huevos con vino

A couple of friends and I ate at a Phoenix, Arizona restaurant called Christopher’s Fermier Brasserie tonight.  I found this place by checking out gayot.com, which is easily one of my favorite restaurant review Web sites because they are ruthless, brutally honest, and their scores actually mean something.  Christopher’s received 15/20, which puts it in some elite company as a score of 12/20 is really damn good at gayot.com.

The restaurant itself is terrific, although it is located in an upscale Phoenix shopping mall.  Weird, but manageable.  For dinner, I had the following courses:

• Escargot with a puff pastry and diced tomato topping
• Beef shortribs braised in red wine with mashed potatoes and miniature squash
• Grand Marnier souffle with fresh raspberries and cream

The wine list is fairly extensive, and they have whites such as DuMOL and reds such as Patz & Hall.  So they have good stuff, to be sure.  They also offer half-liter amounts of wine, which was what we got as our first wine of the evening.  I wound up drinking a lot more than my friends, but it all worked out fine in the end.

The first wine we tried was the 2003 Palacios Remondo “La Montesa” from the Rioja region of Spain.  La Montesa is an organic, Crianza red wine made from 45% Tempranillo, 40% Garnacha, 15% Mazuelo (Carignane), and 15% Graciano grapes, according to the fact sheet linked in this sentence.  Those percentages add up to 115% so clearly it’s a wine that is bursting with flavor.  Here are my thoughts (tasted before and with the escargot):

• Aroma: Gamy meat and bell pepper at first, evolved into a very smoky, spicy nose after 30-60 minutes. 
• Flavor: Black pepper, black fruit, thick tannic structure.  A tasty wine; you can sense an earthiness reminiscent of Mourvedre after about 60 minutes of decanting.
• General impression: A big, bold, spicy wine with some interesting things going on in terms of palate and bouquet.  Worth the money.

The next wine I tried was the 2005 El Felino Malbec from the Mendoza region of Argentina.  This Malbec is about $15/bottle online but it tastes like a $30 wine for sure.  My thoughts (tasted before and mostly consumed with the beef entree):

• Aroma: Floral, fruity, rich.  A well-rounded bouquet.
• Flavor: A delicious balance of semi-sweet fruit integrated with nice spicy acid and tannic structure.
• General impression: The find of the month for me!  I loved this wine and I could see drinking a lot more of it.

 Finally, I had a glass of the 2004 Marcarini Moscato d’Asti from the Piedmont region of Italy.  My thoughts (consumed with the souffle):

• Aroma: Sweet.  Honey and slight citrus and honeydew melon bouquet.
• Flavor: Again, plenty of honey and syrupy sweetness.  Tasty but a little one-dimensional.
• General impression: A good match for the souffle, but nothing too exciting overall.

Overall, it was a great evening, and I’d say the El Felino was the big discovery for me.  This wine goes straight into the realm of “delicious wines under $20,” along with Ramian Page One Grenache and Tikal Patriota, if you can find that one for $19.99. 

Last night, before Winter Storm 2007© hit the Seattle area in earnest, the wife and I went out with a couple of our oldest friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant near the Ravenna and Roosevelt neighborhoods.  The place is called Casa d’Italia and I had never been there before.  After last night, I found myself wondering why I had been so stupid as to have missed this place for so long.

Casa d’Italia is the sort of restaurant you would expect to find on a side street in Venice, or in Little Italy in New York City.  From the outside, it looks more like an Italian market than a restaurant.  In fact, when I lived two blocks away from Casa d’Italia and I drove past it nearly every day, I never thought it actually had tables and chairs inside.  That’s how good the camoflauge is at Casa d’Italia.

Once you enter the restaurant, you can see why they disguise it from the outside.  The largest table seats about 3 people in moderate comfort, or 4 people who feel like getting cozy.  Luckily, the 4 of us last night had no trouble with that so we enjoyed the seating arrangements.  Most of the tables seat 2 at a time and there is certainly an element of romance in the atmosphere of this place.  I think that romantic mood can be traced to the cook himself, who frequently sings along with the music being played.  Italian cookbooks fill the bookcases that are sprinkled throughout the interior, and at least one prosciutto-style ham hock-shaped lamp hangs from the ceiling.

