I just wanted to send a quick note out to my loyal readers.  I will be taking a little time off from the blog to concentrate on a few things in my life right now.  It’s been a very hectic year, and I haven’t been comfortable with my ability to produce consistent writing on TMR. There will be posts from time to time.

But we will be back in full force, promise!

New Monthly Feature
Shelley takes a mid-day break from business to grab a bite!

I’ve decided to start a new journey here with The Mighty Rib, we’ll see how it goes. I’m still trying to figure out the details of exactly what this new piece will be…thus the either/or name. Originally, I thought this monthly piece would be called “Executive Lunch” and that I’d use my lunch hour to experience the finer restaurants in Houston offering a fixed menu at the noon hour, or rather an executive lunch menu. But, right off the bat I went to a finer restaurant and was dismayed to find that they didn’t actually have an executive lunch menu.

So I improvised, and thus the idea for “The Long Lunch” was born. I guess it is a safe bet to say you’re going to see a little bit of both over the coming months. Incidentally, this is also helping me work on one of my New Year’s resolutions: eating lunch at my desk less. Yes, I’m one of those.

For my first attempt at getting away from my office to have a lunch that I could actually write about, I grabbed a couple of co-workers, hit the door, and headed to one of Houston’s latest and greatest eateries: Haven. I’d been dying to try Haven and this was the perfect reason. I did think they had an actual executive lunch menu, so I was slightly disappointed to find out they didn’t once we were seated and I actually had the menu in hand, but luckily, that’s where the disappointment stopped.

The long lunch began with a very delicious roasted broccoli soup. I had been hearing raves about their soups, and while I’m not a huge soup person, I figured a few extra vegetables never hurt anyone. This soup was fantastic; I had slightly feared chunks of broccoli stalk, but the soup was a perfect puree and possibly one of the prettier shades of green I have ever seen. Smooth as silk and not a drop was left behind.

I was feeling the call of the ocean, and couldn’t resist the fish of the day—tile fish. I had never even heard of tile fish, much less tasted it, and I was intrigued. I could not have been happier about this choice. Honestly, when I first heard the day’s selection was tile fish, a certain visual popped into my head, and I literally envisioned a piece of fish on a tile, like maybe they hadn’t meant the name of the fish was tile, but rather that tile was just a reference to serving method. As soon as the dish arrived I felt silly for ever thinking as much. The fish was a perfect flaky white, cooked just right. The bed of wilted/sauteed greens it was served on (not tile) was equally delicious. Absolutely fabulous, a dish that will likely find me heading to Haven quite often. I just hope tile isn’t seasonal!! If it is, I guess I’ll just have try something else because there were definitely some other entrees catching my eye. The daily blue plate specials would certainly be worth a second trip very soon–I’m shooting for Thursday.

And just when I thought this might be the end of the long lunch…we stretched it out a bit further and went for dessert. So glad we did. In an ongoing effort to be healthy(-ish), I let my skinny jeans do the choosing and I went with the Ambrosia–mixed fruit served with coconut and lemon curd. It was perfect. I’d order it again in a heartbeat, unless of course my sweatpants decide to do the talking next time, in which case I will 100% get the Mexican Coke float with the Jack Daniel’s ice cream. I’m not even sure how I avoided it this time, next time I know I will not escape.

Haven is definitely a new favorite for me. Give it a try, I think you’ll feel the same.