Corner Table goes to Wine Country

Welcome to Healdsburg

When planning a trip to wine country, everyone has their own suggestions about where to go, where to stay, where to eat. Well, here is where I went, drank and ate. Do with it what you may:

Gary Farrell - full tasting and complimentary cheese. Our tour guide sure did know a lot about Gary Farrell. This is a great starting off point. We had a 10:30am reservation and were the only ones there. The tour was long enough to learn about how they make the wine, but short enough to not get bored. See below for info:
Gary Farrell Wines10701 Westside Road, HealdsburgPhone: (707) 473-2900Website: http://www.garyfarrell.com/Daily tasting and tours by appointment. View & Spacious Tasting Room, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Chardonnay.
Grove Street Wine Brokers


Merry Edwards – full tasting – Our pourer was very knowledgeable about wines. I definitely learned more about the region and wine country than I did about Merry Edwards (a change from Gary Farrell). We were sat in a private room, with no interruptions. I assume that if you are there at a busy time and not such a big group (we were 6 people) that you may share your table with others.

Siduri – This is a random spot in the middle of a business park, great small family winery
http://www.siduri.com/

Twomey – very nice building and outdoor space. Extremely friendly wine pourer. Gave us good restaurant recommendations. $5 fee, but get a wine class for free.

Twomey Cellars – 3000 Westside Road, HealdsburgPhone: (707) 942-7120Website: http://www.twomeycellars.com/

Rochioli – said to be first pinot makers in the area, contested – give grapes to gary Farrell
J. Rochioli Vineyards & Winery6192 Westside Road, HealdsburgPhone: (707) 433-230511am - 4pm. Picnic Area, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc.

Papapietro – small family owned in group of wineries

Papapietro Perry Winery4791 Dry Creek Road, HealdsburgPhone: (707) 433-0422Website: http://www.papapietro-perry.com/ Open Daily from 11 am - 4:30 pm. If you have a passion for Pinot, come join us in our tasting room.

Bella Caves – horrible wine, in caves, so interesting.
Bella Vineyards & Wine Caves9711 West Dry Creed Road, HealdsburgPhone: (707) 473-9171Website: http://www.bellawinery.com/

Martinelli – quick tasting, no personal attention.
http://www.martinelliwinery.com/

Hop Kiln: We learned that mustard is planted to supply nitrogen to wthe soil when wineries replant. So, when we were told at Twomey that there was a mustard tasting at Hop Kiln winery, we couldn't pass it up. Whats better than 100 bottles of wine to taste? 100 different kinds of mustards? Could go either way... Well, this change I enjoyed. I ended up with four different kinds of mustards, probably more mustard than I will ever need.

Lunch: Willie’s Seafood

We went to this place on a recommendation from one of the pourers at the winery. It was totally overrated, but the crab cakes and the calamari were excellent. Granted, you have to consider that we went here after a serious stop for mustard tasting at Hop Kiln and with four wineries under our belt. So, it could have gone either way.

Dinner:

In town: http://www.scopahealdsburg.com/
Scopa is a great little Italian place in the center of town. Seating is limited, with only one large table (semi-outside). But, it was packed. Even after 10pm, which I would assume in a quiet wine country town is pretty late for a neighborhood spot, people kept pouring in. The service was good, with a just-off-the-boat Italian guy helping out our knowledgable waitress. We went with a bunch of small plates, the best being the Burrata Cheese (some of the best motz I have ever had), Polpette Calabrese (Meatballs) and Lamb (small but spicy). Great thin crust pizza, but regular is the best way to go, you can skip the special.

Madrona Manor: The restaurant was very quaint yet extravagant in an old era type of way. It is expensive to stay there, but definitely worth the dinner stop. Great for a special occasion. http://www.madronamanor.com/ . There is a very liberal tasting menu – can choose you own size (3,4,5 courses and your own menu, or get the traditional tasting). Extraordinarily nice service, chef came out to greet us (young and to be honest… pretty cute). Standouts from the tasting menu included an asparagus course, with quail egg, the rabbit tasting, rabbit four different ways, fois gras tasting (I’m not a fois gras fan but I hear it was great: seared, terrine and torchon, stone fruit, savory popovers, uplandcress) and the halibut. No need to order the tuna appetizer (Oh-Toro Tuna Crudo sea beans, edamame, ginger, ponzu "froth"), it was two extremely small pieces of raw tuna on a huge plate, never a good idea.

