with shallot butter. At any rate, it's nice to have the option of a non-fussy but well-cooked piece of meat. I managed to sneak a taste of the parmesean black grouper as well, and it's also possible that I'm not raving about the pork chop simply because I liked the grouper so much that I wished I'd ordered it instead.

In spite of being very well fed already, we just had to test a few of the desserts...specifically, the key lime cheesecake, "s'mores," and triple-chocolate fudge pie. All three were very good, though the fudge pie (or at least the bite that I had) had more of a cakey texture. The "s'mores" is actually a martini glass full of peanut butter chocolate mousse covered with a layer of toasted homemade marshmallow with a homemade graham cracker. It was by far my favorite...perfect texture, perfect rich flavor, not too sugary, with that wonderful toasted marshmallow flavor and texture to boot.

All in all, dinner at Prime made for a perfectly yummy, cozy way to spend an otherwise cold and icy night. I can't wait to try lunch! And Crash and Terry inform me that in the future they'll be serving Sunday brunch as well, complete with omelette and waffle stations. Those boys definitely know the way to get a girl all hot and bothered...when that Sunday comes, I'll be first in line.