Cheese, swine, and wine - what's not to like?

Purple Pig - 4.2.10
Overall: 8.0/10.0
Wine
Guigal Cote du Rhone (2005?)
Dishes
- Salt-roasted beets with whipped goat cheese and pistachio vinaigrette: The best dish of the night.  Beets were perfectly cooked, whipped goat cheese & pistachio provided textural contrast as well as great flavor pairings.  A perfect bite of all three tasted like spring.
- Charred ramps & scallions with romesco sauce: Rich and buttery, and romesco was excellent - both nutty and flavorful.
- Sardines with lemon vinaigrette: Tasty but not memorable.
- Deviled egg with arugula & caper berries: We heard that this dish is often sold out.  Two halfs of the deviled egg are reassembled then battered and deep-fried.  I didn't think the arugula and caper berries were natural pairings for the egg, which was good but I think a tad overrated.  Also, very hard to share.
- Pork liver pate:  Pate was nicely flavored.  The texture was a bit loose and spreadlike.  I would get this again, but I think we ordered too much cheese (we picked 5, including 2 triple-creme varieties).  As a result, I think I found the pate a bit too rich as part of our meal.
- Milk-braised pork shoulder with mashed potatoes:  Pork shoulder was perfectly cooked, mashed potatoes were nothing special.  It was nice to have a leaner bit of pork with our fatfest.
- Cheese plate: Robiola Rochetta, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Podda, Delice de Bourgogne, Capriole O'Bannon.  Robiola was the standout.  Excellent selection of cheeses, but I've seen cheese boards that are better put together by way of accoutrements.

Check was ~$150, 4 of us were full and we had a bottle of pretty nice wine (~$40).  If this place blows up, it will be annoying to go there because they have limited seating, most of which is communal, i.e. not my steeze.  Other than that I liked both the vibe & service - both were lively and laid-back.  All in all, I would totally recommend a visit to anyone who likes the wine-bar vibe and the tapas drill.

Note: These are not pictured because I hate taking pictures of dishes in restaurants and refuse to do it.  Not to mention that I am not equipped to take pictures in dark restaurants because the iPhone has a shitty camera.  In fact, the picture above was taken the next day because I happened to be walking down Mag Mile on my way to Ernest's.