Years ago, when I first went to the Fox & Hounds it was considered out in the boondocks from where I grew up.  From Detroit it was almost in Pontiac, as this restaurant was located in Bloomfield Hills and it was said you couldn’t get there from here.  We used to joke that you had to pack a lunch to go there to eat, as we were much more pedestrian in travel to dine.  As the years past, this hallowed restaurant did not seem as distant as it once was, when I was a youth.

This was a restaurant that gave the appearance of an establishment out in the country of England.  It became a landmark to travelers as it was unique in its architecture and façade.  This was also an era when prime rib was king among the restaurants and the Fox & Hounds was famous for its generous slices of this well prepared dish and always accompanied by some wonderful fresh horseradish on the side for a little zing.  While the restaurant had many other dishes that were popular among their regular clientele I was a creature of habit and always ordered the prime rib.  I always preferred the end cut, as I liked to order this meat a bit more well done, and it always seemed to arrive with less fat and more meat.  Also at this time my metabolism was better and it seemed that the end cut always was a bigger slice of meat, it probably wasn’t, but to my mind’s eye it was more generous.

As I was just learning about wine at the time and self educating myself, the first time there I found a wonderful generic bottle of wine from the commune of Saint-Julien.  I found a blend from the negociants Descas Pere & Fils which was not really more expensive than a Bordeaux Superior or even an Haute Medoc at the time.  This commune is noted for some great wineries that have stood the test of time from the original classification of the Medoc.  While this was not a great chateau or even a minor chateau, it was from Saint-Julien and it allowed me to try something that I did not get a chance to try that often and I could afford in the early years (not by any stretch to I consider myself rich even today).  I still look for wines from the communes, either blends or some of the petite chateaus as a way to see how the district is holding up.