Good Read: Arbor Vinous on Ann Arbor Wine Bars

Interested in finding out more about Ann Arbor’s wine bar offerings? Joel Goldberg, editor of the MichWine website and author of the Arbor Vinous column in The Ann Arbor Chronicle, saddled up his wine-tasting posse and set out to review Ann Arbor’s four downtown wine bars–The Earle, eve, Vinology, and Melange. The result is a thorough, informative, and I think fair assessment of the four spots. Check it out!

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Ann Arbor’s Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewery

It’s a big week in restaurant news here at G3. Just the other day, Maria declared us Ready for The Redding. Now I’m saying, All Aboard the Blue Tractor.

The Blue Tractor is a new BBQ & brewery restaurant that just opened Monday on Washington St., next door to Cafe Habana. Had I not known it was the restaurant’s first night, I never would have guessed; everything seemed to be running quite smoothly. Don’t let the rusty truck parts fool you: the Blue Tractor is ready to roll.

Ok, enough with the motor metaphors. Let’s get down to business: the BT is serving up some tasty BBQ fare, bar food favorites, and house-brewed beers at prices that are blessedly reasonable (main dishes between $11-$20 or so; sandwiches in the $8-$12 range), in a lovely space and with experienced staff. Folks, I’m excited about this one. While purists and those who have been lucky enough to live in Texas or North Carolina might not deem the Blue Tractor’s take on barbecue “the real deal,” I’d venture that it will more than suffice for those of us in Ann Arbor with an appetite for brisket, ribs, and beer-can chicken.

We ordered an array a plates to share, starting out with the Basket of Fried Goodness — fried green tomatoes, fried okra, and cornmeal batter-fried pickles. Yum, yum, and yummmm. These were served with a tangy buttermilk dressing for dipping — such a lovely improvement over plain ranch. I washed this down with a house-made cream ale, and liked how mild, smooth, and lightly carbonated it was.

In addition to the beers brewed in-house, beer by the can is also on offer for about $2.50 a pop. I thought this was a nice feature in a few ways. First, choice is good. Not everyone loves a microbrew. Some of us really love our Blatz or our Pabst, and if you find yourself in that camp, you’d be in luck at the BT. Second, the aesthetics of a beer can + barbecue are not to be underestimated. It’s an iconic pairing, like Gatorade and a winning football coach. And there’s a practical side of this pairing: barbecue is food you eat with your hands, and it’s a lot easier, I’d venture, to grasp a can with saucy fingers than a pint glass. But I digress.

We shared the following dishes for dinner: the Carolina Pulled Pork with grits and greens; a cornmeal waffle with creamed mushrooms (a nice vegetarian spin on chicken and waffles); some sliders with cheese and “special sauce” served in a basket with fries; and a side of uncommonly good mac & cheese. Despite the food not being quite as hot as we’d like, everything tasted fresh and homemade–delicious, even. This is not elegant fare, to be sure, and I like that the restaurant is not trying to be too fancy, retro, or cute. It’s laid back without being lazy.

I was able to snap a few decent shots of the sliders and the pulled pork. Take a look:

If we could make a few recommendations to the BT: while we generally are ok with a dark bar, the tables in the front room where we sat were oddly lit. (I offer the pictures above as evidence.) Two people were sitting in very dark seats, and the other two had a spotlight shining down on them; it was a little distracting. And we also thought it bizarre that there is nowhere to hang coats. Winter is coming to the SeMi (southeast Michigan, natch); we need hooks for our Patagonia and our Northface. We might be enjoying the Carolina fare, but we are regrettably not in a Carolina climate.

These minor things aside, we were in agreement that the Blue Tractor scored high marks on its opening night. Our server struck the right note between friendly and efficient; our wallets weren’t too much lighter when we left; and our bellies were very full. But don’t take my word for it: the buzz seems to be growing. Videos of the place have been posted on Flickr. (Check them out for a quick tour of the space and better shots of the food than my pics above.) The hoisting of the Blue Tractor sign was covered recently by The Ann Arbor Chronicle. And just this morning I noticed that someone already posted a missed connection on Craigslist. The Blue Tractor has arrived.

