As my blog begins to receive more attention from the general public, I think it’s time to set up a connection to Technorati.
So, in that spirit, I provide the following link to my Technorati Profile.
We’ll see how this goes…*)
I have talked about the Cellar Bistro before, but last night we had such a great experience there I thought I should discuss it.
First of all, the Cellar Bistro is relatively new. The owner, Ken, seems intent on making it a nice, friendly place that is good for families but also for romantic dinners. He makes it work because of the physical layout of the restaurant: Four rooms lead back from the main entry, and each room has a modicum of privacy and intimacy that adds to the atmosphere. This layout allows you to stick a loud, unruly group all the way in the back so the quiet couples can sit in the front without being disturbed quite so much. I’ve been part of the group and one half of the quiet couple, so I definitely appreciate this structure.
Second, the food is excellent, particularly for the price. I had the gnocchi carbonara last night and it was delicious, as always: plenty of bacon, nice rich sauce that doesn’t overpower the delicacy of the gnochhi, and so on. The risotto basilica is a tremendous dish, too: pesto, garlic, light cream, chicken, pecans…wow! I can never finish that one, and I wouldn’t want to because I love taking the other half home for the next day. I have only ever had one disappointing meal, and they removed that entree from the menu quickly thereafter (it was an odd sort of seafood thing that didn’t quite make the cut, but their other seafood entrees are great). I have probably tried 50-60% of the things on the menu, and they are all terrific.
Third, it’s worth mentioning the prices again. For $10-$15, you can get many different types of pasta, with many different types of sauces, plus soup or salad, plus fresh bread with homemade herb-infused olive oil. In Seattle, that’s a good deal, and that’s after their prices went up recently to reflect their popularity. Plus, I get a special corporate discount, so I always receive a free entree. That’s particularly hard to beat.
Finally, the service is usually great. We have a specific waitress who knows what to bring for my fiance, who has lots of odd food allergies. That waitress makes our experience at the Cellar wonderful every time because, before she asks for it, my fiance has a Diet Coke and a Caesar salad…and, being a creature of habit, my fiance loves that sort of attentiveness.
So, four of us went last night. Three of us ordered Diet Coke because, hey, it was hot and I didn’t think anyone else would join me if I ordered wine. Ken came by after a few minutes; the ensuing conversation went like this:
“Hey Alex! Good to see you…uhh, are you drinking soda pop? Why no wine??”
“Yeah, uhh, I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s no good. Let me treat you to a bottle of wine. Your choice.”
“Thank you very much! But that’s quite a dangerous offer, you know.”
“Ahh, try me!”
“Hmm, okay…well, uhh…what about an Amarone?”
“Ha ha ha! No. We only have one. Try again, anything else is fair game.”
“How about a basic Valpolicella?”
“Now that I can do…hang on a minute.”
Ken took off to get a bottle of wine as we all stared at each other. Free wine? How can you not love that?
Ken returned with his bottle of Amarone just to show it to me, but he also brought over the bottle we would all be sharing: a 2003 Zenato Ripassa Valpolicella Superiore. A quick Internet search reveals a store price range of $18-$30 for this wine, so it’s a good restaurant wine for sure. We loved it…nice and fruity, with cherry and subtle tobacco aromas and flavors.
So there you have it! We all loved the wine and I know I’d look for it again. I’m also tempted to bring in another good bottle of wine soon so Ken can give it a try. I had brought a Paolo Scavino Barolo once before, so the precedent exists….
Summer is officially here. You can tell by the lovely sunshine, the preponderance of rosé at supermarkets, and the (planned) total closure of I-405 during rush hour on the first Friday of the summer. Ahh, Seattle!
Summer also heralds the arrival of more wine from two interesting wineries: Odisea and Siduri.
Odisea has long been a fixture in my links column on this blog. I tried their Temporary Insanity (TI) Tempranillo while I was in Oklahoma for Christmas, but I didn’t remember the name of the wine later. What followed was a long wait to hear back from someone at the wine bar/restaurant where I tried the TI, and then another wait while I hoped to hear from the vintner himself. I eventually did, and I ordered 3 bottles directly…and someday soon I hope to open one of them, but I’ve been waiting for a special occasion, or at least houseguests.
They have a new wine club called the Journey Member Program. I’m going to join it if I can; you get 3 bottles of wine every 3 months for $75 including shipping. They have some rare reserve wines that don’t make it to the public any other way, and I’m a sucker for such shenanigans. Plus, I want to support Odisea and their quest (ha ha, a pun!) to make some Spanish wines in the Lodi area. I love a good tempranillo, and I also enjoy a grenache/temp blend. They do both quite well from what I’ve tasted and read.
