Equus

Eastside Road, September 6, 2012—

IF IT WERE MY restaurant there would be horse on the menu. Why would you call your restaurant "Equus" otherwise?

But what was interesting tonight, our first time to this once upscale restaurant in our nearest city, was the relative modesty of the menu — just a few salads, pastas, and "entrees" — and the relative conservatism of the concepts. I thought it rather a throwback to the "Swiss hotel" concept prevailing in this country before the culinary breakthroughs of the 1970s.

Well, we were being taken out to dinner, the first time that's happened in a long long time, and I for one was grateful for it, and glad to try a new place. I'd hoped tonight for liver and onions — I've been hungering for liver and onions for months — and the menu offered only chicken, lamb, sea bass, pork chop, veal porterhouse, and a New York steak. (Salmon was the off-menu special of the evening.)

I opted for the house salad and the veal chop. The salad was refreshing: mixed greens, radishes, a little ricotta salata, watercress. The veal chop was a cooked a little longer than I'd have asked, but nicely salted and rosemary'd and very subtly garlicked, and its potatoes were creamily steam-fried, with plenty of bitter-braised greens balancing the meat and potatoes.

The Martini could have been better, but I was lazy and failed to stipulate exactly what I wanted. Oh well. The wine list was on an iPad — the first time I've run into this: I prefer a printed list that can be seen all at once: but then, I'm old.

Pinot noir, MacMurray (Sonoma Coast), 2009: smooth, properly light-bodied, good varietal

• Equus Restaurant and Loungebar, 101 Fountaingrove Pkwy, Santa Rosa, California; (707) 578-0149