Ryan and I have a secret. It's called Deru Market. It's been our covert date night spot for a couple of years now, but it's too good to keep to ourselves.
Deru is the perfect neighborhood eatery. It features local, organic, seasonal food, so you always know you're getting the freshest meal with locally farmed, seasonal ingredients. The restaurant space is a bit like an industrial kitchen with the minimalist exposed light bulbs overhanging the bar, metal chairs, and a glass windowpane garage door spanning the restaurant's front. But, it also has the coziness of a Hamptons kitchen with the light marble bar and tabletops, white cabinetry, and plethora of live plants. The service is far from fussy, but seamless. Just the right combination of attentiveness and respect-your-privacy-check-on-you-later. It's an order-at-the-counter style restaurant, and each table has a farmhouse style ceramic container filled with silverware and napkins. Each dish is brought out as soon as it's ready, but the haphazard style of mixing first and main courses is how we eat at home anyway. And, the eating as it comes style makes for faster service when you're feeling a bit hangry. The hot dishes arrive hot, the cold dishes come out cold, all served on metal camping-style dishes. The food tastes like what I would imagine might come out of Meryl Streep's fictional restaurant and kitchen in It's Complicated... a movie set I wish I could live in.
Deru has become our "go-to" place for date nights. Over the years, we have gotten to know a number of the servers and we are now warmly welcomed as "regulars". We even have our own favorite corner table where we have spent many a meal holding hands across the table while sampling a selection of Deru's local wine and beer offerings. Every dish we have tried is truly delightful. A handful of my favorites include the roasted carrots with verde sauce, the farm salad, and the out-of-this-world breadsticks with poppy seeds and marinara. Ryan loves the giant meatballs, the fig and pistachio meatloaf, and the chorizo pizza. And let's not forget the fries. These are not on the regular menu, but they are a common feature on the nightly chalkboard specials wall, and they are not to be missed. On our most recent visit, we fawned all over the fried Brussels sprouts. They were crispy. They were zesty. They were everything. And they belong on the regular menu.
This hole-in-the-wall neighborhood hot spot is crazy busy on Friday and Saturday nights, especially in the colder months when the seating is limited to indoors. But, the wait is well worth your while. There's plenty of eye candy while you wait: you will enjoy ogling the daily specials in the cold case, and drooling over the spread of baked goods and cakes while you wait.
