As our anniversary weekend came and went, memories consumed us — but not so totally that we didn’t have time to make some new ones. So it was that we celebrated our anniversary at Rover’s.

Rover’s has been a Seattle benchmark for gourmet food since it opened in 1987. The chef-owner, Thierry Rautureau, does a marvelous job with Northwest cuisine by way of France. He’s known as the Chef in the Hat for reasons that should be obvious.

We had an amazing meal there, known as the Grand Menu Degustation. It consisted of eight courses, though it felt more like ten or twelve by the time we were done. Each course was something precious and delicious. Five of the courses were seafood: scallops, crab, lobster, shrimp, and fish. There was a sautéed foie gras that truly did melt in your mouth as if it were butter, and a glorious “symphony” dessert of three different tiny treats. It went for hours and was overwhelmingly delicious — but because each course was small, we were able to really enjoy every bite without feeling like we were gorging at a buffet.

Chef Rautureau came around to wish us a happy anniversary and we burbled with joy at him for a few minutes. John had arranged for a bouquet of flowers on our table similar to one of the ones at our wedding, and it turned out that the restaurant’s florist is also the chef’s wife. He said he’d been tempted at one point years ago to go into the flower business with her and give up cooking, but as he said with his still-lingering accent, “You cannot eat zees flowers!”

Jenny suspected you could, if only because they looked so beautiful. Here’s the bouquet, which we brought home to grace our own table for the rest of the week.

We had one particularly unusual treat at this meal. Chef Rautureau offers the option of a flight of matched beverages with all the courses. We opted instead of wine for the flight of savory cocktails: flavored sodas mixed with fruit and/or vegetable juices or purées, prepared fresh on the spot. The sodas were Dry Soda, a local brand that offers flavors such as lavender, rhubarb, kumquat, and lemongrass; uncaffeinated and only slightly sweet, they are low-calorie, subtle, and meant to go with food instead of being a sugary snack. Chef Rautureau further added his own juices to them, to tailor the flavors for each course of the meal. We started with a lavender-fennel soda and enjoyed a dizzying series of intense and surprising flavors which complimented the food extraordinarily. A meat course came with a rhubarb-beet soda that had a hearty, substantial flavor totally in synch with what was on the plate. Even dessert had its own accompaniment: a glass of pure black cherry juice, freshly squeezed. This assortment of culinary refreshments was eye opening and magnificent, and Chef Rautureau was eager to discuss them. We were really knocked out.

That night we stayed up late and watched our wedding photos on our TV. Seeing so many faces of loved ones further intensified this rift in time, a sort of bilocation in which we were in two times at once. Reality wavered, memories asserted themselves, and we were awash in joy.

Two days later we picked up our anniversary cake from Bonnie at New Renaissance Cakes. She made our wedding cake and that included a one-year anniversary cake, a more appealing option than eating year-old frozen cake. We chose Belgian chocolate and it was glorious.

That night, Jenny made an outstanding logical argument that went like this. Since there’s no way we’re going to bring our anniversary cake to work as leftovers for coworkers, and we would also not want to throw the leftovers away, we should just go ahead and admit that we would eat the entire thing. And furthermore, she went on, since we’re going to eat the entire thing anyway, there’s no reason not to start by having two really huge pieces of cake, for it will never taste as good as it will on the first day. John could not argue with such brilliant reasoning and so we dove in.

This anniversary period — for it has been much more than just a single day — has enveloped us in a happy glow, and given that we tend to live in a happy glow anyway, that’s saying something. We are so grateful for each other, for all these wonderful memories, and for the people we love so dearly who came together to make this all possible.

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