They are famous for their homemade ice cream ($250 a lb vanilla from Tahiti, Cart "à Glace"Ice Cream Sundae, instantly hand "churned" tableside using -324º nitrogen. Served with chocolate sauce, almonds, whipped cream, cherries on top). Not an ice cream eater myself (I know, sacreligious) I was told from all the other diners that this sundae is the greatest sundae of all time. No joke.

Harbour

Too bad this isn't Harbour Island...

When I received the email from Thrillist (one of the many list serves that I read to find out NYC happenings), I though that Harbour was a place I would like. It had everything I needed: In Tribeca (I’m trying to spread my wings away from the west village), seafood (everyone knows my love of scallops, et al) and brand spankin new. Ok, so I don’t have the best record when it comes to picking restaurants. Most of the good places I have gone to have been because my boyfriend is obsessed with food, and therefore obsessed with reading reviews and picking the best places. I, on the other hand, love going to new places, even though the first week a restaurant opens isn’t necessarily the best time to go. Restaurants need time to come into their own. But, this place was different. There are 10 wines under $20. That is unheard of in NYC, let alone anywhere. I needed to give it a chance.

That was the only chance I will ever give Harbour. An almost eerie copy of one of my all time favorite NYC restaurants, Lure Fishbar, Harbour is decorated like the inside of a ship. No, not a spaceship, which would have been super dope, but, more like a super fancy sailboat. The decorations reminded me of something my parents would have picked out for their home in 1989. Not ugly, just not right. But again, there was the wine under $20. I just kept repeating to myself…

Let’s get something straight before we start: Just because you serve an amuse bouche and a light dessert/palate cleanser at the end of the meal, doesn’t make you a four star restaurant. For appetizers (we were with another couple) we ordered the Sea Bream sashimi, scallop ceviche, clam chowder and the topneck clams. Let’s start there… the sea bream sashimi, although I did not taste it, looked proper enough. The scallop ceviche wasn’t THAT bad. Remember my complaint about L’artusi’s scallop ceviche? Sea urchin… I’m not 100% sure why restaurants think it’s a good idea to mix soft, supple raw scallops with tough unappetizing sea urchin. I guess it’s an acquired taste that I have yet to acquire. The scallops and the sauce were good, although I’m not sure which kind of scallops they were, as they were not whole, they were more like slices. The clam chowder, again I did not taste, looked really odd. That’s the best way I can start describing it. I’ll finish by saying that clam chowder should not be brown. Or, if you are going to be serving brown clam chowder, at least note it on the menu that it will be as such. The topneck clams, all three of them, were mediocre as well.

Then comes dinner (after our first bottle of, actually great, $19 liter bottle of Gruner)… I ordered the Red Hake. The menu was very small, so the options few. I had never heard of Red Hake, but for the sake of trying new things, and because I didn’t want to eat chicken at a seafood restaurant, I gave it a go. Red Hake is a tough white fish with no apparent taste. It was a bad choice, although the other choice, mussels, didn’t seem that good of an idea either. Mussels are a boring substitute for a meal. But again, no choices here. The red hake had no taste, was tough, and was covered with spicy yellow curry foam. The only saving grace of the dish was the two small shrimp shu mai, if you could find them.

No reason to go to Harbour, unless in the next couple of months you feel like it will improve in some way… note: the only other restaurant that is worse in the city is AGO. I went there the first week it opened and the only good part of the meal was the fresh parmesan cheese on top of the salad. I hear that it is still bad there.

I almost forgot to mention that on a Saturday night at 9pm in NYC, there was not a soul at the bar. Ok, so that street in Tribeca isn’t the first place one would normally choose to hang out, but still not a good sign.

