I visited Iron Rabbit, a new restaurant/bar in Olympia, several days ago for dinner with my mother. It resides in a poorly trafficked strip mall near the tequila bar and the laundromat, in a place better suited to a terriyaki joint or some other similar take-out style food. When you pull in to park there, however, the outside of the building has be redone so that it looks less like a temporary building and more like a real restaurant. Inside, detailed attention has been paid to the choice of furniture including hardwood tables and chairs, but the lack of butts in the chairs on a Saturday evening was notable and a bit distracting.

The attention to detail extended to the waiters' uniforms, the presentation of the menu, and even the window dressings. It reminded me very much of a French wine bar with the woodwork, the lacy trim, and the all-around visual presentation of the plain white, yet elegant menu. The ambiance, which would have made it perfect for a date night, was lost on the baseboards. Upon actually reading the menu I began to feel as though I were in some kind of elegantly subtle satire of a very nice restaurant. I will never get past the part where "sandwiches" were simply called "Such-and-such Sand," with no punctuation. I am not normally a stickler for grammar, since I tend to lean in the direction of a certain sociolinguistic line of thinking that sees language (and therefore also grammar) as merely a tool for conveying one's thoughts. However, the rule "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" applies here. In this region, we do not abbreviate the word "sandwich" as merely "sand" with no punctuation. "Sand" is a word that conveys thoughts of things we don't often have, and so is unusual and definitely a pointed word with a specific intended meaning. "Sand" with a "." after it, however, signifies to us that the writer is not attempting to make us think of beaches and sunshine and mai tai's, but instead of a meal often served between two slices of bread which generally comes with a side such as potato chips or French fries.

Even still, in this context, the word should not have been abbreviated at all, with or without the appropriate punctuation. On an elegant menu such as the one they almost achieved creating, it is necessary to spell out the ingredients unless there clearly is not enough room. Anthony's--another local restaurant which gets fantastic reviews from me for food, and in it's Olympia location, for ambiance, but rarely for service at any location--is the perfect example of this point. Their menus generally are crowded, but for the amount of options they offer and detail they give, they can be forgiven for this. In fact, being a seafood restaurant, the crowded menu is almost expected, but this is a function of what happens when people spend very much time at sea--boats require economy of space, and this mindset will spill into other areas of life. At Iron Rabbit, which is not a seafood restaurant, the menu was not crowded and abbreviations are only distracting.

The food, which to my memory is still only an afterthought, was not bad. The garlic bread was thick and chewy just the way garlic bread is meant to be although a bit overdone on parts--remember, "blackened" is only considered a good thing in reference to Cajun cooking here in the states. The salads were superb, and the house-made croutons were fabulous. It's suprisingly difficult to find good homemade croutons in this area, so I was quite pleased with the results and would have been happy even if these had been served to me in France, where croutons are an art form. The presentation of the cucumber and tomatoes was magnificent, laid out along the side of the plate rather than sprinkled haphazardly on top. This, to me, was the highlight of the meal as I hate having to fish out my favorite vegetables which I prefer to eat separately when possible. My mother also enjoyed the salad, stating that she like not having to ask for the dressing to be on the side. I prefer mine pre-tossed, but am happy when the cooks err on the side of caution and allow the diners to dress their own salads.

The pasta that we got was also good, if a bit overpriced, and if I return it's not likely that I'll order it again. If I do return, which is not likely since I'm no longer local, I'll see into checking out the bar. Often restaurant/bar combinations specialize in one over the other, and my hunch is that this particular location has a decent bar. We'll see.

Over all: 3 out 5 stars.