Dinner at Detention in The Trust Room

 Tuesday, February 22, 2022

The Playground restaurant in downtown Santa Ana has been renamed Detention. Detentiondtsa.com. The 2.0 Room is now called Trust. Other than name change everything is the same with some improvements. Same chef's, same owners, same format. Trust still sits 18 people at a long bar with cooking and plating in front of you. Only difference now in the serving of the food, instead of one plated shared by 3, it is one plate (different sizes) for the number in your party. I would assume tied into Covid somehow.

Justin Werner has taken over the reins at Trust and owner and chef Jason Quinn is concentrating on enlarging the back room and hosting different venues.  Justin's style of cooking is different than Jason's.

The dinner tonight was a winery dinner, Stolpman out of Santa Ynez. Jessica Stolpman was the host and she did a great job but personally I was extremely disappointed that neither Tom nor Peter was in attendance. 

We started out with a cocktail made of Italian rose vermouth, gin, cucumber water, prickly pear and orange liqueur. Very tasty. Then onto the 13 courses and 5 wines.

A fresh baked brioche bun with house made cultured butter. Perfect. Frash from the over, still soft and steamy. 

A salad of mixed greens, croutons and a very light, exceptionally good vinaigrette. 

Arancini with ramp vinaigrette. Light and so freshly made.

Very thin sliced beets with citrus, nuts. The slices were so thin, cut on a mandolin then piled high. Yummy.

Hush Puppy loaded with seafood and served with Old Bay Aioli.  A real winner.

Grilled fresh swordfish with a leek and caper salsa. Again excellent.

House made Gnocchi with beurre monte and very thinly grated parmesan. So light, like eating marshmallows.

Beef pasta with spinach and pine nuts in a cream sauce. Excellent flavors

Escarole and Farro soup with breadcrumbs. Had good flavor but was not my thing.

Duck breast with grilled endive and smoked cherry sauce. To die for. 

A5 Wagu beef slices Picanha, (top sirloin cap) chimichurri and fried potatoes. Meat was like butter. Potatoes were crisp outside and soft on the inside.

Chocolate Swiss roll with Creme Angelaise. Decadent.

Poached pear with chocolate, crisp pastry and almond whip. Excellent.

Hazelnut cake with semi fredo. Good ending to a fabulous meal.

Our wines tonight were: 

 Stolpman, 2021 So Fresh, Rose, Love you Bunches. Not my style and I just did not like it. I thought it was flat and non-discript. 

Stolpman , 2017 Rousanne, L'Avion. Tom Stolpman's favorite wine. I am not into white Rhone varietals. But it did pair well with the food. If you like white Rhones you would love this wine. 

Stolpman, 2016  La Croce, a blend of Sangiovese and Syrah. My favorite of all the Stolpman Wines. But a 2016 it is too young to drink.

Stolpman Estate Syrah. For some reason this wine never made it to the end of the room we were at. Did not see the bottle until we were leaving. 

La Cuadrilla, Syrah Blend "El Padrino". This wine is made by the crew that works the Stolpman Vineyards. A certain section of vines is set aside for them. They get to split the profit from the sales. This was a1.5 liter bottle, do not know the year but it was a bit harsh and way too young to be drinking.

Food was great as usual, always top quality ingredients, very disappointed in the selection of wines brought tonight. Do not who chose them but with all the wines they produce a few of these should have been kept at home. 

Will be doing another dinner at Trust in a few months. They price always includes food, beverages, tax and tip inclusive. But not inexpensive but well worth it.