But, $20 wine…

Late Addition: I was told to say that two of the diners at this dinner had the best part of their meal before we entered the restaurant. I should have taken it as foreshadowing when the boys insisted on ordering two CrifDogs before dinner.... we would have been better off staying and going to PDT. But, please dont tell anyone that...

The Charles

WE HAD A FEW CANCELATIONS THIS EVENING AND WAS WONDERING IF YOU WOULD STILL LIKE TO JOIN US AROUND 8… LET ME KNOW

CHARLES
234 W.4TH ST
(THE CORNER OF W4TH @ W10TH)

Oh… thanks… although considering I already had a reservation confirmed for 7:45, I’ll pass. If only I saw this before I got there! We sat immediately at 7:45 on a Saturday night and there were probably only two other tables filled at the restaurant. I guess that is what you get for having your windows boarded up as if they place is condemned and don’t take walk-ins. Anyway, enough complaining (for now).

The Charles is actually a very cool new spot in the west village. Like I said, it looks like it’s a boarded up place outside (be careful of the door with no window). Inside is a different story all together. The design is so cool that it reminded me of the architectural digest exhibit I went to when the Time Warner Center opened a couple of years ago. The walls were grey, studded leather (or so I thought) and the dim lighting made it feel like you entered into a speakeasy. The music was awesome. We Shasamed (IPhone app) ½ the songs and sang along to the other half throughout the meal. The only issue was the seating. When we sat at the two top, we were the only ones in the section. This lasted for about an hour until the place really got packed. We were then smashed in between two tables of 8 like sardines. To be honest, I actually felt a little claustrophobic. Because of the last table that joined in on the fun, we had to move our glasses or water and wine to the other side of the table. One of the girl’s hair almost dropped into my water, and she knocked my friends martini into her food (not 100% her fault as there was really just no where to go, although she seemingly did not notice). Luckily, we were done with our meal and moved to the bar area, which was small but hoppin. Great for a quick drink before dinner or to meet up with a friend to catch up (although very few seats available, they did have hooks for our coats!). The drinks were good as well. I had one of the drinks on the menu that the waiter said would “put me on my ass” but, no fears, it did not. Still good and different. Oh, right and the drinks were $16 a pop. Nearly forgot to mention that little fact. Might make some recessionistas steer clear until they come back down from the moon.

Ok, onto the food. Immediately upon sitting down, our waiter told us that everything on the menu was made without butter. What? NO BUTTER? But then how will my food taste good? Isn’t that the point of going out to dinner? Taste? But, ok, I’ll embrace it and hope to be pleasantly surprised…. Which I was!

My date (thanks for joining me HH) and I each ordered appetizers that were the specials. I had the crab cake (as the waiter said – made with all crab) and she had the tomato soup (remember… no butter or cream). In between ordering and getting our apps, we were able to enjoy the hot grilled flatbread with olive tapenade. (Remember, no butter, so they had to get creative with what they served with the bread.) The tomato soup was amazing. My friend asked if it was more like a gazpacho, but it was not (since warm). I was still expecting a puree. This was more than that, as it didn’t have the chunky consistency of a puree. I was very flavorful and creamy, without the cream. The crab cake was as called, all crab. I didn’t notice any bread filling. It was slightly pan seared to a light brown, served with a small salad with light dressing. For entrees, my friend went with the salmon (semi-reluctantly, as we both think salmon is pretty boring) and I had the scallops (I’m going to try going forward not to order the same thing over and over again… but we will see). The salmon was nicely done, nothing terribly special. The Scallops were very tender and tasty, not fishy whatsoever and not overcooked. They were over a cauliflower puree, which is the winter favorite for NYC restaurants. I think this is because it’s a lighter and tastier mashed potato-like option. In addition, the scallops were topped with a sliced green apple salad, another favorite for restaurants to prepare with scallops. Overall, the food wasn’t overly imaginative, but it was still simple and good. Its worth the email traffic to score a reservation. Plus, any out of town guest will think you are in-the-know. Definitely easier than getting into the Waverly Inn, and although most likely not actually chicer, it does look like it.

