The Playground lives up to it’s name

At 25 years old, Jason Quinn has quite a name for himself.

What started as a fantastic food truck (The Lime Truck) grew to this even more incredible restaurant.  The Playground is definitely fun but it’s also very food-focused and chef-based.

You can tell from the servers to the chefs that this restaurant, with it’s high quality ingredients and craft beers, is all a labor of love.

I love that a 3% gratuity is automatically included for the kitchen, they deserve it.

Anyway, a friend of ours who is a big follower of The Lime Truck and subsequently The Playground decided to have her birthday here for their Sunday Supper.

14 of us gathered round as Jason gave Courtney the run-down of our menu for the night.

I cannot emphasize enough how awesome I think Sunday Supper is.

There is no set menu, or any menu for that matter.  Instead you create your own menu with the chef as you discuss the fresh ingredients they have for the night.  I found that they had nearly all the dishes from the Saturday night menu for a fraction of the price.

Sunday Supper is only $30 per person!

Reservations are mandatory, only one taken each 12 minutes so be sure to call ahead.

The dishes were served family style, (3 of each for our table of 14) and we had one of my favorite dishes of the night, Crispy Broccolini with Calabrian Chile Vinaigrette.

I loved the Braised Red Cabbage and am totally sold on those chunks of goat cheese on top, they melted into the cabbage and added the perfect tartness to the sweet cabbage.

The Honey Roasted Scarlet Turnips disappeared like candy and the Hand Picked County Line Salad with Beautiful Beets was the perfect classic salad.

The mashed potatoes and olive bread are perfect comfort food.

The Roasted Corn is served with Fresh Bay Leaf Butter and for the first time ever, I was able to understand what bay leaf really tastes like as a highlighted flavor instead of something just added to already flavorful dishes.

We finished off the sides with Hand Picked County Line Rainbow Chard and seriously, when did vegetable side dishes become such a highlight.  The way they were getting devoured you would have thought they were the focus of the dinner.

If you had to ask what the favorite main dish was I am positive that an argument would have broken out.

Dish after amazing dish came out and just when you thought things couldn’t get any better… well they did.

This is positively the best fried chicken I’ve ever had.  It’s New Orleans-style which I was unfamiliar with.  Dredged in Wondra and black pepper with hints of cayenne and cinnamon, fried and then tossed in a mixture of honey, red wine vinegar and Louisiana hot sauce, I’m salivating as I think about it.

Oh and the pork chop.  It’s huge, juicy and perfectly cooked.  Maple-glazed and did I mention perfectly cooked?  You won’t find a well done pork chop here.  In fact, you won’t find a well done anything here… it says so on the wall.

This was B’s favorite of the night and he admitted that he’d order this over steak which is quite shocking really.

Did someone say steak?

How about a 32 oz Prime Grade Ribeye with Bluefoot Mushrooms?  How about 3 for the table?

Yes Please!  These beauties were selling for, well for a lot of money the night before, and we were lucky they had some leftover.  Perfectly cooked and incredibly flavorful.  So.much.meat.

Their desserts are simple and sweet.

We had the Sumo Tangerine with Olive Oil and Maldon Salt (which I’ve been eating versions of ever since) as well as the super egg-y Salted Bread Pudding.

After dinner, we took a peak into the kitchen and someone in our party, who happens to be a regular, ended up walking out with a bag of their Compressed Yellow Watermelon.  I really liked it but I’ll admit that I’ve never had yellow watermelon so I don’t have any basis of comparison.

The Playground was everything I had hoped it would be, the staff exceeded expectations and I suggest you head there just as soon as you can.  Try the Sunday Supper if you can, it’s such a fantastic deal it’s hard to pass up.

http://playgrounddtsa.com/

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