This Sunday Dan and I finally got around to our celebratory thirtieth-anniversary dinner. We were about three weeks late, but we have a long tradition of being late in celebrating our anniversary. This is because we have a long tradition of not being in the same city on our anniversary. Heck, there were times we weren’t even on the same continent. So we’ve gotten used to a certain degree of freedom when it comes to important celebrations, preferring to fix them in space rather than in time.

In this case, we decided to return to The Atlantic Inn on Block Island. This decision was a blend of nostalgia and a really tempting new menu. The nostalgia part dates to the early years of our marriage: The Atlantic Inn was where we stayed on the island before our house was built. The inn’s porch is still one of our favorite places for a drink because of its stunning views over the rooftops of the town and over the harbor to the long sweeping curve of the northern neck of the island and out to sea.

But the restaurant is a different story. At some point the menu switched from a la carte to a multiple-course prix-fixe-only menu with disappointingly few choices for pescatarians like us. On the few occasions when we ate out on the island, we always ended up going somewhere else. But now the menu had changed. A-la-carte options had returned, and lots of them. The menu sounded wonderful.

I wish The Atlantic Inn would get around to posting a current menu on its Web site. But they haven’t yet. I actually considered scanning the entire menu and posting it here because it ought to be posted *somewhere*. But this is not the right place. Are you listening, Atlantic Inn Webmaster?

I will, however, post the menu items and descriptions of what we had.

First, I do have to say that I told them it was our anniversary dinner. I did this so that we could get our favorite table, the one in the corner at the far end of the room overlooking the sunset, the harbor, and the sea. And they were happy to oblige us in this. But we weren’t expecting the complimentary celebratory glass of champagne. This is a class act!

We also weren’t expecting the amuse-bouche of a tiny glass of powerfully delicious gaspacho with a lime froth.

Here’s what we were expecting, and ate with pleasure:

Appetizers

Frisee aux Lardon (sans Lardon)

Baby frisee, slow-poached Blazing Star Farm egg, housemade pancetta lardons (omitted for us), grapefruit and truffle vinaigrette

White Tuna Sashimi Tasting

“Sea essence”, citrus-galangal pearls, ikura, dashi-hijiki, served with prawn crackers

Entrees

Spring Bounty

Polenta cake, wild mushrooms, spring peas, fiddlehead ferns, Fontina Val d’Aosta, garlic essence and baby greens

Halibut Cheeks

Lightly seared, garlic bagna cauda, escargots, English peas, fiddleheads and wild mushrooms

(Note: These two items sound similar but in fact were quite different, and both delicious.)

Dessert

Lemon-Chamomile Pound Cake

Fresh blueberries, lemon curd sauce and honeyed creme fraiche

When you’re celebrating your thirtieth anniversary at a restaurant that has been a recipient of the Wine Spectator‘s Award of Excellence for the last nine years running, how can you not splurge on the wine? We selected a Far Niente 2005 Chardonnay. The wine was as wonderful as the meal.

Our heartfelt and full-bellied congratulations to newly promoted Executive Chef Aaron Wisniewski and to pastry chef Linda Rondinone for an evening we’ll remember for a long, long time.