“Can I send some bread home with you?”

The three of us looked at each other. Were we hearing things?

“Um, okay.”

It was late at Runner & Stone — Sunday of a holiday weekend and we were pretty much closing the place. So as a surprise ending to our thoughtful, inventive, delicious, and — by New York standards — gently-priced meals, we toted home artisanally-crafted parting gifts of brioches and baguettes. Mine went into the freezer (see “three desserts,” below). There is French toast in my future.

P.S. If you need a vicarious food thrill, this is what I ate:

• Soup of the day – chilled asparagus and roasted sunchoke soup (and it was even vegan, kids)
• Fish of the day – pollock over gribiche (caper and hard-boiled egg sauce), cauliflower and fennel

We shared a bottle of a summery fun and fizzy Zucchi Lambrusco. And we shared three desserts. Ahem.

• Rye brownie sundae (with rye whiskey ice cream, caramel sauce and caraway walnut sablage)
• Banana split with barley malt ice cream, marshmallow sauce and potato levain candy
• Brioche bread pudding with toasted almond ice cream and rhubarb compote