A Higher Standard

Yesterday, my coworker and friend, Nancy, took me to Bakersfield Restaurant. It was a great! (To read about it, click here.)

Today for lunch, a group from work went across the street to Standard Market. It's the sister restaurant of Bakersfield.  At the heart of Standard Market is Standard Grill, a sophisticated fast-casual restaurant that showcases seasonal ingredients and the culinary talents of the team of chefs.

For lunch, I had "The Coast", which features Grilled Salmon, Mustard-Honey Dressing, Campari Tomatoes, Egg, Cucumber, Carrots. It was delicious!

But because some of my coworkers had to back to the office, we didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to check things out. Insert sad face here.

In my quick spin around Standard Market, I did notice this pumpkin ale. Not that I love pumpkin ale, even though I love pumpkin, but if you know me, you should see something in the packaging that caught my eye other than the booze.

The market has all sorts of goodies in it, I just knew I had to go back. It was settled. Since I had an evening to myself, I planned on going back for dinner! Besides, I wanted to try the Gazpacho I saw.  But then my coworker and friend, Maureen, asked if I had dinner plans. Drat! I told her I wanted to go back to Standard Market, and had to confess that I wanted to look around so I could post about it. She was okay with it, so off we went!

This time, I had the Iowa White, which consisted of Pan Roasted Chicken, Sauteéd Spinach, and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. I didn't eat all of it, because it was huge! But it was very good. Maureen had an Asian salad that looked tasty too. They have "servers" around the dining area, but they tell you they are a "Tip Free Zone", so it was a nice level of customer service. Our server came back with little samples of brownies. I gave my to Maureen, thinking that perhaps I would get something from the dessert area to bring back to the hotel. 

Maureen left me so I could roam around. There were all kinds of treats for the senses: fresh fruit and veg, cheese, wine, desserts, meat, fish. I could just go on and on.  But pictures tell so much more.

Here's the wine and cheese shop. I was trying to take sneaky pictures, so this one's a bit fuzzy. But the aromas of fromage were très magnifique.

Look at that fruit tart!I was going to get that small one, but that was enough for two people.

They even had people making fresh Sushi! I could lived there. Look at that Snapper!

The store and design were fresh and clean. The light fixture look like it came from IKEA. I won't say what the women said it looked like when we were having lunch today. And they say I'm naughty.

Check out more of Standard Market's tasty treats by clicking here. Like Bakersfield, I know I'll be back the next time I'm in town!