The Chop House

Posted on October 15, 2012 by thewineraconteur

Another time my Bride and I were in Ann Arbor for the Art Fair, which is multiple Art Fairs; under one large umbrella and it was wall to wall people looking and shopping for art works.  We were having a grand old time and after walking who knows how many blocks and looking at a large assortment of different art and crafts, we had worked up a hunger, and not to mention a thirst.   Most of the restaurants that we walked up to had large lines out onto the sidewalk, which was not the best thing to see when one is getting hungry.  Then we came up to The Chop House which was a relatively new restaurant on the street, and there was not a line.  My Bride looked at me and said that either the restaurant is very expensive or the food is not good.

 

 

I looked at the menu that was posted and found nothing to dislike either in choices or price.  They also had venison as part of the regular menu, which intrigued me.  I walked up to the main desk and asked if there was a dress code, as the restaurant was impressive in appearance.  I had a pair of khakis and a blazer with a sport shirt.  The gentlemen at the desk laughed and told me that this was Ann Arbor and all attire works in the restaurant.  So we went in.

 

 

We started off with French Onion soup.  My Bride tried a dish that was simple but excellent of Lump Crab meat, and I opted for the venison, which had intrigued me before we entered.  The service was excellent and so was the food.  The only thing that puzzled me was why the low turnout for this fine establishment.  I could only surmise that most of the people that were milling around the Art Fair were not interested in fine cuisine or they presumed that the restaurant was too expensive.  At later visits, we found the restaurant bustling with diners, so perhaps my presumption was correct.

 

We enjoyed a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.  It was a Robert Mondavi Reserve wine.   It was a classic interpretation of Napa Valley’s most popular wine varietal.   The wine had a deep color with a good nose and a good finish.  An enjoyable wine with a good meal; cause for us to have ventured back there a couple more times.

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Gratzi

Posted on October 14, 2012 by thewineraconteur

One night my Bride and I met some friends for dinner at Gratzi Restaurant in Ann Arbor.  The restaurant is a rehabbing of an old cinema palace from the thirties.  It is a beautiful building and interesting décor.  Ann Arbor is a major university city with an abundance of students on the streets and in the restaurant trade as they work to achieve their diplomas.   I found this restaurant had a big following of students, and the staff seemed to be students as well.  It was lively, though a bit loud to my liking, but then sometimes I become an old curmudgeon in new settings.  There was also a bell somewhere, that was constantly ringing, which I found disconcerting.

 

Be that as it may, we all enjoyed our meal, which was the reason we were out.  From the appetizers and ending with desserts, the dishes were appealing and delicious.  I remember having a veal dish, and was very pleased, as I tend to be fussy about veal, if it is not prepared correctly.  I had no complaints, which kept my Bride happy.  My Bride had a seafood dish, and the other couple had beef dishes.

 

We were there, during the Merlot “craze” and I saw an Italian Merlot wine.  I thought that it would be popular with the ladies and still be agreeable with the Italian cuisine that we were having.  This bottle of Merlot was from the Friuli area of Italy in the North East near the borders of Austria and Yugoslavia.  Merlot is a popular varietal of this area, and continues on into Trieste and Yugoslavia.  It was not as polished and full as a Saint Emilion from France, but had a more earthy or rustic flavor to it.  It was an interesting choice and a wine that I have not noticed on other wine lists, but sometimes I have not looked for something different.

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Opera With Dinner

Posted on October 13, 2012 by thewineraconteur

It is not too often that one can go out for dinner and be entertained by the staff.  We had dinner at DePalma’s one time, where the waiter broke off into an aria between his customary duties.  Talk about an unexpected culinary delight, of course if the waiter could not sing, it could have been disastrous.  My Bride loves the opera and I can take it or leave it, so she was elated.

DePalma’s is more or less a neighborhood restaurant that features quality Italian meals.  They pride themselves on homemade pasta, which is how they advertise their forte.   I believe in going with the flow, why order something that may be incongruous with the rest of a restaurant’s menu.  So we had a couple of fine pasta dinners, and as I mentioned earlier, we were regaled with impromptu arias.

We had a bottle of Valpolicella that evening.  Valpolicella is grown near Verona, and is named after the grape varietal.  It is one of the more popular wines of Italy and is known for it’s dry after taste, which works well with most pasta dishes.  It is not as polished as an Amarone de Valpolicella, because of the difference in the production of the wine, but the basic Valpolicella wine is considered best to be drunk young.  As a caveat, I have had some older Valpolicella wines that aged quite well, without any problems or diminished taste.