Siduri also sent me a flyer to announce some spring wine releases, even though it’s summer now. They look terrific! I need more money, space, time, etc. for my wine collection, and for my dream wine collection. Ahh, at least it’s sunny outside…all the better to get stuck in traffic as they lower a road bed by three feet. Seriously.
Cam Wheeler had an interesting post recently in which he catalogued some of the more interesting search terms that led visitors to his wine blog. I liked that post so much, I decided to check my own search result log to see how people were randomly finding my site. Here are a few good results, though none are nearly as good as Cam’s results:
Quite odd, but somehow inspiring! In fact, in the spirit of drawing more visitors, I offer the following paragraph for the consumption of robots, spiders, Web crawlers, and other algorithm-based visitors:
Pamela Anderson and Jenna Jameson are both considering opening their own wineries; I know that Christina Aguilera got married at Staglin recently, by the way. Oh, and I think Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie are considering adopting a case of 2005 Bordeaux, if they can get a good deal on the Chateau Palmer. They are American, after all. Finally, the World Cup features Brazil and Ronaldhino, England and Beckham, and 30 other countries. I assume all of the players drink Krug.
Nice…let’s see who starts finding this blog now! Apparently, I am averaging over 100 unique visitors per day in June, of which I assume 95 are computers, 3 are actually me, and 2 are family members and friends.
After a long day of paintball warfare and hot tub relaxation, 13 of my closest friends and I took our bachelor party celebration to The Metropolitan Grill in Seattle. The Met is one of my favorite restaurants, in part because their service is generally excellent, but also because you can get Chateaubriand, among other beef delicacies.
The bachelor party ritual at The Met began 5 years ago with one of the friends in attendance last night. We all enjoyed the experience so much, we decided to head back again…or, I decided to head back again, and everyone agreed. As I have blogged here before, I purchased 4 bottles of 2004 Sea Smoke “Southing” for the occasion. The purchase served three purposes: It gave us all a good wine for dinner without paying restaurant prices, it let me get a full allocation of Sea Smoke, and I got to try a whole bunch of Sea Smoke wine!
When we arrived in our private room, the table was set for 14 guys. The 4 bottles of Sea Smoke were there waiting for us. Quickly, our sommelier for the evening (Lance) arrived and decanted the wine for us. I told him to pour some for himself, which he did…he was quite interested in the wine as I doubt anyone has brought in a bottle of it just yet. His initial impression matched mine: a lot of cherry with some smoke and, interestingly, roasted meat. It had a shiraz character at first, but that shifted into a really potent Pinot Noir.
I spent much of the evening talking, laughing, and enjoying that wine. Every one of the other guys enjoyed it too, even the ones who professed that all wine was just grape juice to them. It was a nice, small victory when I convinced those guys that this wine was really good.
We had some timing issues, though. We didn’t drink the wine nearly as fast as I thought we would, partly because a bunch of guys ordered martinis, which was hilarious to me as martinis are good before dinner but they taste terrible with, say, lobster bisque. Some guys still had martini leftovers by the time the entrees arrived. Yuck!
This slow consumption meant that we still had plenty of Sea Smoke by the time our main courses materialized. Four waiters worked the table, providing everything from my tableside Chateaubriand to the Copper River king salmon to the 20-ounce ancho chile ribeye. At the same time, my friend and I decided to pull the trigger on a wine that we thought would be a popular selection at the table: a magnum of 2001 Woodward Canyon Columbia Valley “Old Vines” Cabernet Sauvignon.
This wine, while tasty, was absolutely no match for the Sea Smoke. That’s right: The Pinot tasted better with the meat, and simply tasted better overall, compared to the Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cab was almost thin after the bulk of the smoky, cherry, meaty Pinot. Some guys loved the Cab, of course, but they also liked the Pinot a lot too. Interesting stuff.
We finished off the evening with a half bottle of 1966 Porto Rocha Colheita Tawny port. Wow! Now that’s a great tawny port…less of the fire that typifies lesser tawny, at least in my opinion. Lots of great maple aroma and flavor. A delicious port, and an excellent way to conclude a great evening.
As for the Sea Smoke, I am fully on board with the style of Pinot Noir displayed in their Southing release. Truly a terrific Pinot Noir, but not necessarily typical of the varietal (at least from my perspective, with my limited knowledge and experience). This wine is multidimensional and interesting because it evolves in the glass over an hour or two. It needed about 20 minutes of decanting, but then it really came to life and tasted more rich and lush, and less like a shiraz. I’m looking forward to the Botella and Ten bottles in my wine fridge!