wonderful meal tonight at Donna's
My wife had an autumn mushroom fricasse, made with about 3-4 kinds of mushrooms, polenta and a wine reduction sauce, followed by grilled Tuscan wild boar, braised red cabbage and a whipped artichoke dish.
I had an appetizer of white anchovies, served on rye toast with red onion and a drizzle of EVOO.
My entree was an autumn fettucine, containing duck,butternut squash, thyme, sage, parsley, chestnuts and arugula with, of course, fettucine.
Washed it down with a 2003 Oriel Gigondas "Jocunda" (70% granache and 30% syrah). The 2005 gets 91 WS points. The 2003 was wonderful, with black currant fruit and a really, really long finish. Nice firm tannins, but not too dry.
This wine retails at a local place for $31.99 and the restaurant had it for $32. When Alan, my friend the co-owner of Donna's, gets a good buy on a wine, he just passes it on to the consumer, rather than jack the price up.
All in all, a superb meal.

We really need to go back there. We've had lunch at their Columbia location a couple times this summer. Thanks for the report.

Bob: My understanding is that each one of the "Donna's" has its own chef, the menus differ, and the experience differs. Our dinner (including wine, tax and tip--no dessert or coffee) was under $120.
(Take that, New Yorkers!)

We enjoyed an excellent meal there earlier in the year.

Wonderful place, nice atmosphere, friendly service.