A recap of my night at The Met
Here’s a photo that will give you some idea of what I experienced last night:
You can’t tell the vintage from the photo, but that’s a bottle of 1997 Fay from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. The 2004 Sea Smoke Ten went down easy, and we kept the 2000 Silver Oak Napa Valley for another night. Here’s what I ate with my wine:
Chateaubriand, medium rare, served tableside. As the waiter put it, “It’s the best thing in the restaurant.” I heartily agree. But of course, if you’re going to eat such nice food and drink such nice wine, you need something equally impressive for dessert:
Apple pie, also served tableside. Very nice! A bit of closing advice, though: Reconsider capping off your evening with a glass of Macallan cask-strength single malt scotch. Whoa.
Anyway, it was an exceptional evening. It also turned out to be a smart time to visit The Met: We were nearly the last people in the restaurant even before 10 PM rolled around. Nice. Actually, given the number of people at the restaurant last night it’s a bit odd how many mistakes the kitchen and waitstaff made. Nothing major…in reality, I felt the minor mistakes made added something amusing to the entire evening. I mean, the worst thing that happened was when the kitchen covered my wife’s piece of salmon with black pepper. No big deal. We all had a great time, and I think I’m unable to eat food again until a few days from now, much like a python that just ate its own body weight in gophers.
One last note: The average market prices for the two wines we drank are $135.60 for the Fay and $240 for the Sea Smoke Ten. Wow! I’m glad we got them before they cost so much money, particularly the Sea Smoke. My next blog entries will go into the tasting details for each of these terrific wines.