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Ready for the Redding

If you come by this blog now and then, you may remember a post from this spring, when I reported on our good fortune in luring Scott MacInnis to cook for us and spend and eveninTg talking about food and the restaurant business in Southeast Michigan. I haven’t had much of a chance to catch up with Scott since then. We see each other at the market once in a while, and we had one botched plan to get together for pizza and ice cream that we had to cancel at the last minute, so I was really pleased when an invitation turned up in my inbox asking us to join him and a group of other interested-in-food folks for a first look at his proposed new restauarant, The Redding, in Chelsea, MI.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from a proposed restaurant, but it sounded like a lot of fun. When we arrived, on a dark and chilly Sunday evening, we spotted the place by a small paper sign tacked up above the door and a ladder underneath it, indicating the sign was really brand new.  The Redding isn’t even quite a work in progress yet — it’s more in gestation — but both the conversation and the food that evening has me crossing my fingers that the talented and enthusiastic team that’s working on The Redding will get a chance to show us their stuff.

Erik Majcher, Nathaniel Stanton, Aaron Vermeulen and Sandra Vermeulen are the investing partners in The Redding, and they are a team with deep expertise in architecture, real estate development and general contracting, as well as a considerable passion for food and wine. They’ve joined up with Elizabeth Smalley, who will be the brains behind the wine selection, and our friend Scott who will head up the kitchen.  The group has a really nice rapport, and their experience and knowledge of the many aspects of restaurant development is very much in evidence. And besides being smart and talented, they were all just plain nice, too.

The Redding is across the street from The Common Grill, directly in front of The Purple Rose Theater and underneath The Chelsea Gallery and The New Chelsea Market.

We spent the first part of the evening prowling around in that “underneath” part, the actual restaurant area, sipping on sparkling wine and eating crostini.  At present, The Redding is, well, a basement. A very nice basement, filled with art from the gallery upstairs and clearly a basement with “good bones” (lots of brick and fieldstone) and really great potential, but a basement nevertheless. All the guests enjoyed looking at the illustrations of the plan for the space and trying to visualize the plans in relation to where we were standing.  I was wondering, myself, if and how we would be eating down there and if I would have to keep my coat on the whole time (it was a bit basement-ish in temperature too) when we were ushered upstairs to where the gallery had been transformed into a dining room for the evening (special bonus — eat delicious dinner while looking at nice art; pretty cool).

Despite the fact that Scott was cooking under difficult conditions — he had to use a small stove in an empty apartment up above the gallery, and the (very gracious, volunteer) servers had to whisk the hot food across a small alley — he pulled off an elegant and excting four course meal. Each course was accompanied by one of Beth’s intelligent wine pairings. Except for the main course which had two wines (is that a wine tripling?) because of some friendly disagreement among the menu planners. The two wines led to a great and educational discussion about choosing wine to either complement or contrast with your food; news to me, but something I’ve already given some thought to since in menu planning.

And, what you really want to know? The food? Amazing.

The menu, in all its tasty detail is below, but, in sum, there was a creamy romanescu and leek soup, handmade butternut squash tortoloni, beef short ribs in a red wine reduction sauce, and lovely little coffee creameaux to finish. I didn’t know from creameaoux before, so in case you don’t either, don’t feel bad.  It was a sort of very dense mousse. Most of the ingredients were sourced locally, and all put together with care and attention to detail. I need to give a special shout-out too, to the coffee. I left my french press behind a long time ago and became an espresso snob, but the special roast from San Rafael, made up in a french press had me swooning (and up a good part of the night because I didn’t know my limits).

