Spirited Dinners:

[MikeHartnett]

Let's hear about 'em.

I went to Stella!, and I thought the Drinks were, for the most part, fantastic. They were done by the guys from Death & Company in NYC, and they were well executed. My personal favorites were the St. Germain Redux, and the Fresa Brava. The St. Germain was St. germain Elderflower, Beefeater Gin, club soda, and Champagne, with a little lemon. Sweet, refreshing, very nice. My absolute favortie, though, was the Fresa Brava, which was Herradura Silver Jalapeno-Infused Tequila with Yellow Chartreuse, simple syrup, lemon juice, and muddled strawberries. Throat-searingly delicious. In fact, 95% of the guests couldn't finish it because of how spicy it was, but I absolutely loved it.

The food was good. It's Stella!. I did, however, feel that Chef Boswell was kind of resting on his laurels a bit. He seemed to be playing it safe with the menu (understandably with the crowd there), and while the food was well-executed, I expected a little more line-toeing. Oh well. Still my favorite place to eat in the city, but now just a bit more mortal.

[Sarabeth]

We went to The Country Club with Chef Chris DeBarr (formerly of the Delachaise) and Chef Miles Prescott. Drinks were by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry and Wayne Curtis and it was, as billed, Tiki-licious!! I had intended to take lots of pictures, but somehow that didn't happen. I'm going to to chalk it up to the liquor. Here's how it rolled:

The welcoming cocktail was "The Ginger Grant": citrus, honey, rum, bitters, and (I think one of the sponsors) Domaine de Canton, which is a ginger liquor. At the end of the night we all got little bottles of it to take home. A very nice touch, I thought.

First came the canapes:

A trio of variations on the theme of poke and sashimi. Although good, this was the weakest moment of the night.

Tiki Ceviche-- hake, with cloudy sake & rambutan puree, coconut vinegar, lime juice, and tropical fruit (the presentation could have been nicer, but it tasted good)

The Green Hornet-- cucumber rounds with marinated mackerel and Hendrick's Gin-cucumber-red chile granita (this was my favorite! It rocked! I could have had a dozen!)

Lafcadio's Sushi-- rose petal rice with furikake and Lake Pontchartrain flounder (For my taste, the texture was off)

Tamarindo Surf & Turf:

Tamarind Jumbo Shrimp on Seaweed Rice Cracker

Java Beef Satay, marinated with many flavors, including tamarind

(These were absolutely delicious little teases.)

Finally, to close the rounds of canapes:

Crab & Corn Johnnycakes with avocado, romesco, and wasabi caviar

(My husband begged for a second.)

The drink for the canapes was a Tonga Zombie. Any drink that flies a pirate flag is fine with me.

Next up, appetizers:

If appetizers are the true mettle of a chef, as some claim, then Chef Chris is rock star and we should make sure he never EVER leaves New Orleans.

Grilled Endive "Outrigger Canoes" with crab and jackfruit, umeboshi plum sauce

Phnom Penh Pork Belly featuring Kurobuta pork braised in star anise caramel sauce, with "forbidden" black sticky rice and bamboo shoots

(The best pork belly I have ever had. It melted in my mouth and the sauce wasn't overpowering or cloying. The rice was perfect. It was the best dish of the evening, which is saying a whole lot.)

Wahine Shrimp-- jumbo LA. shrimp roasted "in a grass skirt" of ketaifi with grilled pineapple and a lemony New Orleans barbecue sauce

Black Bean & Banana Blossom Pupusa, with salsa verde, Salvadoran slaw

The drink for the appetizers was a "Pamplemousse Punch" and our favorite of the night: grapefruit, Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb, Old NO Cajun Rum, and as they said, "secret stuff"... which I weedled out was bitters and Pernod. Again, my husband asked for a second. This time they said yes. Uh oh.

Ok, on to the "Big Kahuna Plates". I am getting full again just reliving this. The good news is that most of these dishes were shared.

The Green Zebra goes to Oz: macadamia-crusted green tomato in a bush tomato profiterole, with tomato chutney, blue cheese, durian and wattleseed mole. (One of our friends actually swooned.)

Buddha's Jade Serenity Scallops: togarishi seared sea scallops on a bed of green tea jasmine rice with home made dashi and crisp kombu seaweed in eel sauce and fried lotus root chips.

Cochon de Lait Wearing Hawiian Sunglasses: Kahlua pork wrapped in banana leaves with roasted sweet potatoes and Hawaiian sea salt

(My husband is the pork guy and he had to admit that this was beautifully done.)

