Zingerman's Roadhouse Monthly Wine Dinners

[tammylc]

After one too many close calls, Andy Quady left his career in pyrotechnics to become a winemaker. And he did this back in the '70s, when being a winemaker wasn't a trendy thing like it is today. We should all be happy about this choice. <a href="http://www.quadywinery.com/">Quady Winery</a> makes one of the only traditional vermouths, flavored with fresh herbs rather than oils. They also makes wine from little used grapes like orange and black muscat. While these are generally marketed as dessert wines, we found them to be excellent accompaniments to our dinner. This was my favorite dinner since the very first one I attended. Like that one, the menu was simple and focused, with a clear goal of pairing well with the wines. And since that's what I'm looking for, it was a total win for me. All the food was great, with no duds or misfires.

Pre-Dinner Cocktail: <b>Andy's French Twist</b> - half Vya dry vermouth and have Vya sweet vermouth, with orange zest. Cheers!

Starter: <b>Zingerman's Creamery Little Napoleon goat cheese, Niman Ranch salumi napolitana, and California Figs</b>. Wine: Elysium.

In addition to the named ingredients, this had some black and green olives, and a sprinkling of some sort of crushed red pepper. Meat, cheese, olives - as Jillian said, this is the kind of food you'd be happy to make a meal out of all on its own. The cheese is my favorite that the Creamery makes, and it turned out to be an absolutely exceptional match with the paired wine, Elysium, a fortified wine made from black muscat. When the Elysium was poured, the scent of roses nearly knocked me out of my chair. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it didn't last all that long, and the nose in the glass was more lychee with just hints of rose.

Soup: <b>Roasted garlic and creme fort</b>. Wine: Essencia

Unfortunately we forgot to remind Jillian to take the picture before she took her first bite, so you can't see that this was garnished with individual sections of chive flower. The toast in the middle was surprisingly crispy. And the soup was luxurious. Essencia is one of Quady's original wines and is made from orange muscat grapes. One of the great things about the wines at this meal was how glorious the colors were. That's the Elysium on the left, and the Essencia on the right.

And the all smelled fabulous.

Salad: <b>Local mustard greens and roasted asparagus with Niman Ranch speck</b>. Wine: Electra<lj-cut text="pictures">

A really perfect salad. Bitter greens, perfect aspargus, salty sweet speck (similar to prosciutto). In contrast to the previous wines, this one was a mere 4% alcohol - they stop the fermentation just as the grape juice is turning to wine. It's not-too-sweet with some nectarine tang, and a little bit of fizz. It's marketed as a perfect picnic wine, and we think it would be great for that. Although made with the same orange muscat as the Essencia, the color was much lighter, reflecting it's lighter nature and short aging time. This has become one of their best selling wines (and at around $10 a bottle, it's easy to see why.)

Entree: <b>Fillet of California lemon sole with braised fennel and local carrot tops</b>. Wine: Vya Extra-Dry Vermouth

I'm so happy I chose the sole. The lamb was good, but the sole was just what I was in the mood for. The fish was nicely prepared, but the sauce - oh the sauce - just blew me away. A buerre blanc made with the liquid from braising the fennel, it was amazing in texture and flavor and did the oddest things in my mouth - here one minute, gone the next, only to come back full force a moment later. The carrot tops did nothing to change my opinion of them (ie. tough and not worth eating). But the braised fennel was awesome.

OR

<b>Braised Niman Ranch California lamb shank with guajillo chiles</b>. Wine: Vya Sweet Vermouth

I just had one little taste of this, but it was meltingly tender and served atop a mound of mashed potatoes. Whereas the fish and the dry vermouth were only an adequate match, the sweet vermouth was excellent with the rich flavors of the reduction sauce.

Dessert: <b>Goat cheesecake from Zingerman's Bakehouse with honey-essencia essence</b>. Wine: Starboard Batch 88, 1992 Vintage

Starboard is Quady's euphamism for Port, and it is made with the same mix of grapes as in Portugal. I wasn't very excited by it at first. Then the cheesecake arrived. Tasting it, you wouldn't have known it was goat cheese based - Zingerman's fresh and cream goat cheeses are actually too clean and mild for me to like them as goats. But it was an excellent flavor and texture all the same. With the tang of the sauce and the citrus, I couldn't imagine it going well with the Starboard, but I was oh-so-wrong. Definitely the most surprising pairing of the night, the two harmonized beautifully. I was pretty full, but couldn't resist eating the whole thing.

