The Wine Raconteur

I am sorry to say that I just heard today, that a favorite restaurant, as well as a watering hole of mine is changing hands, as the owners are selling.  The fate of the restaurant is unknown at this time, as to whether it will continue being a steak house or if it will change its format.  As a way of honoring the memory, I am reposting this article that I wrote in August 2012, which was the fourth month of my writing this blog, so many people may not have ever read this, but I do hope you will humor me and allow me to repackage a story that I am very fond of.

Kiernan’s Steak House or the Night I Thought My Bride Lost Her Mind

This is a remembrance of a great dinner that started off, with me questioning the sanity of my Bride.  As I believe I have stated before I have belonged to a dinner group and I had planned on attending my club meeting that evening.  I got this strange cryptic phone call from my Bride, who insisted that we go to Kiernan’s for dinner that evening.  She told me that she had the taste of a certain dish and she wanted it to have it.   I reminded her that I had my dinner group and I would be pleased to go to Kiernan’s another evening.   That was not in my future, she was emphatic that we go that evening.  So I had to make calls and drive around to drop off part of the business portion of the club at another member’s home after I had ascertained that he was going to attend the meeting.  When he asked me, I told him that I had no idea why I had to go that evening, but for the sanctity of all that is holy I was going to go.  I was sure that my Bride had lost “it.”

Kiernan’s Steak House is one of the old guard restaurants that has survived the whims and changes of corporate methods of doing business.  The old days of great business lunches with the three martinis or manhattans and a great steak (or dinner for that matter) was a way to get business accomplished.  When I first started to go to Kiernan’s it was a long and narrow bar with some tables and booths and a great steak.  The patriarch of the Kiernan family slowly but surely acquired all of the neighboring business, until he had the entire corner.  With the able assistance of his sons they transformed the original Kiernan’s into a beautiful old bastion of a business eatery.  Part of it is now called Silky Sullivan’s and they still do a grand job of serving quality food, well made drinks and a short but fine wine list.

As we were getting ready to go to Kiernan’s I was also informed that we had to be there at an exact time and luckily I did not endanger any other motorists or pedestrians and I did not acquire any speeding tickets.  I was not a happy camper, as the saying goes.  We arrived at the restaurant and we were led to a big corner booth, and my Bride insisted that I sit next to the draped back of the booth, with my back to the restaurant.  I was reluctant, as I had so many customers and friends from Dearborn that I wanted to see if I could see some old faces, especially since I was upset by the events of the evening.

I had just ordered out dinner choices to the waitress.  My Bride was having her “Salmon” salad that she had to have and I was going to have a platter of ribs.   As my Bride enjoys a red wine with salmon, I ordered a Pinot Noir (you have to forgive me for not remembering the wine or securing the empty bottle as we left as a reminder, this will all make sense soon enough).

The bottle of wine was presented at the table, and I had just tasted it to make sure it was fine, and the glasses were poured and the waitress departed.  We were making small talk at the table, and I was still questioning my Bride’s sanity and faculties when all of a sudden I am getting kissed on the side of my face.  I was startled and jumped, thinking who would do that before introducing themselves at the table.  I turned to look at the perpetrator of such an indelicacy.  It was my daughter, who had made an emergency trip back to Dearborn by herself.  Now the situation made total sense to me, as my daughter does not feel that a trip to Dearborn is not complete without a dinner at Kiernan’s.  So we hastily ordered a dinner for my daughter and we all had a grand meal with a lot of catching up on her home front.  With all of the excitement of the evening I had forgotten to get the empty bottle to soak off the label as is my custom.

We skipped dessert at Kiernan’s to go and have coffee and dessert at Shatila’s Bakery in East Dearborn.  Another of my daughter’s mandatory stops (she must be mine as food and beverage is an integral part of her plans).  Shatila offers some of the best baklava made and they make it both in the Armenian style and in the Arabic style, plus a wonderful selection of fine French pastries.

All in all, I am pleased to report that my Bride has not lost it, but I am still monitoring the situation.