After seeing An Armenian Trilogy, we had reservations at a new restaurant that had opened up called Marrow.  It is located in an area now known in Detroit as West Village, to me it is just outside of Indian Village, but I am an old Detroiter.  The concept or conceit of the restaurant is that it is a butcher shop and a restaurant and for a bonus, an interesting wine list, because the owner also owns a wine shop in Downtown Detroit, that as of yet, I have not visited.  We really enjoy this type of concept when we visit the kids in Las Vegas, so we were going to give it a try, even if I was a bit hesitant, because they had a mission to be a full utilization restaurant, so tip to tail, and fruit to root, and they have an Oriental or Asian or whatever the current nomenclature and Politically Correct term is, influence on the dishes.  I am a guy that grew up with a Southern European bent to my diet, so I get a bit gun shy, but my Bride enjoys it all, and complains that I won’t eat certain dishes, but the restaurant did pass my no-MSG requirement.

We really were not hungry after enjoying popcorn and California bubbly at the cinema, and I think our waitress took umbrage with us, that she wasn’t going to load us up with an assortment of small and large plates.  I really wanted to try an appetizer of the Roasted Bone Marrow, which I grew up with, but it is not my Bride’s favorite dish and we were going to be sharing our dishes, so we picked accordingly.  I am sorry but Glutinous Rice Dumplings and a plate of Corned Tongue did not hit my comfort food list and both sounded like something too radical for me to even be adventurous with; and I know that I am a pain in the arse when it comes to dining, it is a good thing that I like wine.  We decide to split two dishes.  The first was Tallow Fried Brussel Sprouts with crispy onion, lime, Gochujang Sauce (a fermented chili paste), a 7-minute egg (sous vide) and Sesame Togarashi (a blend of sesame and peppers).  When the dish arrived, we were told to just break the poached egg and mix the Brussel Sprouts with everything else in the bowl and eat.  We split an aged New York Strip Steak, which was the beef of the day and it was served with local Sunchoke, “Horsey” cream, Kimchi and Charred Ramps; we both agree that the “Horsey” cream could have used some Wasabi, as the horseradish that they used was extremely mild, and my Bride thought that the Kimchi was mild as well (I can’t tell you, because I passed on fermented cabbage, yes I am boring).   I was surprised that after we placed the order, I had to chase our waitress to the back of the restaurant, because I wanted to tell her how we wanted the steak prepared, because she hadn’t asked, and she just looked at me like I was from another planet  and she told me that they only do the steaks “medium-rare” which was how I was going to order it, but her attitude was chafing us.

We both continued our wines for the evening with a bubbles theme.  My Bride had Domaine Gouffier Cremant de Bourgogne Chardonnay Extra Brut 2016 and alas the label did not photograph well, from the locations we had next to the windows as evening was beginning to fall, and we tried it with two different phones.  I could not find much about Domaine Gouffier, but they do offer many choices in the Burgundy region, including some of the villages.  The Cremant de Bourgogne is designation for the sparkling wines of the region and it can be white or rosé and the area that these grapes can come from is huge, I understand that the variety and quality will not always be the same, but this wine was fresh and tasty and both of the sparkling wines were a great segue to the steak.  I had Domaine Serol Turbulent Gamay Rosé Cote Roannaise NV of the Loire Valley.  This type of wine is called a PetNat and officially known as Methode Ancestrole, because they cannot call it “champagne.” The winery is a family estate that spans five generations and it was a delicious delicate sparkling wine with a very pretty pink shade and the Gamay showed itself quite well here.  With our entrée we enjoyed Domaine du L’Echevin Cotes du Rhone Villages Saint-Maurice 2016.  In the pecking order of the Cotes du Rhone, the Cotes du Rhone Villages is a step above the basic, and then if the actual village is named that it another increment above, but lower than a named appellation in the region.  Vines were already growing and recorded in the Fourteenth Century and Saint-Maurice received their appellation in 1967.  The estate is named after a former owner who was an Echevin (Mayor of Lyon) in 1586.  The wine is a blend of sixty-five percent Syrah and the balance is Grenache.  Each parcel of land is harvested and placed in separate Stainless-Steel vats for a long maceration period with no addition of yeasts or additives.  Half of the juice is aged in concrete and the other half in French Oak.  The juice in the barrels are racked every two to three months for a period of ten months or so, and then that juice is repressed and mixed with the juice that was left in concrete and another set of barrels that contained some of the free-flowing juice from the original crush.  The different juices are then blended for a month and a half and then are bottled, and the bottles rest for six months before they are released for sale.  I have a built-in bias for the red wines of the Rhone and this wine delivered a full taste of the Rhone with the peppery spice that I so enjoy with a steak.  It was a very interesting, educational and enlightened day for us.