I am always trying to find things for “date” nights, especially to go see a movie, my Bride enjoys an evening at the cinema, but alas, most of the films produced anymore don’t make the cut for me anymore.  It is like asking me to go out for mediocre food at a restaurant, I just refuse to waste my money.

Anyways, I saw an advertisement for a film that I really enjoy, there is even a copy of the film at home of The Princess Bride.  It was billed as “An inconceivable evening with Cary Elwes” and it was to be presented at the Fisher Theatre.  A perfect night out, especially with a dinner preceding the film.  Then fate changed our plans.  One of my favorite casts of semi-regulars that I write about, The Wine Raconteur, Jr. (a catchy name) was celebrating his “milestone” birthday at a jazz club, and we were invited to join in the revelry.  Of course, we wouldn’t miss the event.

We were going to meet the crowd after eight in the evening, and after a life of dining at 4:30pm in the retail world, I even molded my Bride to eat at an earlier hour.  The venue was in Ann Arbor, which between the road construction and the evening closing of streets to have wining and dining outside, we decided to go to an old standby, just outside of the downtown area.  We went to the Gandy Dancer. In old railroad slang a “gandy dancer” was a maintenance of way laborer, left over from when the tracks were laid by hand and a gandy pole was an implement used for tamping, while another man held tongs on the railroad spikes to hold the rails in place.  Now all this labor is performed by machines, but the term has kind of hung around in the parlance of railroad enthusiasts.  We shared a dish of Dynamite Scallops that were crab encrusted in herb oil on individual half-shells.  My Bride had the Mahi-Mahi, and I had the Shrimp Scampi.  We had a bottle of Beni di Batasiolo Gavi DOCG 2024. Beni di Batasiolo is one the most predominant family-owned wine producer in Italy’s Piedmont region.  Batasiolo was formed by the Dogliani Brothers in 1978, the winery has grown to encompass over three hundred-twenty acres of estate vineyards.   Starting as grape growers in 1882, the Dogliani family has a long history in the Piedmontese wine industry. Batasiolo was one of the first companies to export Barolo to the United States.  The wine is pure Cortese and is grown on limestone, clay and marl; the grapes are destemmed and undergo a soft press.  The juice is then fermented in temperature controlled Stainless-Steel vats with time on the lees for about five months to maintain its freshness and crispness.  A pale straw-yellow wine that offered notes of white fruits, white florals, herbs and almonds.  On the palate this light-to-medium bodied, well-balanced wine displayed tones of green apples, citrus, herbs and spices in a dry, crisp wine with bright acidity and ending with a good medium-count finish of fruit and almonds.  

After dinner, we meandered our way and finally found a parking facility quite close to the Blue Llama Jazz Club and Restaurant.  When we got there, we ran into The Wine Raconteur, Jr. and his bride and some of the other partiers for the evening.  They had to set up two tables for the crowd.  That evening the entertainment was by Ben Patterson from Chicago, along with a local drummer and guitarist.  When they finally got the tables ready, the man of the hour sat at the head of one table facing the musicians and he sat with his Bride’s family that had come up from Ohio for the evening.  I grabbed the far end seat of another table that was perpendicular to the man of the hour, and his Bride sat at this table, and I am pleased to say that my Bride and I were the “honorary family” members at the table; of course we did know all of the local family.