It was a night of firsts for us, as we tried a new restaurant, a wine bar and the “Big Band Goes to the Movies” at the historic Farmington Civic Theatre.  The City of Farmington just recently won the Great American Main Street Award for 2026 recognizing its excellence in preservation-based commercial district revitalization.

We started the evening off with dinner at Spruce and Ash, my Bride had been there, with one of her girlfriends, but she was sure that I would like it.  There motto is “From scratch-kitchen! We fry in beef tallow & limit our use of seed oils.”  We did three Small Plate selections.  We started with “Boom Boom Shrimp” which was tail on shrimp fried and tossed in their house sweet chili sauce and scallions.  We then had the “Tipperary Nachos” which were crispy tallow fried potatoes and topped with Cheddar Cheese, bacon, scallions and sour cream; our waitress suggested that we order extra crispy, and we also requested no sour cream.  Later the chef came by, said that he reread the order and said that he didn’t make it extra crispy, so he sent us a new order, and if you get it, ask for a side of the chili sauce (and as a further aside, it was fried potato skins). We also had Salmon Croquettes with red onion, jalapeno, garlic and lemon aioli.  We also got a bottle of Loren Crossing Sauvignon Blanc Oakville 2024. I couldn’t find any information about the winery, but this wine is eighty-six percent Sauvignon Blanc and fourteen percent Semillon.  The fruit is hand-picked and the Sauvignon Blanc underwent primary fermentation in a Stainless-Steel tank, and the Semillon in Hermitage cigar barrels with some lees contact; then six months of blending before bottling.  This soft golden colored wine offered notes of Meyer Lemon, limes, and white peaches along with honeysuckle.  On the palate this light-bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of citrus and exotic fruits and ending with a decent medium-count finish of citrus and fruit, it was very refreshing.

After dinner, we went to Santé Wine Tasting Room, where they offer about a hundred different wines and a rotating inventory of thirty-two wines using the Cruvinet System pouring by the ounce.  We had our dessert with a glass of The Rare Wine Company Historic Series Madeira New York Malmsey Special Reserve NV made by Barbeito in Madeira, Portugal.  It may be one of the longest names for a wine and it is a classic caramel-based wine that can possibly live forever, even after opening with just a classic cork as a stopper.  The Rare Wine Company was and is the pre-eminent source of Vintage Madeira from the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th centuries and in 1998 they began working with Vinhos Barbeito to create a series of Madeira wines with the proper blending of wines from ten to sixty years.  The use of different cities with old engravings on the labels tie the historical connection of America to Madeira, as the Old South preferred dry, the North preferred the sweeter Madeira like the Boston Bual and the New York Malmsey.  Malmsey is a fortified wine made from a group of varieties of the Malvasia grapes under the rules of Portugal’s Madeira DOC.  Malmsey is the sweetest and richest example of Madeira and contains more than twice the residual sugar of a Madeira Sercial or Madeira Verdelho. The name Malmsey is probably a bastardization or a second corruption, in nicer terms, of mariners trying to pronounce the Portuguese name.  This was a beautiful dessert wine that was sweet but not cloying and very balanced.  This deep brownish-red wine offered notes of figs and dates, caramel and toffee, along with some chocolate, coffee, almonds and a touch of orange peel.  This full-bodied, well-balanced wine was very rich, with notes of candied and stewed fruit and ending with a nice long-count finish of rich candied fruit, molasses, vanilla and toffee.

We finally made our way to the Farmington Civic Theater with an Art Moderne style by C. Howard Crane, that same man that designed the Fox Theatre in Detroit.  The theater was built in 1940 and went from father to son who later sold the theater to the city in 1998., though in 1989, the balcony was converted into a second theater.  The city updated the seats, the sound system and replaced the film projectors with digital projectors and the support technology.  The Henry Ford Big Band with eighteen musicians were set up on the stage to wail away, first with pure music and then they were joined with a local chanteuse Olivia Van Goor.  Of course, we go to see The Wine Raconteur Jr. who is a saxophonist and acted as the Concert Producer as well.  The evening began with Mercer and Mancini’s Days of Wine and Roses and finished with Mancini and Mercer’s Moon River.