Hopefully So

Tonight we had dinner at Cover 3, a new restaurant on Anderson Lane owned by a couple of people who were previously involved with Z’Tejas.

The interior was much nicer than I expected – upscale sports bar ambiance with big screen TVs everywhere, dim lighting, comfortable seating (both tables and booths). It was very pleasant. And it wasn’t too loud.

The actual bar area is pretty small. They’ve also got an outdoor patio area, although I don’t know that I would want to sit out there since it is basically surrounded by parking lot. Later this year they will open the upstairs loft as another bar space. It has a few bar tables and some red leather sofas and club chairs. When they do, that will be the best place in our neighborhood to get a drink. In addition, they have a private room that holds about 60 plus will have two banquet rooms upstairs.

The food was quite good and, while not cheap, was moderately priced. I started with an iceberg wedge salad, smallish with scallions, grape tomatoes and a buttermilk-bleu cheese dressing which was pretty good. That was the one item we got that I felt was priced too high ($7) for what it was. For an entree, I ordered the roast beef sliders from the appetizer menu. The beef tenderloin was fantastic – cooked medium, very tender, not fatty at all and great flavor. The meat was served on really good rolls, toasted just a bit on the split sides for a slight crunch, but nice and soft and chewy. It came with a small ramekin of horseradish cream (I don’t like horseradish, but it was actually pretty good) and another of onion jus (very tasty). The parmesan fries were cut thin and cooked to the perfect crispiness. The wine menu has several choices for each of several varieties. I had a glass of Root 1, a Chilean cabernet which was not quite as full-bodied as I prefer but had a nice spiciness that made up for it.

Mike had the Allandale salad, a standard spinach salad with candied walnuts and dates that was very yummy. We ordered a side of mac and cheese to try. It had breadcrumbs baked onto the top and was a nice creamy texture, but we had to salt and pepper it a bit. He thought it was really good, I would have liked a sharper flavor but it was still pretty good. The girls each got a cheeseburger from the kids menu (which was standard kids menu – burger, chicken tenders, etc) and really liked them.

The service was great. The staff was friendly without being intrusive. Our wait person had eaten from the menu and was able to describe and recommend things. She also seemed familiar with the wine menu. People cleared our plates and refilled our glasses in a timely way. After we ate, I asked our wait person about the upstairs lounge and even though it isn’t open yet she took us up, told us what they have planned with that area and the banquet rooms and showed us the downstairs party room.

Cover 3 has only been open for about a week and they haven’t started marketing, relying thus far on word of mouth. Our wait person said they will begin some advertising in the next week or two. I hope the word gets out about this place, though. We would definitely eat there again, and I am looking forward to having a drink in their loft space.