Mozelle's: Two Dinners, Two Desserts

I went with some friends to Mozelle's for dinner tonight. It was 8pm on a Friday night and the place was packed. The sidewalk tables, covered patio, and inside tables were buzzing with happy diners.

Our waitress came to the table and told us the specials, which all sounded good. The guys ordered the special grouper, which came atop "red grits" made with cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and red peppers then topped with a Chardonnay cream sauce and a side of okra. Both guys cleaned their plates and expressed how good the meal was, the "red grits" were the perfect compliment to the grouper. Highly recommended.

The girls both ordered the Organic chicken breast with spring vegetable risotto. The chicken was cooked perfectly with a light crunch of the skin, yet tender inside. The spring vegetable risotto was excellent. Cooking risotto properly is an art; slightly al dente with the yellow squash cooked to just the right tenderness in the cream sauce with a touch of broth.

I was dining with friends who share my love for dessert; these are my people. Of the several choices offered, we chose two desserts, to share, that were very different in composition but both had chocolate in common. The first was described as an Oreo cake, which our server said tasted exactly like an oreo cookie. Once we tasted it, we understood exactly what she meant. We thought there must have been some kind of magic involved, or the chef spent an hour scraping the filling out of a dozen or so oreos to make the filling for this cake. The cake was covered in oreo crumbs.

The second dessert was everyone's favorite. I kept expecting a fork fight to break out but everyone held their composure. (If I had been dining with my spouse, instead of friends, it would have been ON!) The flourless chocolate cake was dense but was not overwhelmingly rich. The dollop of whipped cream was enormous but the thing that impressed me the most was the number of whole raspberries. They were not just a garnish, but a very generous contribution to the dessert. Spectacular. Really.

-Contributed by Susan M.