The group behind The Redding says they “aim to fill a void in the local market for wine and food enthusiasts” and create a place where patrons are encouraged to explore.  They estimate that they’ll be able to open about six months after they actually begin work. They’re in the process of lining up funding now, with an eye toward starting work soon. (First task, lower the floor almost three feet. Eek.) Their web site is not quite complete, but will soon be available at www.theredding.com with more information for both potential investors and interested (and eager) spectators like me.  I look forward to these good folks being able to put together the right funding package, their considerable talents and great location and provide us with an interesting and welcome addition to the Southeast Michigan restaurant choices.

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A Re-Review of Logan

It must be something about fall that pulls us into Logan. (Maybe it’s the autumnal orange walls that we’re drawn to?) Last year around this time, you may recall that Maria wrote a mostly positive review of the restaurant, based on visits by all G3 of us. I regret to report that on a recent visit, Logan didn’t live up to the promise we had experienced last year.

The initial drink order got our evening off to a rocky start. I ordered a Gibson martini, which I don’t consider to be a “specialty” cocktail, and so didn’t spell out what makes a Gibson a Gibson. (For the curious: it’s garnished with a cocktail onion instead of an olive.) After a longish wait, close to 10 minutes, our server brought our cocktails, though she brought me a Gimlet, not a Gibson. Made of vodka (or gin) and lime juice, a Gimlet and a Gibson are visually distinct. Our server didn’t realize that the bartender had gotten it wrong. I politely sent it back, after which she returned to say that they had no cocktail onions. Strike 2. So I just ordered a martini with a twist. All said, from the moment we sat down until I received my drink, a half hour had gone by.

Not a showstopper, but a bumpy and irksome beginning. The amuse bouche (French for “amuse the mouth”) was really yummy . . . but it was the same amuse bouche I was served a year ago: potato leek soup, this time garnished with olive oil, not the truffle oil garnish I enjoyed last time. As my boyfriend might say, this might be a Sign of the Times: with the economy in shambles, perhaps drizzling truffle oil on soup is just Something That Is Not Done in restaurants these days. Fine; I’ll let that pass. Yet an amuse bouche is supposed to show off the creativity of the chef; this one amused my mouth last year.

For an appetizer, we ordered the night’s special, braised pork belly, which displayed pleasing autumnal flavors of pork, carrot, turnip, and parsley. It evoked pot roast–in a good way. Why the vegetables were sculpted into little orange and white polka dots with a melon baller, I’m still not sure. The Logan Salad, which I loved last time, is still a very solid dish. I ordered the mini size, which is a perfect portion–about two handfuls of greens, lightly dressed with sherry vinaigrette and smoky garlic chips. (On our way home, when I asked E what he liked best from our dinner, he chose the salad, and I agreed.)

We liked our entrees well enough, but my dish was stronger than E’s. I ordered the leg of lamb “steak” with a garlicky yogurt sauce that was dusted with fennel pollen, and accompanied by a delicious ragout of fennel and artichoke. I was really happy with the flavors and presentation; it paired nicely with the glass of Chateauneuf de Pape the sommelier had suggested. E ordered the Wild Boar Bolognese, on the server’s recommendation. We could tell that the sauce had all sorts of lovely richness going on; however, the flavor was unfortunately diluted by the water that wasn’t fully drained from the fresh pasta.

I do like the wine list a great deal at Logan, and I also like that the sommelier visits each table. (If you’re young and look like you won’t be buying a bottle from the spendier part of the menu, he will likely spend a lot less time at your table.) The sommelier suggested pairings that we both enjoyed a great deal; however, his suggestions were delivered in the same way that I recalled from the last time I was there. For me, it was a glass that he only had enough for one more serving. For E, it was something that wasn’t on the menu yet. I can understand wanting to make the experience of ordering wine seem special, but this just didn’t feel authentic to me since the spiel was a repeat.