The menu leans heavily toward sub sandwiches, which is an oddity for a Seattle-based Italian restaurant.  Any self-respecting New Yorker would be completely at home in Casa d’Italia, though, as the laminated menus, paper napkins, and owner-specific decor make you feel like you just stopped for dinner in any town on Long Island. 

The menu continues onto a few chalkboards placed around the restaurant.  The daily specials are impressive: Last night, they had about 8 different specials, all of which were quite different and interesting.  I wound up trying the verro teresa, which was boar bacon and penne pasta in a light cream and tomato sauce.  Damn good stuff, that boar bacon.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  The featured red wine by the glass was a Merlot-style wine from Bigi, a major Italian winery.  It was nice, very typical of the style, with lots of rich, ripe red fruit and smooth tannins.  It was quite tasty with the olive di sale (sp?) appetizer, which consisted of warm olives, roasted garlic cloves, a few kinds of cheese, fresh basil, and tons of olive oil.  Absolutely delicious!  We also tried the antipasto misto platter, which was also terrific.  It had about 15 different kinds of vegetables, cheeses, and meats on it.  It was easily one of the better antipasto misto plates I’ve ever had, and that includes the plates I had in Italy.  Of course, the fresh bread that came with the meal was outstanding as well: fresh, crusty, and Tuscan in style, it paired nicely with the olive oils that saturated the appetizers.

My wife tried the penne with marinara sauce for dinner; she loved it.  My friends had the albacore tuna with pasta and a penne dish that resembled mine, but without the boar.  They loved their food as well.  I have to admit that I stopped eating my entree at a certain point because there was a lot left, and because I caught a glimpse of the desserts earlier in the evening.

I tried the ricotta cheesecake, which had a hint of amaretto in the crust and which also looked more like a square slice of fluffy coffee cake.  It was delicate and delicious, which is quite a feat for a slice of cheesecake.  My wife had a plate of different Italian-style homemade cookies.  I think they were gone in 14 seconds; I got to try a currant chocolate macaroon (I think), which was excellent.  One of our friends had coconut sorbetto in a halved coconut shell.  It looked wonderful as well.

Clearly, Casa d’Italia is a terrific restaurant in the style of an authentic European Italian or New York Italian place.  They don’t have wood-fired pizza, or cheese-baked breadsticks, or an all-you-can-eat salad bar, so if you are into those sorts of things you’ll want to stick to The Olive Garden.  Then again, at Casa d’Italia they won’t give you a beeper and tell you to come back in 90 minutes, and they won’t ask you “if you know how it works here” when you sit down.  So if you want real Italian food served with a smile, I recommend Casa d’Italia, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the authentic style of a real Italian restaurant.  Expect to hear some Sinatra at regular intervals throughout your meal.

Last Sunday my wife and I went out to dinner with my father and stepmother.  We went back to The Cellar Bistro, in part because the prices are good but mostly because the food is superior to most other Italian restaurants in Seattle.  Also, they know us by name now, so it makes the dining experience much more personal.

We got together to exchange gifts and such, and we had a great time.  But what about the wine?

Daniel, one of the waiters at The Cellar, brought me a bottle of 2003 Zenato Valpolicella and his assurance that I’d enjoy it.  Daniel is an astute waiter.  He was the guy who got stuck waiting on us at my bachelor party dinner, so he’s clearly a patient man.  He also drives a motorcycle, so he’s patient and cool!  Anyway, his wine recommendations are always fun and this particular bottle was one of his best offerings so far.

The 2003 Zenato Valpolicella DoC Classico Superiore has a name that is longer than its price tag by a fair margin.  The blend of grapes is interesting: Corvina (85%), Rondinella (10%), and Sangiovese (5%).  Corvina and Rondinella are apparently two of the main grapes that tend to comprise Amarone wines, as well as the wines from the Valpolicella zone of Veneto.  I have not tried many wines made from Corvina or Rondinella so I suppose my palate is still somewhat virginal when it comes to the Veneto wine region, if being “somewhat virginal” is really possible.

