We visited 101 Craft Kitchen on the final evening of a special preview of dishes coming to their…read morenew seasonal menu October 13. This was the first time we've had the opportunity to try new dishes before they actually appeared on the regular menu, which made the evening especially interesting.
Cindy and I ordered both preview entrées and split them so we could try each one, with the plan from the beginning to take about half of each home for lunch tomorrow.
The Calabrian Chili & Sausage Flatbread was excellent, with sweet Italian sausage, Calabrian chilis, tomato sauce, mozzarella, provolone, ricotta, fresh basil and hot honey. Although it's called a flatbread, it eats much like a thin-crust pizza, which I liked since I'm trying to cut back a little on carbs.
The Calabrian chilis definitely make their presence known! After a few slices I adjusted to the heat and loved the combination of flavors. I think this could be near the upper end of the heat range for some people. Cindy thought it was too hot for her, while I would definitely order it again. Interestingly, although they call it hot honey, the honey itself really isn't hot. It does add some moisture underneath the flatbread, but I didn't have much trouble eating it by hand.
The Meatloaf Patty Melt was another winner. The meatloaf was moist, tender and almost melt-in-your-mouth. It has caramelized onions, cheddar cheese, Frisco mayo and crispy onion straws. I especially liked getting the onion flavor in two different textures, with the caramelized onions blending into the tender meatloaf and the crispy onion straws adding some crunch. There's a lot happening in this sandwich, and I found that cutting it in half first made it much easier to handle. Excellent flavor!
I chose the Roasted Street Corn Pasta Salad as my side, and it was OUTSTANDING. The pasta appeared to be orzo, along with roasted corn, crumbled white cheese, chopped green herbs and a creamy dressing. We couldn't get the complete ingredient list, but whatever they're doing works. Great flavor and texture, and definitely not your typical mayonnaise-heavy pasta salad.
Then we made the terrible mistake of letting our server, Kaitlyn, tell us about the dessert options. That resulted in ordering the Coffee & Doughnut Crème Brûlée with two beignets.
For uncultured people like me, I learned that crème brûlée basically means "burnt cream," referring to that caramelized sugar crust on top. Who knew? Apparently Cindy did.
The crème brûlée was excellent. I could definitely detect the coffee flavor. I couldn't really identify a "doughnut" flavor, although Cindy says she could. The two beignets (basically light, fried pastries dusted with powdered sugar) were great. I scooped up some of the crème brûlée, put it on a beignet and took a bite. THAT worked! Cindy normally doesn't care much for crème brûlée, but even she thought this one was pretty good.
Kaitlyn told us the Coffee & Doughnut Crème Brûlée is definitely her favorite dessert at 101, and I can understand why. More importantly, her service throughout the evening was OUTSTANDING. She was attentive, friendly and extremely conversational. We learned that she's in her fifth year serving in the Army, and has applied to get into a field that...well, apparently we can't talk about.
Both preview entrées were excellent, the Roasted Street Corn Pasta Salad was a standout, dessert was excellent, and Kaitlyn made an already enjoyable evening even better.
We're looking forward to seeing these dishes on the new seasonal menu October 13!