At the end of big meal, you’re usually feeling pretty satisfied. Maybe not completely stuffed, but you’ve got a little good-food-and-wine-buzz going on, and you’d like to linger on this moment a bit. The table has been cleared, you’re finishing the last of your glass of wine, and if you’re on a date, perhaps you’re holding hands with your sweetie or at least looking into his or her eyes . . . and then the server, if you’re at Logan, approaches the table with a big round tray of desserts and starts presenting them to like Vanna White selling vowels. Yes, I’m no fan of the dessert tray. Please, keep the sweets in the kitchen until I’ve decided to have some. It ruins the moment and seems inelegant to be presented with a tray of sample desserts to “tantalize” us.

I anticipate some of you might be thinking I sound kind of snobby here. Or, you’re thinking, we’re in Ann Arbor — what do you expect? Or, perhaps some of you are in agreement–it’s too expensive for what you get, as Mom mentioned in the comments the other day. While I can’t afford to dine out like this often, I do like to do so once in awhile, for a special occasion or date. And I will spend what it costs to get dressed up and eat great food and enjoy great service. Too often, however, I find that service is mediocre and inauthentic. Small details go unnoticed. And, as with many things, the devil is in the details. Logan, I’m afraid, over promises and under-delivers.

What do you think? What kind of dining experience should we expect in Ann Arbor? Should our expectations be different from restaurants in big cities?

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A Different Sort of Local Food Politics

My boyfriend (E) and I, driving home from the polls last night.

S: So . . . are you hungry? Thinking we should get takeout or cook?

E: Hmm. Takeout. Not sure what though.

S: I’m starving. I could go for pizza, but I bet it will take a long time to deliver tonight. Indian? Thai? What do you eat when you’re watching election returns? I’m so nervous I don’t know if I can even eat.

E: We could get takeout from Whole Foods. The new one.

S: Good idea!

[distracted while driving down Main St.]

Who eats at the Chop House for dinner on election night?

E: Republicans.

S: Yeah. I’m glad we’re not going there!

[thinks a bit]

But we’re going to Whole Foods.

E: So?

S: Then we’re the arugula-eating liberal jerks who go to Whole Foods. It’s so . . . stereotypical.

E: [turning the car around; rolling eyes] So where should we go?

S: How about Casey’s?

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Nice News For Everyday Cook

Regular readers will know that we’ve been following the developments at Everyday Cook for the past year or so, because a) we like the people over there b) we love the food and wine over there and c) we really love the way in which they/re trying to make quality food and wine and the fun that comes with it an (yes) everyday and affordable part of Ann Arbor life. We were really pleased to stop by Everyday Wines this week and see the news about their new downtown development liquor license (the first awarded!) and all the plans afoot for the Everyday Cook space — including, in the near term, takeout. I’m especially looking forward to that, hoping it might fill the hole left in my life (and stomach) left by the departure of The Jefferson Market. Congratulations to Mary and all the good folks over at EC. Read all about it on their blog.

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The Future of Everyday Cook

Readers of G3 know that we are big fans of everyday cook + everyday wine in Kerrytown. We have written about them a great deal in this space — about cooking classes we’ve attended, lunches we’ve enjoyed, and wines we’re drinking. We’ve posted about their bid for the city’s available liquor license (which they did not get), and now it’s time for one more public service announcement about one of our favorite food spots in town. It appears that everyday cook, the lovely multi-purpose lunch restaurant/demo kitchen/ event space, is in danger of closing, and owner Mary Campbell would like feedback about her proposal to keep it going. She is interested in offering memberships at various levels with increasing benefits; funds from the memberships would give them the influx of capital to keep the business running and sustain its growth. Mary summed up how it would all work in an e-mail to me:

We’re literally going to load a gift card with the membership amount + a 10% bonus. So, if somebody does $250, they’ll get $275 loaded onto an “everyday” card that they can use at everyday cook or everyday wines. It’s basically fronting us the money so we can do our capital improvements and we’re paying folks a 10% return on money they would have spent with us anyway (or so we hope). The cards never expire so people can use it until the dollars are gone and then reload if they would like.