Here are my notes on the 2003 Zenato Valpolicella DoC Classico Superiore:

• Aroma: Red fruit, some black fruit, and oak.  A bit like a Merlot with Sangiovese in it.  The official site claims “violets and almonds” but I didn’t get either one in the bouquet.
• Flavor: Lots of robust red fruit that fluctuates between dry and sweet (mostly dry, though).  Rich and flavorful, mostly sour red cherry and raspberry on the palate with an oak backbone.  Nice.
• General impression: A heck of a good wine for the price ($8.99 online)!

Overall, this wine was perfectly good.  It faded a little after the bottle had been open for an hour, but then it came back into form.  Clearly this wine is designed to be consumed with rich Northern Italian pasta and meat dishes within the first 10-15 minutes after the bottle is opened. 

I know I enjoy Amarone so it was nice to try a younger, less potent wine made from the same basic grapes.  For $8.99 (if you live in New Jersey, anyway) this wine is worthwhile as a daily pasta companion.  The cheapest Italian Amarone wines I can find tend to be $15-$20 at the very bottom end of their price range, according to wine-searcher.com.  It’s a shame they cost so much more, but if you simply enjoy drinking decent red wine it’s hard to go wrong with this Zenato at $8.99/bottle.

The wife and I had dinner at the Madison Park Cafe tonight, a lovely little house converted into a restaurant that has space for about 10-12 tables.  The fire was roaring when we came in; we sat across from the open kitchen where most of the staff bustle back and forth throughout the dinner hours.  It’s a great, lively atmosphere with almost no space to move around but that cozy style is terrific.  I believe the Dutch would say the Madison Park Cafe is gezellig, which means something like “cozy” and “convival” at the same time although there is no direct translation into English, probably because American culture seems to love wide open spaces and Wal-Mart more than is healthy.

We made sure to arrive a few minutes before our reservation so we would have our choice of tables.  This turned out to be a smart choice as we were seated in a good location from which we could eavesdrop on all of the insanely snobby Madison Park residents and their alcohol-fueled indignation at such things as building codes and the Dallas Cowboys.  Very amusing.

The food and service were both terrific, as usual.  I had a Kir Royale, which is one of my favorite wine-based cocktails.  I love cassis so a good Kir Royale is a treat.  The wine list is practical and generally inexpensive, with many reasonable French options.  Nothing is over $100/bottle.  I like that.

Here’s a breakdown of what we ate:

1. Hot olives and garlic (for the table)
2. House salad (my wife); puree of chestnut soup with apple cider and creme fraiche (me)
3. Grilled Australian salmon with green beans and potatoes (my wife); White Bean Cassoulet with Duck Confit, Smoked Pork, Roasted Lamb Shoulder, Uli’s Sausage d’ Avignon & Toasted Bread Crumbs (me)
4. Meyer lemon tart (my wife); comice pear sorbet (me)

Overall, it was a delicious meal made all the more entertaining by the other patrons.  They had Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir on the wine list so I was pleased with their taste in that regard…they even had half-bottles of 2005 Domaine Drouhin Arthur Chardonnay, which was very nice to see.  And at $25/bottle for a wine that is growing increasingly tough to get, I think they’ve priced their selection nicely.

I really want to bring a few friends to this restaurant, which also happens to be open for brunch on the weekend.  I also want to bring a killer bottle of wine too because the food at the Madison Park Cafe demands something extra nice.  Maybe a bottle of Domaine Drouhin Louise one day?

For some reason, I have the line “tread gently into mental illness” stuck in my head.  It’s from a song by The English Beat, an older band at this point and one that took the reggae-themed Britrock of The Police in a slightly more minimalist direction (not as far as Wire, but then they didn’t get into the reggae theme).

Perhaps treading gently into mental illness is what happens when you begin to realize how much it costs to be a “serious” wine afficionado.  I always liked beer for this reason: A really fantastic, aged bottle of beer costs about $6.  You can spend $6,000 on a really fantastic, aged bottle of wine.  Or you can spend $60.  Probably not $6, though…which means you can have about 10 small bottles of 5-year-old Chimay Blue for the same price as a 2003 Domaine Drouhin Laurène.  Ouch.

