Definitely not mine or my Bride’s, but one of our grandchildren and he had several false starts, before he selected the venue for this dinner.  I have to admit that it was a bit of an adventure for me, as he had selected a barbecue style restaurant and this was my first venture into such an establishment.  To me, a barbecue was when you went out into the backyard and fire up some coals, got them white hot, put a couple of steaks on the grill or some skewers of shish kebab, grab a Molson’s Canadian or two and wait for the meat to cook, bring it into the house and eat.  Today, it is a little different, no reservations, look like Paul Bunyan and everything smells like smoke. I also felt like a rube, when I asked for a menu, the waitress said it was on the table, but I was looking for one of those black and white cards that you had to photograph on your phone and instead it was multi-color.

There were six of us and for sure four and possibly five of the six, knew what to expect.  I was a fish out of water.  Some appetizers were being ordered and for the table there was something called Pig Candy that looked by a bacon rasher by three widths marinated with Can Sugar and Chipotle and smoked and then was served dangling from a wire and using old-fashioned clip-style clothes pins like what we used to use to hang wet laundry in the backyard during the summer; it was tasty.  We ordered a Guacamole platter with the smallest allotment of Guacamole I have ever seen.  My Bride had Pulled Pork with a side of Beans and Sweet Potato Mash.  I order Ribs, after I was assured that I would not have to pick up the Ribs and gnaw on the bone with a side of Beans and Broccoli.  The food was good, but the two old folks needed heartburn pills after dinner, but we survived.  

I looked at the wine list and chose for the two of us, what I thought would be best with the barbecued (smoked) food and selected Lagaria Italian Style Pinot Grigio Delle Venezia DOC 2020 by Empson & Co. wine producer and importer.  Empson & Co. have been exporting Italian wines since 1972.  I am not sure what Italian Style meant, but it did carry the Delle Venezia DOC which was good.  I could not find anything on Lagaria the winery, but the fruit is harvested from the Lagarina Valley on a clay and sand soil and the age of the vines are from five to twenty-five years.  The fruit is hand-harvested and destemmed and cold maceration for a few hours and then fermented on the lees for ten days and then aged for a few months on the lees in Stainless Steel. A pretty light straw color with notes of citrus and floral, on the palate offerings of tree fruit like apricot, apple and pear and a short finish.  The was a bit sweeter than I had expected, but with the smokiness of the food, I thought it worked well and I am glad that I didn’t get a red.  A unique experience and there will be one of the chain locations coming to our region soon, in case we are taking out our grandson to eat.