Of the birthday celebrations for my Bride, I only attended one bona-fide event.  So many of the events are scheduled with her, right after work, that maybe I should be getting a complex that nobody wants my company.  She had made one of the affairs so that we could enjoy a meal with the family that resides in Michigan, we wanted to pick up the tab, but our son insisted, but you know that she worries about contributing to any extra expenses.  She picked a place that she has gone to often, but for some odd reason, I had never been to one, even though there are two very close to us.

We were going to the Rusty Bucket Restaurant & Tavern, a Cameron Mitchell restaurant.  Cameron Mitchell is the Horatio Alger of a small relatively unknown community (at least in Michigan) of Columbus, Ohio.  He started off with Mitchell Seafood and Cameron for Steaks, both of which he has since sold and I have written about.  Since back in the day when he did own those two chains, he had run out of names and because of his great respect that he has, he named his experimental new restaurant M, but not in the classic Maize and Blue lettering that is known here, M became the prototype for his Ocean Prime restaurants and we have been to that one as well.  Rusty Bucket is his foray into casual dining with quality food and “Buckeye hospitality.”  I won’t go into all of the dishes that were ordered, since there was seven of us, but my Bride had the Blackened Salmon Salad with baby spinach, mixed greens with fresh strawberries, candied pecans, sliced red onion and she substituted cheddar for the blue cheese crumbles tossed in a cilantro Ranch dressing.  I felt like having an egg dish, since it was brunch time, so I had the Braised Short Rib Hash, with roasted red potatoes, caramelized onions, bell peppers, cheddar cheese topped with two sunny-side eggs and scallions, of course me being me, I had to substitute poached eggs, as first I do not like fried eggs and second a hash dish requires poached eggs.

I was the only one to imbibe for the meal, and somehow if they had Mimosas I must have missed them, but even before I knew what dish I was going to order, I knew that I was going to have eggs, so I wanted a Chardonnay, and they had a very good one by the glass.  I had the Trefethen Family Vineyards Oak Knoll District Chardonnay 2016.  The Trefethen family bought six farms in Napa Valley in 1968, including the Nineteenth Century Eschol Winery.  When they bought the acreage there were less than twenty wineries in Napa Valley.  The Oak Knoll District is a newer sub-district AVA in Napa Valley and this area is known for its cooler and a longer growing season within the valley.  The Trefethen family had their first commercial vintage in 1993 and they pride themselves on never having purchased a single outside grape and they are celebrating fifty years.  They actually grow thirteen different Chardonnay clones and the wine is aged in French Oak, of which nineteen percent is new, for nine months.  It was a nice meal and a great get-together with the family.  As a side note or disclaimer, I graduated from a private university, so I have just always enjoyed all the rivalries that the schools have, from a safe distance.