But no, this post is about a newer wine bar in the Seattle area.  A good friend of mine met me there last night and we hung out for a few hours, catching up and enjoying the delicious food and wine.

The place is called Poco Wine Room.  There’s a Web site that is all but empty of content, which I hope they change soon as any self-respecting establishment needs a good Web site.  Ahh, I feel the need to talk about wine-related Web design again soon…this is the second time I have brought up the topic of a “good” wine-related Web site.  I’ll get to that soon enough.

Poco is located inside a condo complex on Capitol Hill.  The location is fairly good but not too close to Broadway that you get loads of drunk bastards.  It’s a place you need to seek out just a little bit and I like that about Poco.

When you enter, you see a couple of tables, a bar area, and a staircase.  Upstairs you’ll find several more tables, a bar seating area, and a small waiter station with a few bottles of wine.  The decor is nice and inviting: lots of modern wood and polished surfaces, but somehow it feels cozy and fun.  I particularly like the wall of wooden planks that jut out at different distances from the essential surface behind them.  Hard to explain, nice to look at.

The service was very nice and slightly less attentive than a typical American restaurant or bar.  I prefer this European style, although my suggestion would be to leave a pitcher of water at the table.  That was the only annoyance out of about 80 things they did well, so that was nice.

The food was great: We had an antipasti plate with meats, olives, and cheese, plus some tapenade and other types of cheese separately.  Everything was well presented and very tasty.  The prices aren’t terribly high, but they are a little decadent for everyday eating.

But on to the good stuff: the wine list.  It’s short, it’s affordable, and it’s got some decent variety among wine types and strange choices.  For example, I wish I had noticed the Justin Mourvedre Rosé sooner.  This wine is sold out through the winery itself, but they had it by the glass at Poco.  Interesting.

First I went for the 2005 Lange Pinot Noir Reserve, which is a $30 bottle from the winery.  It was $11/glass and about $53/bottle, so that’s not a terrible markup for the customer.  The wine was fairly dry and decent, but it needs more time to flourish I think.

Next I went for the 2005 Argyle Gamay Noir, which cost $8/glass.  Not bad at all, but certainly it would have been smarter to try this wine first.  It was very dry, a Beaujolais-style that didn’t taste quite so good after the rich, fruity Lange.  But they only told me that the Argyle was available after I tried the Lange, so there you go.  I can’t locate any specific information for this particular wine, but it seems like a $20/bottle affair.

Overall, the wine list focuses on local (Pacific Northwest) wines mostly, with some California wines and imports thrown in.  No bottle costs over $100 except for one vintage Champagne offering, so it’s an accessible list and fairly well selected.  My only concern was the repetition of wineries from one section to the next.  I’d rather see a Di Stefano Red and a different dessert wine, for example, rather than two Di Stefano releases on the same two-page list.  Still, it’s a good list and really it serves the purpose of introducing novices to wine varietals they may not otherwise drink if they typically just get Chardonnay and Merlot.  The Syrah and Zinfandel selections looked good, and a Cab Franc was available too.  That’s nice to see.

I like Poco Wine Room.  I think they’ll do well in this town, assuming the sudden spurt of new, trendy wine bars doesn’t die down too quickly.  Compared to, say, Portalis and Smash, I think Poco makes a different kind of statement.  It isn’t as much of a “foody” magnet as Smash, but the wine list by the glass is more interesting.  Portalis has more of an industrial decor and less of a cozy atmosphere as a result; they would be better off with a storefront that abuts a river or scenic walk rather than being stuck in Ballard.

So, my verdict?  Poco Wine Room is worth seeking out, if only once at least.  And they have a chocolate lava cake for dessert, so I might even convince my wife to join me there.  Oh, their musical taste is far superior to other wine bars I’ve visited.  That matters, believe me.  It’s annoying as hell to be tasting a nice new wine with Kenny G stinking up the place.

POSTSCRIPT: As was kindly pointed out in the comments, I had a glass of Amity Gamay Noir, not Argyle.  Wow.  Looks like I was right about the appropriate bottle cost, though: $17 from the winery (vs. $20 as I predicted).