After Dinner Wine: Deviation

Deviation is their newest wine, and is their attempt at making a "love potion." Love potion or not, I'm in love with this wine. I was fortunate enough to try it when I happened to be at the Roadhouse the night a couple months ago that Ric opened a sample bottle. It's the Essencia wine described above, but infused with damiana and scented geranium. And it's utterly wonderful. Complex, deep, with a finish that lasted (literally) all the way home. I'm gonna have dreams about this one.

Andy almost didn't make it to the dinner, when his flight out of middle of nowhere California was cancelled. 4 connecting flights later he and his wife arrived at the Roadhouse just as we were being served course number three. Between dinner and dessert Andy stood up to tell us the story about how he got his start in winemaking. It was a hilarious tale of the worst wine making practices of huge wine companies in California in the 70's. How they marketed their wines as being better than their competitors because they were darker, sweeter and had more alcohol. And lots more funny stories from a man in Buddy Holly glasses. It's so interesting that he started in something so corporate and ended up being so artisanal.

His wines are relatively widely available and quite affordable, because he's making them in good quantities. I need to go looking for what I can find in town. I'd love to have a few bottles of Electra on hand for just about any occasion. And when next Eric is looking for a martinia vermouth, perhaps I'll grab some Vya for him. And I have a friend visiting soon who will just love the Elysium, so I'm hoping to track down a bottle for her.

(And as always with these meals, thanks to Jillian for the excellent picture taking.)

[ulterior epicure]

tammylc.

thanks again for keeping me up to tabs with the z's roadhouse.

funny, i was just debating with a farmer friend of mine about the edibility of carrot tops. i guess they're just as we had surmised by your description.

u.e.

[tammylc]

Tonight's California BBQ and Beer dinner was fun. Served buffet style, so more informal than the last bunch I'd been to. It was just my husband and I tonight, and we were seated at a four top with a nice couple (hi Ginny and John, if you find this!).

I'm not a beer fan, so I had a glass of Syrah with my dinner. Eric took the beer tasting. Servings were small (standard beer flight glasses), but then they came around and gave you bigger pours of whatever you liked best. Which is only fair given the $19 they were charging for the beer pairings.

The beers were all from Anderson Valley Brewsing company in California, and owner Ken Allen was the special guest. the beers were Poleeko Gold Pale Ale, Boont Amber Ale, Hop Ottin' IPA, Boont ESB, and Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. I tasted a couple, and well, they tasted like beer. But Eric especially liked the Poleeko, the Amber Ale and the Oatmeal Stout.

Here's the menu, with notes. Jillian of the digital camera wasn't with me tonight, so I have no photos.

Sides

Grilled tomato salad - tasty

Alabama hot slaw - a little bit spicy, but pretty basic

New potato salad - nice, with a litle crunch from mustard seeds. The potatoes were freshly harvested from Chef Alex's garden.

Roasted radishes - surprisingly tasty. Like with many other foods, roasting brings out the sweet and tames the heat. Also from Chef Alex's garden.

Grilled artichoke salad - the artichoke I had was a little woody

Grilled corn-on-the-cob - I didn't bother - it's just corn and I wanted to save room for the...

Meat

Smoked Ernst Farm beef - an entire quarter of a cow, specially procured from a local farmer. Served with a nice BBQ sauce.

Jerk Chicken - fine

Dry rub ribs - also good

Lamb steaks - not particularly memorable, but there was a lot of meat on my plate

Whole wild king salmon - one of my table mates loved this, but I didn't think it was all that

BBQ Bologna - nice thick slices cooked on the grill. Brought back my childhood memories of fried bologna sandwiches, which I believe was the point.

Coffee-spice Rubbed Turkey - the spices and pepper in the rub managed to (surprsingly) mostly obliterate the coffee flavor. Which, since I don't like coffee, was a win for me!

Kalua Pig - Hawaiian style preparation, and served with diced fruit (pineapple and papaya, I think) on the side. Lovely, moist, and tender - my favorite.

Dessert

Lemon Merenga Pie - one of the finest lemon meringues I've had in some time

Blueberry Shortcake - sweet cream biscuits from the Bakehouse with whipped cream and fresh local blueberries

Sunshine Cake - I don't know if that's the real name, but it's something like that - a nice light cake filled with various curds. Very nice.

Key Lime Pie - I didn't get any - no room left on my dessert plate.

It was a lot of food. And there was a lot leftover when we were done. As I said above, the buffet format makes it feel a lot more informal. And kind of like a wedding, what with the waiting on your turn through the buffet line. So it didn't feel as much like a special occasion outing. But on the bright side, we were home by 9.

Next month they'll be serving up a dinner of heirloom tomatoes. Chef Alex is apparently growing more than 40 different varieties! Should be interesting.

