TWELVES: A special-occasion restaurant in West Grove

As my regular readers know, I am fortunate to dine out a lot. I come by this genetically: a magnet on my mother's refrigerator reads, "My Three Favorite Words: Let's Eat Out." But on January 6 I had a truly memorable restaurant experience at Twelves.
Twelves is housed in a former bank in the middle of West Grove; you walk by the old vault on the way to your table.
Everything on the menu sounded so delicious that we had a tough time choosing, and our waitress only complicated matters by mentioning the evening's specials. I had almost made up my mind to order the three-course prix fixe menu until she mentioned the crab cake special, with smashed potatoes, asparagus and roasted carrots. Yes, please! My date was not dissuaded from his original choice: the short ribs, with roasted brussels sprouts.
The food was served beautifully and was so tasty that we just stared blankly across the table, savoring every bite. My crab cake was spectacular; his short ribs were melt-in-your-mouth tender. He commented that he didn't realize brussels sprouts could actually be tasty.
Fortunately we saved room for dessert: I had the homemade chocolate ice cream (too cold for ice cream? Never!) and my date had the cheesecake, which he loved.
What added to the entire experience was the relaxed yet sophisticated atmosphere of the place. It's hard to describe; the adjective I keep coming up with is "intelligent" (that's a good thing). There aren't a lot of tables, so everyone gets special attention (it also means you need a reservation). The party of four next to us was celebrating a birthday, and the honoree's dessert came with "Happy Birthday" written on the plate in what looked like chocolate sauce.
The next day I was raving about our evening and I learned that Twelves has a special meaning to a gym friend of mine: she went there on her very first date with the man who will become her husband this spring. It's already a special place for us, too.