Beaujolais Bistro - Reno, Nevada

"160 feet??!? I'm going be supportive and then I'm going to boulder." Justin has a fear of heights, and I can't keep my feet on the ground. To each their own.

We do our different things together; we're different but we're still the same. I high-five him when he nails a new route, and when I hook both hands over the top of America's highest wall, he tells me I killed it.

Off the wall and onto Branded Hearts Distillery, a victory drink well-earned. Somebody said whiskey, and I came running. Ryan comes running too, opening his distillery on a day they're closed just to give us the best distillery tour I've ever had. He even lets us sample bourbon straight out of the barrel, and at 120 proof, that bourbon is one heck of a pre-dinner pre-game. Even grandma Pauline drinks like a champ.

By the time we sit down at Beaujolais Bistro (which we did NOT drive to), we are not exactly sober. 

But there is always room for wine, and my glass of red really pops with the Bacon-Wrapped Dates. Belly, fat, and belly fat, crispy-on-gooey with pungent blue cheese, all swimming in a thick romesco sauce. The tiniest spicy little kick keeps an otherwise-heavy dish from being too much.

Heavy turns heavier as the meat falls right off the Braised Lamb Shank bone, with the subtlest flick of a fork. Couscous adds it's grainy, airy texture, and the harissa-lamb jus spa bathes the meat in a rich cloak of darkness.

The lamb is great, but the Cassoulet is a masterpiece. A hot pot of the softest cannellini beans, soaked in pork-belly-turned-liquid-fat, topped with the most perfect duck confit, complete with crispy skin and a layer of melty glory underneath.

We're still reeling from the cassoulet, but there's always room for dessert. The Profiteroles are so simple yet so satisfying; roomy little cream puffs full of airy vanilla cream.

I don't know what was more impressive, the fact that the cassoulet blew my mind or the fact that an 82 year-old woman just drank me under the table. But one thing's for sure. Bistro Beaujolais isn't just the best meal I had in Reno, it's one of the most impressive meals I've had this year.