When I received the list of panels on which I’d be appearing at Capclave and saw that I’d been scheduled for a two-hour block Saturday night from 10:00 p.m. until midnight, my first thought was—Gee, that’s awfully late. But that initial thought was almost immediately extinguished by a tantalizing follow-up thought of—Wait! That means I can go to Range again!

I’ve already told you how I woke up early Black Friday—something I never do—in order to book a table on the first of Range’s pre-opening preview nights, which resulted in a meal that made us rush back as soon as we could. So with the restaurant only 27 minutes away from the convention hotel (according to Google Maps, anyway), I knew this represented a perfect opportunity.

So what did we think? Our smiles near the end of the meal should give you the answer to that question.

We dined with friends Karen and Charlie Newton (who’d been there with us before) and Sandy and Risa Stewart (who were Range first-timers). A side note—the three couples at the table had been together for 32, 33, and 37 years—which means we had a combined 102 years of marriage!

As the restaurant’s online reservations site had indicated that Range was booked solid the Saturday night of Capclave (and if a place isn’t packed on a Saturday of all nights, something’s wrong), I reached directly out to see if there was any way we could be squeezed in, and was grateful to be hear we could be accommodated. But when we arrived at 6:30 p.m., I was surprised to see that we were more than merely accommodated—we were led to a glass-enclosed private room with containing two long tables, one set up for a party of six, the other for a party of eight.

And for at least the first 90 minutes of our meal, we had the room entirely to ourselves, until a bridal party joined us in the room to take the other table. So we ended up feeling coddled at one of the best tables in the house. Thank you, Range, for going above and beyond the culinary call of duty!

And that was only the first surprise of the night …

We started off with a bakers basket and spreads, which included their corn bread, always one of my favorites …

… as well as a tasting of hams, since one of my friends, upon perusing the menu in advance of our meal, commented that any restaurant with four kinds of ham was his kind of restaurant. So here’s a spread of Benton’s smoked ham, Newsom’s Kentucky ham, Surryano Virginia ham, and Range ham.

A delicious way to start off!

Next came the goat cheese ravioli, braised meat ragu, basil, parmesan, which seemed loaded with umami. A perfect dish. One friend loved the ragu so much I worried he might begin licking the serving plate.

Next came roasted beets (two kinds), burrata, pistachio, sorrel vinaigrette. I confess that I’m not a beet lover, and have been told by my mother that when I was a baby, I’d get the shivers if forced to eat them. But with this sweet and tender dish, me and beets have made our peace.

This was followed by pumpkin orecchiette, chorizo, shrimp, mussels, kale, which managed to be simultaneously delicate and hearty.

At this point, our server, Mack, who made sure we were taken care of like royalty, told us not to be surprised when a few dishes we didn’t order came out. And soon, sweetbreads, which I don’t think I even saw on the menu that night, arrived—

—followed quickly by Range’s always wonderful beef marrow bones.

As we were leaving at the end of the night, my wife told Chef Matt Hill that the sweetbreads were as good as her mother’s, which is high praise indeed. And the beef marrow was moan-worthy. Thank you, Chef, for these unexpected treats.

Next up, grilled octopus (which was some of the best octopus I’ve ever eaten), potato, coppa, green garlic, radicchio.

I didn’t snap a photo of the fried Brussels sprouts, because we lusted after them so greatly that they vanished before I remembered to pull out my iPhone, but here’s another one of my favorite dishes, roasted baby carrots.

And now we get to the star of the night—ribeye, lobster, bearnaise, shell beans, sweet corn. One friend declared it to be the best beef he’d ever eaten.

But we mustn’t forget the pheasant, served with sweet potato, roasted plums, brussels sprouts. Surprisingly, this was my first time eating pheasant. A beautiful dish, which caused us to pause a moment to admire it before digging in. But we couldn’t resist for long.

One final side came with these main courses: Sunchokes, bacon lardon, dates. I’d never had sunchokes before. An intriguing dish, and now that I know they’re also called Jerusalem artichokes, I may try to cook up some of them myself.

Then we come to the desserts. I’ll spare you a glimpse of the candy cart, which would be too much torture for you if you don’t happen to be before it in person and able to choose, but here are two of the desserts off the menu.

First, ice cream sandwiches of fudge crinkle, chocolate mint ice cream plus macadamia nut, salted caramel ice cream …

… and cashew and grape donuts, Concord grape jam, toasted bread ice cream. A deliciously different end to the meal.

Range once more delivered the goods, both in terms of the quality of the food and attentiveness of the service. It was a wonderful night, and I hope to draft a different group of friends real soon for a visit that’ll surely turn them into fans.

Thank you, Bryan Voltaggio, thank you, Matt Hill, thank you, Mack, thank you, entire Range team!