Old standby Absinthe is back on the list

Bam.

Now that's a good cheese plate. At Absinthe, you get big hunks of fromage each paired with a specific special something—the blue with jellied kumquats, goat with rose petal jam, and a sheep-goat-cow combo with olives—all accompanied by toasty warm slices of walnut raisin bread.

We really didn't need to follow up with the French onion soup since the portions were so generous (unlike the puny pieces that COCO500 puts out on its cheese plate), but we were glad we did when we started spooning it into our mouths ... the soup was so intensely flavored of sweet onion, beef broth and wine, not to mention the salty tang of gruyere. Absinthe makes the best French onion soup—at least, it's the best I've ever had.