"The Old-Fashioned" Gulf Fish Menuiere: based on the classic cocktail, with a brown butter of bourbon, tangerine/satsuma juice, Luxardo Marischino Cherry Liqueur and Fee Bros Whisky Barrel Bitters, over parsnip mash, with sea beans and edamame

(I'm not sure the last time I had a fish so well cooked.)

The drink for this course was the Big Kahune Cocktail. Yes, it was served in a coconut. Yes, I have pictures. No, I will not share. They served it with a straw and a spoon so you could eat the young coconut flesh. There was much innuendo at my table.

We are, finally, to dessert. The staff turned off the lights and paraded in several flaming "Baked Hawaiis", which were Tiki-carved meringues hiding macadamia nut and Hawaiian honey ice cream and roasted pineapple ginger cake. It was my birthday and it beat the hell out of anything with a candle.

The final drink was a Bandicoot: Trader Vic's Macadamia Nut Liquor, Kahlua and coconut milk. Think really good chocolate milk for grownups.

We rolled into the taxi sometime after midnight. It was so much fun and the food was outstanding. I looked at so many menus before deciding which dinner to book and I'm sure they were all good, but our experience was great... it looked like the staff was having as much fun as the diners, the drinks were fun and delicious, and the food was, well, pretty amazing stuff.

Long live Tales of the Cocktail!

Edited July 18, 2008 by Sarabeth (log)

[syoung68]

I was at the Country Club as well, and Sarabeth's description is right on. Our table had a few misses (our fish was overcooked) but the highlights more than made up for it. The Tamarindo Surf & Turf was F'n fantastic and the two pork dishes were equally awesome. I too am not sure if I have had a better pork belly dish.

This city can not afford to lose Chris. He is one of the most progressive chefs in town.

Jeff and Wayne were great and served some mighty fine drinks. The drink in the coconut... ridiculous.

One of the many great things about this meal was the livelihood of the crowd. We had a really good time and met some interesting people. It was certainly more of a party atmosphere than just a bunch of folks having the same food. I have read that some of the dinners last year were mediocre and there was limited interaction with the bar chef's. We had plenty of access to Jeff and Wayne - not too mention Chris and Miles.

Here is Chris' take on the evening.

http://chefcdb.livejournal.com/2008/07/20/

[The Drinkist]

We did the dinner at Wolfe's in the Warehouse with Gary Regan and Stephen Beaumont. I feel like I should make a few points up front.

Disclaimer One: I was a little star-struck, especially with The Great One, Gary Regan, whose work I've been consulting for well over a decade. Disclaimer Two: I had come from the cocktail party at the Monteleone where I sampled broadly.

Tragedy One: My date was running late, so we missed Gary's first cocktail, the Elegante Fizz, involving Milagro Silver Tequila, Domaine de Canton, and champagne. Given the amount of Canton that was flowing at Tales, I would have liked to try this take on it. On the upside, I was looking at the archives of his Cocktalian column on the San Francisco Chronicle website last night and came across another use he proposes, The Debonair, with Canton and Springbank (or Oban) scotch. Sounds tasty. Unsurprising pleasure: Mr. Regan was very gracious and found time to sit for some time with an amateur like myself for quite a good conversation during the evening. A class act.

All that being said, the dinner was a great event with well-paired food. Interestingly, after Gary had done a couple of drinks and the first course (a Pisco drink paired with crab cakes on a black bean mango salsa), Stephen Beaumont's first pairing (with a duck roulade wrapped in apple wood smoked bacon, stuffed and served on a salad with goat cheese and a nice apple Dijon vinaigrette) was not a cocktail at all. He opted for a beer, the Schneider and Sohn Aventinus. No complaints here, though. There was plenty of complexity there with a very pleasant bitter tone.

The standout food, for me, was the third course: Southwest-Dry Rub Ribeye with southern greens and potatoes. The rub brought out the flavor of the steak well and the whole had a smoky, charred Southwest flavor that was excellent on its own and well-matched to Stephen's Scottish Buffalo, made from an ale (Harviestoun Old English Oil), Buffalo Trace Bourbon and Fee Brother Aromoatic bitters. Though this was probably my least favorite drink of the meal, it was still tasty and eye-opening. I'll be playing around with variations on it soon, I think.

Finally, we had a tasty, though not exceptional, chocolate desert and I got to see some of what Gary did with the Canton in his Priairie Dog (Hendrick's, Canton and Lemon Juice). On the whole, it was a great evening and clearly worth the time and money invested (still wish I could have had that Elegante Fizz, though...).