Sounds like a great deal, no? I urge you to please read the proposal and send your comments to everyday_wines@yahoo.com or leave comments at the end of this post. After you do that, I urge you to think about purchasing a membership at whatever amount would support your everyday wine/cook habit budget. Chances like these to help sustain a great local business in a direct and immediate way do not come around often.

I quote her letter in full:

Hello, everybody.

As many of you know, Everyday Cook is at a crossroads and may be closing toward the end of this month. As the Everyday Cook business model has evolved, it’s become clear that the lunch restaurant is our shining jewel. Led by executive chef Brendan McCall and his amazing team, Everyday Cook has gained an impassioned following of foodies throughout Michigan and beyond. The daily changing menu and commitment to fresh, local ingredients is so special and unique that we just can’t let that go without a fight.

When word filtered out recently that we were closing due to lack of capital funds to sustain our necessary growth, there was a genuine outpouring from the community. And those conversations got the wheels turning.

So here’s the deal – we are weighing the idea of offering memberships to Everyday Cook at various levels with increasing benefits. Your membership and the influx of capital from the memberships would allow us to:

• Streamline and upgrade the kitchen area for greater output.. Purchase additional refrigeration units to allow us to sell food and freshly prepared items to go.
• Apply for and purchase a developmental liquor license so we can serve wine and beer, as well as offer wine tastings and wine classes.
• Offer fixed-menu supper clubs.
• Offer space to local growers to sell their products year round.
• Update the restroom in our space so that our customers can use it.

So, you’re wondering “how are these memberships going to work?” Glad you asked.

Lower level memberships would be offered in $250 increments — starting at $250 and running up through $2,500, — and then we will add an additional 10% of value to your membership. For example, a $1,000 commitment will get you $1,100 on an “Everyday” card that you can use at Everyday Wines and Everyday Cook (everything from lunches, wine, other beverages, specialty food items, dinners, wine classes, etc.).

If you have an Everyday Wines bag and get 10% off six bottles, your investment will go that much further. There will be some exceptions such as gratuity and items that we are selling for others and not keeping the proceeds (i.e. local farmers or local booksellers).

We’ll also offer upper level $5,000 and $10,000 memberships that will include the opportunity to host complementary customized private dinner parties, the ability to use our event space, and members-only wine and food tastings. If you’re interested, we’ll fill you in on all the details.

We will spend the next week or so evaluating response to this idea. Ifyou are interested in the membership scenario, please let us know bydropping an email to everyday_wines@yahoo.com

Regardless of the outcome, Everyday Wines will continue to go strong. And, of course, no matter what happens with Everyday Cook, we still have two weeks to savor the best food in town.

From the folks behind the counter and in the kitchen at Everyday Cook

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G3 weekend highlights: grilled mackarel, marrow bones, M.I.A, buffalo burgers

We, the ladies of G3, spend a lot of time in the kitchen; readers of this blog know this well. We also spend a lot of time online. At some point most Mondays, one of us writes the other two to ask “eat anything good this weekend?” We’ve been having a version of this conversation for nearly a year and a half now, and we thought we may as well invite you behind the scenes and follow yesterday’s chatty summary of our weekend eats. [Scroll down for recipes and more photos.]

Shana:

Happy Cinco de Mayo, ladies. I just had pozole at le dog — it’s only there today and tomorrow. Pretty delicious – I recommend it. I also sampled some posole at zingerman’s this weekend, which was much more unctous and spicy — and was made with tomatillos rather than tomatoes.