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Urziger Wurzgarten Spatlese

Posted on October 12, 2012 by thewineraconteur

I am a member of private dinner club, and I have enjoyed this club for many years.  Part of the charm of this group is that you and two other members are the host for an evening and then you dine on someone else’s dime for the rest of the year.  Each group selects the restaurant and makes the decision regarding the menu for the evening.

 

 

For a couple of years, one of our members also had a membership in the Bavarian Club of Detroit.  I am not even sure, if that is the proper name, but it is how we would refer to it.  For two years running, I was able to enjoy the same type of wine from two different wineries.

 

The wines were from the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer district of Germany.  They came from the town of Urzig, hence Urziger, just like someone from Detroit would be a Detroiter.  They both came from the vineyard Wurzgarten, and they both were Spatlese designations.  For the two years that we had dinner at the club, several of the members, me included found these wines to pair wonderfully with the cuisine of this club.  Even though the wines had the Pradikat of Spatlese, they were not overly sweet which may have fought the flavors of the food.

 

I don’t make a claim to be an authority on any wine, but my knowledge of German wines may be the weakest, but I still try to learn.  My own form of Continuing Education, where I am home schooled and I do appreciate the homework.

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Lambrusco

Posted on October 11, 2012 by thewineraconteur

Some days I write about wines that are legendary and some days I mention wines that are popular.  Lambrusco wines from Northern Italy have had peaks and valleys of popularity, and that is fine.  During the 1970’s Lambrusco wines were everywhere.  Television, radio, newspapers and periodicals all carried advertisements for Lambrusco wines.

 

We are not talking about great wines or artisan crafted wines, but wines that are produced in bulk, for the masses.  These are wines that are fun to drink or even to quaff (as I like to say).  The great thing about wines that have a day in the sun is that it introduces new people to wine, and that is wonderful.  The power of advertising is such, that it will induce someone to try a glass or bottle of wine with a dinner instead of a cocktail or a beer.  Lambrusco wines were perfect as an introductory wine for people.  There are no heavy tannins, no oakey nuances and no long lingering aftertaste.  A wine of this nature is a great starting point, to try other wines.

 

Lambrusco wines do not break the bank, price-wise.  It is an easy “foreign” word to pronounce and to remember.  These are both positive reasons, as far as I am concerned to get people to try wine.  I am always proselytizing about wines, and I always try to get someone to try a wine.  Lambrusco was safe, it was not dry, nor was it a sweet wine (OK sweet to me, but not cloying sweet or like a dessert wine).

 

I feel that once people venture out and try a wine with dinner, they find it a pleasant experience.  One pleasant experience leads to another and we have another budding wine aficionado.   That is why I never try to denigrate a person’s choice of wines (unless it is some wine left over from my teenage years that was created just to intoxicate).  I always try to suggest ways for people to expand on their tasting experiences.   I can say that I was lured to Lambrusco wines due to the power of advertising, and I feel that I have progressed to new vistas of wines.  Though as I write these words, I think that perhaps this coming summer, I shall look for a few Lambrusco wines that are not a bulk production and shall see what I think of them after all of these years.  After all, I have written about a couple of rose wines this year and a couple of years ago, I would not have even thought of buying any of that designation.

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A Visit to My Mother’s Favorite Restaurant

Posted on October 10, 2012 by thewineraconteur

Even though my last name is Armenian, my Mother was German and I remember as a child that my Father would once a year take my Mother to her favorite restaurant way on the east side of Detroit The Little Café.  There were several other German restaurants in Detroit, especially when I was a child, but she always wanted to go there.  That was always her Mother’s Day gift.  My Mother died when I was a freshman at Cass Technical High School in Detroit, so those memories have diminished.

A couple of years after I graduated from college I had a chance to dine there once again and I am glad that I did since they are no longer around.  Since my Mother did not cook German dishes at home, I had to wing it at the restaurant and go with safe sounding dishes and they were excellent as I remember.  I remember having Wiener schnitzel, and sausage and cabbage.  I also remember having a Black Forest Torte cake, but beyond that, I cannot recall the any other dishes.  I do remember that I and my friends all left fully sated and happy.

I have the two wine labels from that evening; they are both from the same district in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer area of Germany.  Actually they are both Bernkasteler Schlossberg wines, both with Pradikat from Riesling grapes.  One is a Spatlese, while the other is an Auslese designation, and that was the order that we drank them.  A Pradikat designation means that no sugar has been added to the wines.  Spatlese refers to a later harvesting of grapes, so that they may be even more concentrated with natural sugar.  Auslese can actually be harvested at the same time as the Spatlese but put in a separate container, because the grapes show an even more ripe condition.  My memory of the wines is a bit sketchy, though we all enjoyed the wines; the Auslese was sweeter and fuller but paired well with the dinner, as well as with the good fun with the friends.

