Tonight I had dinner at Terrene, and I thought I might as well use it for my first blog post here on HotSpotVibe.com.

Terrene is one of those places that has been around for a bit but I never heard of.  Of course, when mentioning it to friends, it seems that everyone knew about it but me.  My impression before I even stepped foot into the place was that it was vegetarian-friendly, expensive, and that they liked to recycle.  More on that to come.

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The thing about Terrene's location is that it's in a bit of a limbo area between the Central West End and Midtown (midtown being the SLU/Fox Theatre/Creepy Crawl/Del Taco area).  They and others claim to be part of the CWE, but I don't know how comfortable I am with that.  The best way to give the location is that Terrene's neighbor is the Scottish Arms.  I'll just refer to it as Scottish-Arms-ville.

Wine selection was pretty good, and we settled on a bottle of Syrah for about $30.  They also had a nice little cocktail/martini menu, and compared to other restaurants, it looks like they really put a lot of thought into their cocktails; and at the bartender's expense, as at least a few of them had some complex ingredients which probably took a little while to make.

 The rest of the menu is pretty much the same story.  They have a menu that changes daily but includes a few staples.  Interestingly, it's separated into three sections: "small plates," a soup and salad page, and "large plates."  The small plates were about $7-10, salads around $6, and large plates about $19-28.  I ordered off of the small plate section, thinking it was going to be smaller portions, but I still had more than I could eat (I guess I should disclose that I was feeling fat and got two "small plates").

 Because I'm trying on Vegetarian-ism for the month, it was part of the draw to going to Terrene.  But there was plenty of meat-friendly dishes on the menu as well.  And the deliciousness appeal didn't make it much easier for me to maintain my October commitment.  There were several dishes that were touted as vegetarian, vegan even, but there were no limits on the non-vegetarian.

 I've said for a while that half the battle of culinary mastery is good ingredients.  And Terrene nailed it.  Everything tasted very fresh and they use local farmers and ingredients.  There was a little something for everyone, from complex dishes to a good old fashioned steak.

The only complaint that i have is the setup of the dining room.  The chairs were a little uncomfortable, and the tables were a bit uncomfortable and pushed together.  My favorite part of the atmosphere was that the not-too-dark-or-bright lighting was better than most places.  And the outside patio was tops, wish the weather was a little better and I would've dined outside.  But altogether I really enjoyed my experience.  It wasn't cheap, but then again I wasn't eating cheap either.  The food was really good and service was satisfactory.  I can't wait to get back there in November and eat some of their meat.