Out to eat: Otto's

Shrimp and grits are gulf shrimp sauteed with Kentucky mushrooms, spinach, roasted red pepper, and garlic, served around a bacon-blue cheese grit cake and finished with beurre blanc (Credit: Carrie Cochran | Metromix)

Halfway through our recent dinner at Otto's, my friend dropped a bombshell. Earlier that day, he'd accepted a job at his dream location, a long shot, it'll-never-happen deal that actually happened. He was thrilled, and he was sad. I was floored. As he talked about his fast-approaching start date and his plans to buy a surfboard, I realized we were having his congratulatory dinner - and perhaps our goodbye one, as well.

And so I looked around at the cozy Covington restaurant, surrounded by funky art, everything bathed in candlelight. I looked over at the man casually polishing the bar, looked down at our plates of near-perfect food, looked at my friend's familiar face. Slowly, I found a little bit of comfort.

We couldn't have picked a better place for this meal.

Otto's is a gem of a bistro on the northern edge of Covington's MainStrasse district. The story goes that Paul Weckman opened the place as its sole employee with just $300 in food some six years ago. Now it serves lunch and dinner five days a week with a spectacular brunch on Sunday.

We showed up late on a quiet Tuesday night, when we were one of only two couples keeping the poor kitchen staff from calling it a night. We were seated in front of the window, which immediately made us feel more special than we are. We ordered a couple of glasses of sauvignon blanc and then dove into the menu, though I'd checked it out online days ago and already knew what I wanted.

For an appetizer, we considered the Greek flatbread topped with spinach, onion, bacon, olives and feta, but settled on the crostini sampler. Six crisp baguette slices showed up at our table, topped with tasty morsels like prosciutto, brie and honey, figs, walnuts and goat cheese and shiitake mushrooms and blue cheese. My friend tried to exercise restraint and take his time wolfing them down - but once the taste of creamy brie sweetened by honey and spiked with the salt of the prosciutto hit our mouths, who really cared about holding back.

Up next, the entrées. He'd picked the fish special: salmon with a pile of sweet potato fries and crisp spears of asparagus. I got the item that cried my name from the online menu: pork tenderloin, seared and baked and served with a goat cheese-stuffed apple and a brandy reduction.

My friend raved about his fish and its crisp, flavorful skin, wondering aloud if it might have been the best piece of salmon he'd eaten. I attacked my plate and considered proposing marriage to the combination of juicy pork, sweet baked apple and tart goat cheese lying before me. Alas, I ate it all before we could take our relationship to the next level.

It was one of those meals you're sad to see end - a feeling heightened by my friend's sudden announcement - but the other couple had left and we were toasty and comfortably full. A great meal and not a bad way to say goodbye.

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