Ann Arbor is known as an academic center in the state, being the home of the University of Michigan.  The university is located right downtown of the city, and right off of the quad of the university is the Bell Tower Hotel.  This gracious old world style hotel offers sixty rooms of comfort with in walking distance of the university and the very cosmopolitan downtown with an assortment of restaurants and shopping.

We once dined in a wonderful restaurant that was located in the Bell Tower Hotel called L’Escoffier, a beautiful establishment featuring Continental Cuisine.  The French influence of the menu was very apparent, especially when you consider that the restaurant was named after a much heralded chef in this own rights Georges Auguste Escoffier who is credited with updating classic French culinary arts in the Nineteenth Century.  He is also known for his collaboration with Cesar Ritz at the Savoy Hotel in London, and from there the two men changed the hotel industry.

At L’Escoffier we had a wonderful dinner that displayed the Continental touch.  Starting with seared Foie Gras and then a charming salad, the dinner experience began.  My Bride had a salmon dish that was prepared with a marinade and spices and I enjoyed medallions of beef with a very rich sauce and both dishes were not only presented perfectly, but prepared perfectly as well.  We finished off with a fine dessert that we shared with some wonderful coffee.

We had with our dinner a Premier Cru wine from Beaune in the Burgundy region.  The particular wine Clos de la Mousse 1999 is from Domaine Bouchard Pere & Fils, a monopole for this particular wine.  There are many monopole wines in the Burgundy region, left over from the time of Napoleon.  These are wines that are estate grown and bottled by a single concern, instead of the use of a Negociants.