Passion in Greenbrier strives to be a holistic experience

Restaurant critic

Passion, The Restaurant and wine bar in the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake, is definitely striving to position itself as something different – a holistic experience rather than just another place to eat.

Besides a menu based on local foods and ingredients, it offers wine dinners, cooking classes and special tastings. The work of local fine artists adorns the walls.  Passion’s Web site includes profiles and links to the artists.

The space itself is quite lovely. You enter through a sidewalk dining area into  the wine bar . Proceeding further you find a dining space that feels both open and intimate – something hard to accomplish. The high ceilings and partial  walls provide a broad feeling to the space, while the subtle indirect light provides a glow of intimacy at the tables. The kitchen is open, providing a good view of the inner workings of preparing your meal. In all, the whole space is very well-done.

Chef Barner’s She-Crab Soup ($9), one of our starters, was among the best she crab any of the diners in my company had ever experienced.  The first course included “Not Your Grandmas” spaghetti and meatballs ($8).  Large sea scallops were blackened and placed on a bed of roasted spaghetti squash with Fra Diablo sauce. A crisp wafer of parmesan cheese was placed on top. Everything worked well, and it truly looked like spaghetti and meatballs. 

The main course included the Maple Leaf Duck Two Ways ($24). Sliced crispy duck breast was accompanied by a confit leg and thigh, then plated with wasabi mashed potatoes and sweet peas. This was finished off with ginger plum sauce. It was a good, solid rendition of this dish.

The Caramelized Leek Encrusted Salmon ($18) was the only disappointment of the evening. The salmon was moist and flavorful, but the leeks were not caramelized and very woody. Also, the accompanying sautéed spinach was too salty.

We wrapped up with Shrimp & Grits ($8), a choice from the small plates portion of the menu. In this dish, large shrimp were accompanied by prosciutto and served over cheddar cheese grits. The grits appeared to be stone ground and had wonderful flavor and texture. The addition of bourbon BBQ sauce made for a very satisfying combination of flavors.

For dessert, we enjoyed the Tri-Brule –  three crème brulées. The selection included vanilla, pomegranate and blood orange. All were very good renditions, but we found the pomegranate the most interesting. The blood orange also had a good flavor, not too sweet with just a hint of bitter from the rind. It played  well against the good, strong coffee.

We also enjoyed the sorbet that evening. It was pomegranate with just enough sweetness to enhance the fruit flavor – a great palate cleanser.  Passion  is definitely worth a trip – especially for the she-crab soup.