Adele's Restaurant and Lounge UPDATE - Carson City, NV

Where would you have your last meal? What would you have? What would and what could satisfy you fully for the last and final time? What would you put on your table before they pull the rug out from under you?

So I'm being a tiny bit dramatic. We're not dying and we're not even going to starve by any means, but deprivation will be the name of the game. Whatever we eat and whatever restaurant we eat at needs to get us through a desert week...no pressure.

ADELE'S. We saw the words "Carson City" glowing, white-upon-green on the way up to Reno, and it was a freaking beacon. A sign from above...literally...(groan)...lighting the way from the open highway.

Reservations are full, no surprise on a Saturday night, but the bar has exactly two seats, and the red patent leather beckons and gleams. The regular menu is varied enough for six restaurants, but the specials are always among the stand-outs. I stop the server when she utters Lobster Bisque. It's their soup special, and it's the one item I have to order if I hear it. I opt for the half-bowl because I expect the usual cloying cream that wrecks a lactose-intolerant stomach, but their iteration is surprisingly light. There's a strong tomato-ey finish, ripe-off-the-vine with a sprinkle of Carson City sunshine. The tang cuts through the cream, and the lobster part is only a hint.

Soup and salad go together, and to have a good salad with your soup is a right, not a privilege. The Nicoise, however is a privilege because I don't think I've ever had a salad done so well. There's a small bed of baby greens, but the plate holds a whole world of textures and tastes. The green beans are crisp, the olives add some pungence. The potatoes are soft, and vinaigrette lightens and spicens the lot. The poached egg lends a warm, gooey yolk that blankets the diced eggs around the edges. The anchovies are a wake-up call contrast to a meaty seared tuna. 

Another special calls to us, a Surf n' Turf that seems deceptively simple. The filet mignon is exactly medium rare, a rush of creamy bernaise blankets the red, raw center. And the lobster tail. What lobster has a tail this juicy and where can I get another? I should hate this plate. I hate things drowning in sauce, and this entire plate is submerged but it is done so perfectly and exactly well. Creamy decadence, deep flavors that ebb and flow, crescendos that creep into the crevices between sections of lobster and fibers of filet. This may be the most over-the-top thing I've ever seen. I swear, if I dripped a single drop onto my pants, I would literally be the lap of luxury.

The Duck Two Ways is too good not to try twice. The skin is a crisp contrast to the dense, tender breast beneath, and it houses a satisfying strip of fat over a darker leg. The red cranberry breast melts in your mouth, as heavenly as the leg confit.

The desert doesn't seem so desolate after a dinner at Adele's. The food is always fresh, it's all locally sourced, and there is not a single thing that isn't made with such meticulous measure, such delicate detail. No room for dessert is my only regret, but I think I ate enough to save my soul for the week ahead.