Any good eats this weekend? Here’s my rundown:

Friday night we feasted, but in a simple, I-live-in-a-tiny-apartment-with-no- dishwasher” sort of way. First course was marrow bones like Maria and I ate them at Prune — so easy! so delicious! Main course was bucatini with clams and mussels in wine, garlic, parsley and crushed red pepper. Little chocolate souffles for dessert.
Roasted marrow bones

Saturday was too many mint juleps at the Kentucky Derby party, followed by dinner at Zola. We split octopus, a salad, and a lamb shank, and ran into my therapist. Splendid.

Last night I made larb chicken salad from Hot, Sour, Salt, Sweet (the book, not the blog), and a green shrimp curry with shrimp (TJ’s, frozen), eggplant, and cherry tomatoes. My typical (loser) method is prepared curry paste and coconut milk and stock and veggies and protein. This time, I used a prepared green curry paste, but doctored it up with lots of ginger, garlic, lemongrass, tumeric, and cilantro — really brightened up the flavors.

In all, a pleasing parade of dishes.

Maria:

Indeed! That’s quite a Friday night line-up. Where did you get the marrow bones? Ours was grilled burgers — portabello and stilton for me and John, plain for the kids, and these oven-roasted fries I’ve been making lately that are quite good if not up to the deep fried standards of the Jeff.

Saturday we had a little antipasti plate of red leicester, city goat, smoked trout from Tracklements, cornichons and olives, followed by home-made angel hair with a little pesto from the freezer, and then a grilled pork loin marinated in garlic, mustard, sage and olive oil with some asparagus in balsamic vinaigrette on the side.

Sunday after the Burns Park run we went to Zola (that kind of weekend, I guess) and did a four-way share of the salad sampler (egg, chicken, tuna — all delicious), a waffle, a Kobe burger and fries. Although this may sound odd, every one was deeply satisfied. A basic margarita pizza for dinner with buffalo mozzarella and, to celebrate Naomi’s run, I made chocolate pots de crème — not perfect, although very tasty. I think maybe I let them cook too long. Shouldn’t pots de crème be a little jiggly? Mine were quite solid — almost fudge-like. I’m inspired to try again though.

Lovely image of apple blossoms by Maria

Shana:

Marrow bones were from sparrow. So ridiculously cheap — 3 of them for 3.50.

That all sounds delish. The pots de creme at eve sometimes were fudge-like. I always thought it was because they were too cold. Maybe overcooked . . .

Maria, does Naomi know about M.I.A.? I was thinking of loaning you guys her new cd for the post-dinner dance parties chez vous:
http://www.last.fm/music/M.I.A

Maria:

I don’t think she knows M.I.A. — I’ll pass it on tonight.

I did read later that it’s best to take the pots de crème out of the fridge about half an hour before serving. Maybe that’s the secret.

Anne:

M.I.A. is playing in Detroit on Thurs. I wish I could go but I think it will be too late and I have all these meetings Friday morning.

We ordered from Lotus Thai on Friday night. I don’t know why I order from them. Maybe it is better if you eat there. We had summer rolls (totally blah) tom yong however you spell it spicy soup (ok) and thai salad (icky and cost $6.50!) and pad thai (eh).
Kind of a disappointment.

Sat we were going to cook/bbq but then it was really windy and got cold so we ended up going to Grizzly and I was really wanting a buffalo burger but they didn’t have them. I swear I had one there before and said from now on I will always order this. Did they have them at one time? Where did I have the awesome buffalo burger? Anyway I ended up having this pear and ricotta ravioli and I ordered the spring greens soup but they forgot to bring it and then they brought it later after the ravioli but it was cold and the ravioli was just warm. But the taste was still good and I ate most of it. Lenny got a Caesar salad with tons of anchovies, which was a good thing and their lettuce is always super fresh. But he also ordered the mussels and he was kind of saying they had a strange taste and then I started eating them and agreed and we told the server and she didn’t charge us for the mussels or the soup and said call if Lenny got sick, and he did get sick yesterday so that kind of sucked. We called and they said they did stop serving them. I guess that stuff happens.