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The Last Night at Joey’s Stables in Delray/Detroit

Posted on October 9, 2012 by thewineraconteur

Joey’s Stables was the restaurant in Delray, which was annexed to the city of Detroit in 1905.   Though most people thought of the Delray area as Hungarian, it was a melting pot of nationalities as they started on their quest of the American Dream.  Joey’s was where the elite met to dine in the area.  I am not sure when they opened their doors and there were always rumors that it was a “port of entry” during the Prohibition era.  All I know is that it was a man’s restaurant.

From the moment you walked in, and your eyes had to adjust to the dimness of the bar, it had the feeling of another era.  The bar had had a couple of booths that had beautiful horse heads carved that demarcated one booth from another.  The bar always had a few people standing around and most of them were regulars that only greeted the other regulars.

 

 

Starting with the appetizer plate that came out almost as soon as you were seated, that had a bean salad, and herring in sour cream with crackers and bread; you started to eat, before you knew you were hungry.

 

 

I had an uncle that held “court” there a couple times a week.  On certain days, you knew he was going to be there dining and drinking with customers and friends.    It was that kind of place, where you felt at home.  You could always get perch or a steak, and great Road House style frog legs piled high on the plate, which I enjoyed for the last time.

 

 

Joey’s had survived everything that had hit it, until the City, applied the nails to the coffin.  I have heard several different stories and variations of the machinations that caused this institution to go into the annals of history.  As I said, I remember the last night of Joey’s and it was packed, the bar area must have been five deep.  It was a sad day for the regulars, and for others that regarded it as their once or twice a year bit night on the town.   I remember that at the next table was the family that maintained a funeral home in Delray, and I kidded the table, that they were just doing what came naturally.

 

I remember splurging that evening and buying a bottle of Amarone Della Valpolicella by Bolla.  It was one of the top wines on their menu.  I wanted to close my memories with a good wine.  I just talked about Amarone wines a couple of posts ago, but as I said then, if you get a chance to try one, do it.

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Majors in Southwest Detroit

Posted on October 8, 2012 by thewineraconteur

One of the greatest hidden secrets for dining was Majors in Southwest Detroit.  It was, perhaps the most unique restaurant that I have ever been to.  On one end was a full blown bar that shared the menu of the restaurant on the other end.  The bar was completely filled with logos and signage from trucking and logistical companies, plus most of the car companies.  You could tell the type of business men that frequented that end of the restaurant.  The other end was a table clothed full blown restaurant that featured steaks, veal and seafood with an Italian bias.

 

It was one of the most affordable restaurants in the tri-county area of greater Detroit.  There was soup, salad, pasta, entrée, dessert and coffee and you might not even cross the twelve dollar mark, not to mention great bread on the sides, and you could splurge for an appetizer.

 

Majors was such a deal that I used to use it for dinners after baptisms and first communions, because it would work out to be about the same price as to do it at home, with the preparation or the clean-up.  There was always a back room that could be set up for a party.  Now that I think about it, there was one back room that was always busy, but that is another story.   Everybody would just order off of the menu, and the staff would bring out plates that were ordered, plus more plates of extra, that weren’t (and at no additional charge, how could you beat that).

 

As for the wines, it was always basic red Italian wines that I remember plus bottles of Asti Spumante for celebrating.  I don’t remember any white wines, but if there were they would have been the popular ones of the day like a Zeller Schwarze Katz, Blue Nun etc.  Some places the wine shone, others the food did the yeoman work.

 

 

Unfortunately, the restaurant was robbed one day, and the owner just decided that was it.  It was a sad day for all of the regulars.

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Ernesto’s and a Cetamura Chianti

Posted on October 7, 2012 by thewineraconteur

Ernesto’s billed themselves as “An Italian Country Inn” with a more casual side called Ernie’s in the back.  When I first went to this location it was known as the Hillside and the owner/chef was a big game hunter and he used to offer some very exotic entrees from his hunts.  That was years ago, and then it changed hands to Ernesto’s.  The restaurant has had ups and downs about reviews, but was always considered a fancy family style restaurant with linens, and there used to be a strolling violinist on certain days, not to mention that in the Ernie’s section one could be entertained by live music and an ad-hoc dance floor.  The restaurant’s name has changed once and is now know as the Courthouse Grille with a revamped menu, but still maintaining some of the stand-by dishes.

 

 

The food was of a classic Italian eatery, nothing out of the ordinary, but always a place where one could get a fine meal.  There were all the classic dishes of pasta, that one would expect, plus some fine veal, beef and seafood offerings.   There was not one dish that appealed to more than another, but we knew that we could go there and be happy with our selection.  It was the type of restaurant that a large group could go to and everybody would be happy and sated when we left.