To get reservations you can email: reservations@restaurantcharles.com

Tell them Jackie sent you… or not since they apparently have no idea who I am (re: email above).

Corner Table goes to Harbour Island, Bahamas

So, I went on a awesome little vacation this past weekend and figured I would share with my many (many) readers the culinary delights I experienced throughout the island.

If you haven’t taken a trip to the Bahamas this winter, now is the time to go! When its 20 degrees and a wintery mix outside, there is nothing that makes life seem worth living like a 75-degree walk on an empty pink sand beach. In addition, since you did so much walking, you might as well partake in America’s favorite past time… eating.
The island is very small, only 3x1 miles. Yet, it’s filled with culinary genius (as a good tourist trap should be).

First, we started out for lunch at Sip Sip (pictured left) to enjoy our greatest lobster quesadilla ever (pictured). It was a fight to the bitter end for those, as it was 86ed after we ordered, much to the dismay of a fellow customer. The Snapper sandwich, although not my first choice (we ate late so the menu was limited) was a great find as well. We loved Sip Sip so much, that we went back for lunch again two days later… and ordered the same thing. Dinner was split between The Landing (where we stayed) and Rock House (next door). Both hotels/restaurants are set on the harbor side of the island (vs the ocean side re: Sip Sip). The Landing is an island rustic laid-back hotel with friendly staff and even friendlier chickens. Rock House is island chic, with a more hip dining area and bar. Both dinners were excellent, although we decided to go back to Rock House for a second time. The best meal of the combined dinners was as follows: the Grouper at the Landing, the blackened Wahoo at the Rock House, the lobster and crab spring rolls at the Rock House and the best mozzarella and tomato stack I have ever experienced at the Rock House (ok, so now you can see why we went to Rock House twice.)

Also, the island has good places for a quick snack. I had the conch fritters at both Valentine’s Marina and Gusty’s. I prefer Gusty’s fritters, maybe because the owner, who was very excited as I believe we were his first customers, (they had just started opening for sunset) made them. However, Valentine’s did have amazing Grouper Fingers. They were salted and breaded to perfection. I guess Harbour Island just had great grouper. So, definitely try it when you are there.

Another famous treat (I say famous because the customs guy at the Nassau airport told me to go here) is Queen Conch. We got a made-to-order conch salad. The huge conchs were cut up and the vegetables (onions, etc) diced right in front of us at a stand on the side of the road (picture). They even had us taste it before we left to make sure it was spiced to our liking. That is what I call service. Supposedly, people like it there so much that they ask for tubs of this stuff to take home on the plane. I wasn’t a huge fan, but I guess I like my conch fried better than fresh.

Note to travelers: Do not drink the tap water there. I asked for it the first day and it was salt water (as is the shower water which made us smell GOOD….)

10 Downing

I would like to start by giving a shout out to my girl Famke Janssen who lovingly stole my table. On the other hand, maybe I should thank the hostess, whose idea of “just a sec” is a little skewed. Enough with the disgruntled New Yorker-style writing…

Even though this place was crushed in reviews (by actual restaurant critics and my own slew of restaurant obsessed friends), I had to check it out. I have this burning desire to try all the new places in the city….which I guess is why I started the blog in the first place. 10 Downing is located on a great corner in the west village, Downing and 6th Ave. across from the fab spot Bar Pitti. Maybe that is why it is so popular? Location. Location. Location. Granted, Thursday nights are a big night out in NYC, but this place was crowded.

The restaurant itself is small and bright, with a slim bar area. I don’t totally understand why people would gather at the bar. The restaurant is too bright to find your special someone in a dimly lit corner (a girl can dream) and WAY too loud to have an actual conversation. Actually, thanks for bringing it up, the acoustics in this place were atrocious. I sat at a two top near the bar and couldn’t even hear the waiter speak, let alone my date. I would just nod and smile and hoped no one noticed…