Luckily Lenny recovered enough by end of day so we could carry out the Sat plan. We got a whole mackerel from Monahans and I stuffed it with lemon slices and parsley and tarragon and sprinkled w/lots of sea salt and drizzled w/ olive oil then we tied it back together and grilled it. We also did asparagus on the grill, and roasted potatoes, and wild mushrooms (the morels were too much – it was like $10-12 for just one little container of them at Produce station) and fiddlehead ferns sauteed in butter and olive oil.
Anne’s grilled mackarel

So one out of 3 good meals – at least the best one was the one we made ourselves.

Maria:

This reminds me of one of my favorite food moments of the weekend. I was buying buffalo milk mozarella at Trader Joe’s and one of the overly chatty cashiers said “if you like this, you’ll LOVE our buffalo burgers.” No I won’t! They have nothing to do with each other. She also told me that the really great thing about them was “they’ll fit on ANY bun.” Fancy that.

This is a good email. We should blog it.

Recipes
Maria’s oven fries
Shana’s roasted marrow bones

More from Shana’s Friday dinner:

Bucatini, mussels, clams

Finis – almost

Little chocolate souffles

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The Return of the Jefferson Market

Well, things are looking up around here. Via G3 scout Eric, via Arbor Update, who was tipped off by Homeless Dave, it looks like the Jefferson Market was purchased by a couple from Saline and is set to reopen in April 2008. I’m particularly excited that they will have some of the old Jeff items on offer. Not much new to report at the moment, but this is a post I’ve been hoping to write for a long time.

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Support Everyday Cook on Monday, February 4

You’ve heard about this before from us: our friends at Everyday Cook in Kerrytown need your support in their effort to obtain the city’s available liquor license.

The vote is scheduled for this Monday, February 4th, and it would help very much to have a large show of support at the City Council meeting.

To recap: Everyday Cook has been selected as the top local business to be considered for the city’s available liquor license. Your public support has been instrumental in getting us this far. The end is in sight, and it’s time to rally the troops one last time. Because this is not a done deal by any means, a large showing might be just what it takes.

Monday, Feb. 4 at 7 pm
City Hall – 2nd Floor. 100 N. Fifth Ave.

A liquor license would allow us to offer:
* Beer and wine with our lunches
* Wine classes
* Wine tastings
* A wine tasting room that would feature the work of
local artists and musicians.
*Supper clubs
*Donations of fifty cents on every glass of wine sold to local
non-profit organizations
*And more

We had thought that there would be the opportunity for supporters to speak on our behalf prior to the vote, but now we understand that won’t be the case. But, still, we feel a large showing will resonate with the council.

Many thanks for your continuing support, and we look forward to seeing you at the City Council meeting on February 4th.

From the folks in the kitchen and behind the counters at Everyday Cook
and Everyday Wines.

The ladies of Gastronomical Three enjoyed a fabulous lunch there just last Friday, and here are a few wine pairings that owner Mary Campbell suggested that would go well if the restaurant were able to serve wine. These meals were already amazing in their own right. Just imagine how much more exquisite they’d be with these pairings. Please come out on Monday night and lend your support!

Monkfish in Salsa Romesco over Paella Rice

Red: Arcs Grenache/Tempranillo 2005 (Spain, Terra Alta)
White: Muga Rioja Blanco (Spain, Rioja)

Pan Roasted Pork Chops and Herbed Flageolet with Quince Pear Compote

Red: Ottone Barbera 2005 (Italy, Piedmont)
White: Alain Brumont Gros Mansang/Sauvignon Blanc 2006 (France, Cotes de Gascogne)

Butternut Squash Risotto

White: Bigi Orvieto Classico Amabile 2006 (the Amabile designation reflects just a tiny tiny hint of sweetness in this Orvieto) (Italy, Orvieto)
Red: Fratelli de Nicola Dolcetto d’Alba Superiore 2003 (Italy, Piedmont)

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