When I visit my daughter at Thanksgiving or Christmas, I like to take her to a nice place for dinner. One of the few places that's open on such days down in Richmond, Virginia, is the Hotel Jefferson. It's quite an example of fin-de-siècle opulence in a city that an Italian reviewer of a Patricia Cornwell mystery once termed opulenta ma provinciale. How wise of our reviewer.
The first time we went to the Jefferson for Christmas dinner, just two years ago, the menu was exciting and innovative and the wine list imaginative. It included a couple of Virginia wines which, I think are the best made in the eastern United States, or at least they give New York State a hell of a run for their money.
This year the menu was somewhat less adventuresome and it didn't tout the local ingredients as in the past. Here is the tasting menu for Christmas dinner, along with the wine pairings. Oh the wine pairings. Oh. The. Wine. Pairings.
1. Cava? You foist Cava on us? I stuck with Prosecco, incredibly enough
2. OK, this Sancerre was nice. It paired very well with the delicious bisque
3. This Pinot Gris was nice. Sick of whites by now though
4. I asked for another red. Not Californian. Am I a hater?
5. "Jonesy Old Tawny Port"? Worst brown liquid I've ever put in my mouth. They USED to serve real Port. I asked for an alternative and got a Penfold's "Port" (!!) At least it didn't violate a sort of yummy dessert too much.
In summary -- to use a summative phrase that my senior-year high-school English teacher went wild over -- the food was good, though served too fast -- I told the maitre d' to slow it down -- "I'd like to think we're not at Wendy's for a meal that costs this much" (almost $300 when all was said and done) -- but the wines were forgettable but for their dreadfulness.
Note to the management of Lemaire: I know times are tough and the resto wasn't packed as it usually is at holiday time, but for Chrissakes charge a few more bucks and give us drinkable wines.
Closed now for conversion to a wine bar!
Richmond is always at the forefront of every trend!
Puerto Rico must be the culinary 'canary in the coalmine': Spanish partners José & Maximino Rey went from running *the* top fine dining establishment in SJ to importing wines for their refurbished, upscale tapas place: http://www.bodegascompostela.com/sobre-nosotros.php
Posted by: David J | January 08, 2009 at 12:04 AM
GASP!!!
Look at you living like a king!!!
And... HAHAHHAA, worst brown liquid ever?! You make me laugh so hard.
Posted by: Lisa Qiu | January 08, 2009 at 02:56 AM
Is the name of the cava 1+1=3?
Posted by: Gabrio | January 08, 2009 at 08:46 AM
Yes, Cava 1 + 1 = 3.
Which goes to show that American education is no worse than Spanish.
Posted by: Strappo | January 08, 2009 at 09:38 AM
that menu reeks of provincial pretension. "naval orange coulis"! "upland cress"! "pomegranate demi-glace"! and I love this: "green asparagus"! what a riot! but don't reveal your NYC provincialism. Flora Springs is a very reliable producer of red wine, particularly cab and merlot, though the whites tend to be over-oaked.
Posted by: Fredric Koeppel | January 08, 2009 at 04:20 PM
You're right -- the menu used to be much better and simpler. The wine list was far far better. And the service used to be professional, prompt and knowledgeable. No longer is there a sommelier; the runner who was supposed to be bringing the wines at the appropriate times kept forgetting, so that the waitress (no disrespect but she'd have been more at home at Olive Garden) had to bring them herself, although the course was already eaten.
Not the most pleasant of experiences given the cost, which for Richmond was pretty high.
Oh, and though the place was hardly packed, there was a very noisy know-it-all woman at another table, whose long-suffering husband and son had to listen to her intone throughout the meal in a way that was intended to impress her unimpressed in-laws. She was as well-formed as she was charming:
When she was served that nauseating fake "Port" with the caramel flavor, she loudly tld her table and everyone else's that Port was created when the makers of Sherry accidentally found that the wine improved as it rolled around in the holds of ships in the tropical heat until the wine was dropped off in Charleston. I want everyone to untangle the many mistaken threads in that little tale. I hope that her father-in-law at least was able to recognize this as fantastical bullshit.
Needless to say, she proclaimed herself enchanted with the Jonesy Old Portish mess.
Posted by: Strappo | January 08, 2009 at 05:31 PM