City Date Night- Trade

 February was a crazy month.  I was trying to recover from Covid and get ready for a Palm Springs vacation.  Palm Springs was fantastic but then it took another two weeks to recover and catch up from that trip.  

Last night, we were both finally all caught up and we could enjoy a city night out.  Back in December we went to Trade a couple of times and had a great time.  So for my birthday, I booked us a table in the dining room.  Trade is a Greek/Mediterranean inspired restaurant from the amazing Jody Adams.  

First, I'll start with the decor.  Trade has huge ceilings and lots of room so the space feels really open and airy.  Tables aren't on top of each other, like they are in a lot of other restaurants in the city.  The ceilings are this curved brick that has been painted white and there are huge steel beams anchoring the space.  That industrial vibe is paired with massive, bohemian lighting fixtures that throw off a lovely dim glow.  There are tons of faux olive trees and candles adorn each table.  The entire atmosphere is so relaxing and peaceful.

We started with some cocktails and they were quite good.  It's clear that the bartenders know what they are doing and the Greek spins on cocktails is done with absolute quality.  We decided we would try a bunch of the food so we started with the village salad and the dips.  The village salad was amazing.  The perfectly fresh veggies was topped with a mixture of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and oregano.  It was perfection and has pretty much ruined all greek salads for me.  The dips were really good but we ended up sticking with the spicy whipped feta (to die for) and didn't really eat much of the other two so I'm not sure I would order this again.

For dinner we got the burrata which was perfectly paired with roasted beets and fig and the half chicken with lemon potatoes and arugula.  The presentation of the chicken was really eye catching.  It was served on a big wooden board.  Definitely picture worthy.  The chicken itself was moist on the inside with crispy skin that had a touch of sweetness from the figs.  The lemon potatoes were insanely good, especially in the whipped form.

After dinner we headed over to the bar to continue the night.  The bar is definitely a fun place to hang out and we enjoyed dessert to extend the evening.

I was telling JO that this is the kind of place I could see myself going to each Friday night to have dinner.  I love that the lighting is dim, there's great music playing but it's not loud, and it just feels like a place you want to be.  I don't feel too old there and in fact, I feel kind of young there.  It's really a wonderful restaurant.