As usual, we ordered for 4 people, even though we are only two (which I guess benefits the reader slightly more than my waistline). We started with the Ocean Trout Tartar and Duck Meatball Cassoulet (because I am a semi-meat eater now). Maybe it is just me, but when I order a tartar, I am expecting a certain texture and saltiness. This was a tartar of a different colour (not in actual color since it was red, so I used the English version of color). The tartar (with mustard seeds, chorizo oil, pine nuts & quail egg) itself was not bad, it was the pine nuts that threw me off. Their nutty taste slightly overpowered the relatively bland fish flavor, while adding a crunchy texture to a usually smooth (slimey?) dish. However, have to chock one up to the chef for introducing me to an interesting way of serving this normally uniform dish. The Duck Cassoulet was also decent. I’m not expert on meatballs, so I ate one and thought it was dry. I was then promptly told that they were in fact very juicy for meatballs. The dish was filled with pimento beans, which were soft and very flavorful, as generally this dish was spiced nicely. For my entrée, I ordered the Striped Bass. NYC restaurants are overloaded with Artic Char and Stripped Bass. I don’t think I have been to one recently without those fish on the menu. I chose the bass for the black trumpet mushrooms. They were delicious. They looked like cooked Kale, but tasted like the wondrous fungi of the forest that they are, salty and tough (not in a bad way). The fish was cooked nicely, although I will never figure out why restaurants cannot actually spice the fish itself, as most of the flavor tends to lie in the crusty skin. For those of you that do not like mint (I know there are a few weirdos out there), the mint pesto had no resemblance to anything minty. As a side, we shared the brussel sprouts, which is a dish I have just recently learned to love. They were fine. Nothing more to say about that.

My date decided to order the appetizer size of two pasta dishes. The Squid Ink Agnolotti (with peekytoe crab, piquillo peppers & lemon butter) was dark and mysterious. Not really, but it was tasty. The Gnocchi (with wild mushrooms butternut squash, cavolo nero & sardinian sheep cheese) was a bigger hit. It was probably the softest gnocchi I have ever had, although I’m not 100% sure that it wasn’t just mashed potato disguised as gnocchi, which is totally fine with me!

Overall, I did not dislike this restaurant as much as I was told I would. Yet, I will not be going back. Coming from a weekend away in the Bahamas where we were the only people in the restaurant on a Saturday night at 9:30pm and could talk to each other in a light whisper and still understand, it is tough to want to go back to a place where I couldn’t hear myself think.

The John Dory Brunch Edition

This weekend was the John Dory’s first weekend open for brunch. Maybe people don’t all get the constant food blog updates that I do, because the place was pretty empty at 12:30. Who was there you ask? Oh, just me and Tom Colicchio (with wife and son). No biggie. Just the head judge of top chef and owner/chef of the Craft restaurants. I tried my hardest to speak loudly when rating the food, just in case he needs a pedestrian judge next season. So, with my two celeb chef sightings (April Bloomfield was in the kitchen), I was ready to eat!

I’m not a cheater. So, don’t take this as me cheating on Cookshop. I still love it, just want to spread my Chelsea wings (or I guess Meat Packing District wings).

We started out with the apple and Guinness fritters. (Days when I plan to not workout at the gym, I make sure I eat the most fattening item on the menu.) They came to the table looking like donuts, with the crispy sweet crust of a glazed munchkin. In fact, they were apples coated with donut tasting dough, topped with beautifully crispy bacon. The bacon pieces were small but delightful and a great salty addition to the dish. The apples were warm and crunchy. Next, we had the Crab en Cocotte and the Hangtown Fry. I had to look up Cocotte to see what that meant: “a small fireproof dish in which individual portions of food are cooked and served”. That is exactly what I got (and what Mr. Colicchio’s son ordered in case you were keeping tabs). There were chunks of peaky-toe crab served in a soup of eggs (I had to crack the yolks), cream and mushrooms. The dish was a little heavy for my tastes, but very delicious. The soup (ok, it wasn’t a soup but it’s hard for me to describe it any other way since it came in a bowl and was liquidy in texture.) was accompanied by crispy buttered bread.