 

The wine list was not large and tended to lean of course to Italian wines, which is as it should be.   One evening we enjoyed a couple of bottles of 1990 Cetamura Chianti from Coltibuono with friends.  This was just a classic example of a well made Chianti wine, not even a Classico designation, but it fulfilled the requirements of the evening.   There is something about a Chianti wine that makes Italian food become even more of “comfort food” then it already is.   This Cetamura had that deep color that looks like Chianti, and it did not have the nose that I sometimes find in Chianti wines of egg whites, which sometimes turns me off.  I always think of egg whites from the old home-made wines that I would taste that we would receive as gifts from family friends in the old neighborhood.  I am not sure, but I once heard that some of the older men would use egg whites as a filter as they were getting ready to bottle their creations.  That may or may not be true, but I do find that occasionally with some bottles of Chianti to this day.  Of course I may be predisposed to anticipate it with a wine that I may presume ahead of time, not to be of the caliber of quality that I expect.  Though I do try to be open minded on each bottle of wine, I think past memories tend to be hard to change.

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Old Greektown and Wine in Detroit

Posted on October 6, 2012 by thewineraconteur

A couple days ago, on one of the pages of Facebook that I belong to; there was a mention of Greektown and the casino.  I typed a message that I preferred Greektown in the old days before it became commercial.  The reference made me think back to my high school days and the joys that old Greektown held for me.  Even before I got there, Greektown was part of the Detroit lore.  The old Grecian Gardens restaurant and the police raid on the premises, just a block or two from Old Precinct Number One of the Detroit Police Department.  There were restaurants like the Laikon, Pegasus and the New Hellas.  There was a bakery, where for years my family would order paklava for the holidays at Stemma Confectionary.

 

    

I remember tagging along with some of the men, more contemparies of my Father, then of my age.  They would take me out for dinner, drinks and belly dancers.  It was such heady days, when the dancers would throw their veil over my head and dance for me.  It was all clean and pure fun, but exciting non-the-less.

     

 

On a different note, that made an indelible mark on me, one night after hours in Sero’s Coffee Shop.   I was sitting with some of the men, and an old black man came into the shop in ragged clothes, unshaven and reeking of cheap alcohol.  He came to our table, looked at me and said “hello” in Greek, to which in my laidback attitude of the moment, I replied “fine” back in Greek.   That was about the extent of my knowledge of the Greek language.  The man looked at me at started to speak in fluent Greek and wanted to have a conversation.  I replied in English that I was not Greek and could not speak the language.  I shall never forget the next couple of exchanges we had.  He looked me right in the eye, and said “if yous be here, now, yous must be Greek.”  I replied “no,” and then he said “what yous be, if yous be here.”  I answered that I was Armenian, and he looked at me and mumbled “Harmenian, Harmenian.”  All of a sudden he counted from one to ten in Armenian, then chanted the Armenian alphabet, and then began talking to me in the Armenian language.  I was amazed and at a loss for words.  Then out of the blue the manager of the shop came and escorted the old man out of the building.  The manager came back to our table and asked if there were any problems.  I said no, but asked almost rhetorically how an old drunk black man could talk to me in both Greek and Armenian.  The manager just should his head and said that the man had once been a professor of languages, but that alcohol had ruined his life.  I still get a bit of a shiver when I relive that moment.

 

 

We are here though to talk of wine.  I looked everywhere to find some wine labels that I thought for sure that I had.  They were not in my scrap book, nor in my loose files, nor could I even find them by removing bottles out of my rack, looking at the labels that are the wall paper in my cellar.  I had to go online to get the labels, and I feel that I am cheating you, but I have drank many of these wines that I am going to discuss.  That is why some of my labels that I show are not pristine, but I do want to show that I have drunk the wine, and I feel that it is my best proof.

 

Even back in the days of Homer, wine was written about, and there are three wines that are usually encountered to be paired with Greek cuisine.  The first is Retsina, a white wine that has been flavored with pine resin during fermentation.  Some people are put off by the nose and taste; some have even thought that it was turpentine.  Once you get over the initial taste, you find this oily wine tends to work well with a lot of the dishes.  There is red (rose) version of this called Kokinelli.  The next wine is Roditis a dry red wine, and sometimes found as a rose.  This wine has more body and more of a true wine taste then Retsina.  Depending on the winery you may find this wine as Demestica, and even a white version called Hymettus.  Finally there is a wine called Mavrodaphne, which may be the most famous of the Greek wines, but it is more of a dessert wine, and does not pair well with dinner.

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