[ulterior epicure]

That's a whole lotta food! (Not that I'm surprised - 'cause it's Z's)... did you manage to try all of it? Favorites?

u.e.

[tammylc]

That's a whole lotta food!  (Not that I'm surprised - 'cause it's Z's)... did you manage to try all of it?  Favorites?

u.e.

←

I tried everything except the corn on the cob and the key lime pie. The kalua pig was my favorite of the meats. The lemon meringa pie was my favorite dessert.

[tammylc]

Tuesday night Alex from eGullet joined me at the Zingerman's Roadhouse Heirloom Tomato dinner. Hopefully he'll chime in with his comments.

There were more than 30 kinds of heirloom tomatoes represented on the buffet table, and all of them came directly from Chef Alex's garden! Along with heirloom potatoes and carrots and patty pan squash... I don't know where Chef Alex finds the time to garden, but the fruits of his labor were very delectable.

Instead of wine pairings (given that it was a buffet), they offered a variety of cocktails before dinner, and then a few wines were served with dinner. The cocktail offerings included a classic Bloody Mary, a tomato water martini, and - my favorite - a celery sour.

Items on the buffet table included a green and a red gazpacho, a bunch of simply sliced tomatoes to be topped with a variety of olive oils and salts and peppers, great marinated cheeses, and hours-old fresh mozarella. The hot portion of the buffet had two different recipes for fried green tomatoes (one with bacon, one without), the aforementioned heirloom potates and carrots, roasted patty pan squash, "Three Sisters Succotash" (green beans, corn, and early winter squash), grilled California sardines with tomato sauce, risotto with leeks and celery, two different stuffed tomatoes - one with tuna and one with Italian sausage, and an incendiary green tomato pie with roasted cayenne peppers.

All the food was great (although the tomato pie was really too spicy). I much prefer the multicourse dinners to the buffets - they're just more focused, and it's not soo much food all at once.

Dessert was totally a highlight. A slightly sweet cookie with cornmeal, pinenuts, lemon and vanilla was accompanied by three different gelatos - tomato, basil and olive oil! They were all really good. The olive oil was my favorite - I was really impressed with just how well the olive oil flavor came through.

I've written all of this up in a little more detail and posted it to my blogblog. The pictures are there too (I didn't have the time or energy to devote to uploading them in both places).

[Alex]

I'm completely with Tammy on this one, right down to her cocktail preference. (I wasn't drinking this night, but she was kind enough to give me sips of her cocktail and wines.) I also didn't care for the buffet-style service. I think it would have been more fun, educational, and better paced to have had individual courses -- for example, a plate with ten varieties of sliced tomatoes, three cheeses, and an accompanying information sheet.

Outside of dessert, my favorites were the cheeses (marinated goats and very fresh mozzarella) and the fried green tomatoes with bacon (Neuske, I think). If I had known how great the dessert was going to be (one of our tablemates knew, but wanted it to be a surprise ), I'd have saved room for a few more servings.

Good? Certainly yes. Worth $39? With the fine company of my tablemates, yes; without them, probably not.

Edited August 26, 2006 by Alex (log)

[tammylc]

Sadly, I found out tonight that Ric Jewell has moved on from Zingerman's, so there probably won't be anymore amazing wine dinners to report about.

Maybe Ric will finally delurk to tell us all about his new venture!

[Mom]

Sadly, I found out tonight that Ric Jewell has moved on from Zingerman's, so there probably won't be anymore amazing wine dinners to report about. 

Maybe Ric will finally delurk to tell us all about his new venture!

←

Here's his new venture http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...EWS05/701020403

[ulterior epicure]

Sadly, I found out tonight that Ric Jewell has moved on from Zingerman's, so there probably won't be anymore amazing wine dinners to report about. 

Maybe Ric will finally delurk to tell us all about his new venture!

←

Here's his new venture http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...EWS05/701020403

←

Thanks, Mom!! Great news! Congrats and good luck, Rick.

[ronnie_suburban]

From the article linked above by Mom:

Asian Village, a multimillion-dollar venture nestled in a building at Beaubien and Atwater, near the Renaissance Center, is set to open sometime this month. Developers hope to have it open in time for the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public Jan. 13. With an Asian marketplace, upscale restaurant and a Polynesian-Indonesian coffee and teahouse, the concept is meant to connect to local Asian Americans and draw in people from other cultures and backgrounds.

Street food is an important part of the culture in many Asian countries, said Ric Jewell, executive director of guest services for Asian Villages. That's an experience, he said, that they hope to provide customers.

"Hopefully," he said, "people kind of feel they're walking through the streets of Bangkok."

=R=