The Hangtown Fry came with a back-story, always a nice addition. (Supposedly) In the time of the gold rush, rich men would come into restaurants and ask for the most expensive item on the menu. Back in those days, the most expensive items were eggs and oysters. Therefore, a new dish was born. The Hangtown fry was a very thin frittata with grilled oysters on top. Sounds a little odd, but it was great. Frittatas are normally too heavy or dense, but since this was so thin, it was perfect. Ok, I just looked up Hangtown fry and this is what I got for you:

Hangtown fry could possibly be the first California cuisine. It consists of fried breaded oysters, eggs, and fried bacon, cooked together like an omelet. In the gold-mining camps of the late 1800s, Hangtown Fry was a one-skillet meal for hungry miners who struck it rich and had plenty of gold to spend. Live oysters would be brought to the gold fields in barrels of sea water after being gathered in and around San Francisco Bay. Such a meal cost approximately $6.00, a fortune in those days.
However it came to be, ordering a Hangtown Fry became a mark of prosperity for gold-rich miners, the status symbol of the day. The recipe swept the entire Northwest Territory, from California to Seattle, in the mid-1800s. A few drinks and a Hangtown Fry were considered a gentleman's evening.

The John Dory was one restaurant where I wish I remembered to bring my camera. Not only for the celeb sightings, but also for the food. The menu is small yet unique and flavorful.

Macao Trading Company

Set on a quiet Tribeca street, the only thing that notifies a passer-by of Macao Trading Company is the red light above the door. Oh yeah, and the bouncer ready to pounce. Other than the bouncer thing, Macao Trading Company is a seemingly compete departure from the owner’s first place, Employees Only. (The bouncer there is either your best friend or your worst enemy. He once suggested that I call the cops on him, as I was first in line to get in with three of my girl friends, I guess us quietly talking to each other and patiently waiting made him think I was upset about something? Little does he know…)

This place deserves the buzz it’s getting. Behind the velvet curtain (and the bouncer… who cares if you are there for dinner or drinks at 7:30?) is a dimly lit restaurant with a lot of style. Don’t forget to check out the owner’s rendition of a phallus wall on your way downstairs. The restaurant takes reservation for the upstairs, which I would guess seats 50. The downstairs and the bar are first come first serve. We got there at 7:30 and the place was pretty much empty. We were given the option of sitting upstairs in the main dining room, but could only have the table for an hour (er… no thanks) or we could sit downstairs in the lounge which serves the full menu. We chose the downstairs, which can also be rented out for a private party. If you are looking for a place, this would be great. There is a separate bar, separate music and a separate entrance/exit. Perfect for a b-day party, although I have no idea how much it costs. I didn’t see too many large tables for groups, but the lounge area is great for apps and meeting up with friends.

To start, there is a good wine list and a very imaginative cocktail menu. As you can see, the menu is split into Portuguese and Chinese styles. We chose the Chinese style shrimp, Portuguese style meatballs and mushrooms for our small plates, as well as the Portuguese style pork ribs and Chinese style sea bass. Most of Chinese small dishes are fried (not hearing any complaints from me). I got the mushroom and shrimp dishes on a recommendation and I would recommend these along. The shrimp was served with a spicy sweet chili sauce accompaniment while the mushrooms croquettes were wonderfully done with the inside made of mushrooms and cream with truffles (awesome). The meatballs were tender and excellent. Not being a full on meat eater, its not often I enjoy a meat dish without any complaints. The meatballs came in a red sauce and were filled with cheese (maybe that was the kicker). The large or house dishes were not as enjoyable as the smaller ones. My suggestion is to stick to the apps. The pork ribs were more like pork tips, very fatty and covered in sauce. I couldn’t even eat a full one. The bass was decent, over a light soy sauce. There were parts of both dishes that we couldn’t eat because of the fat (ribs) and the tough middle part of the fish.

Overall, I liked this place a lot. The prices are reasonable, especially in comparison to other similarly sceney restaurants in the city. I think our cocktails were more expensive than our appetizers. Some of the small dishes are hard to share with more than two people, as they mostly came in orders of two to three pieces. It seemed like a very cool and hip scene. I will definitely go back, if not only to meet people at the bar. Anyone want to hit up Sway after?