The Wine's the Thing
Mitch Kornfeld
1/30

New York Wine and Restaurant Deals

How would you feel about having a three course meal at a very very good restaurant plus all the wine you can drink for $59? Good, I thought you'd be interested.

The original offer that caught my interest is a promotion that began January 15th and runs through February 9th. A second deal, let's call it Deal Number 2, is running this week only, from Monday, January 29th through Friday, February 2nd, and includes a whopping, even by New York standards, 118 participating restaurants. This second deal is also offered in the summer, beginning in late June and continuing with a smaller number of restaurants through Labor Day. Deal Number 3 is by the same group of restaurants as Deal Number 1 (as described in the next paragraph) and it comes around every Spring and Fall.

The $59 promotion (Deal Number 1) began at the renown Cité. It is owned by Allan Stillman, who also owns Smith & Wollensky , Post House, Park Avenue Cafe, Manhattan Ocean Club, Maloney and Porcelli, and One c.p.s. (Central Park South), all of which now participate. The deal is this, after 8PM, when restaurants begin to slow down, they give you a three course dinner, appetizer, entree, and desert, with all you want to drink of four different wines, all for $59. 

The original Cité ad that appeared in the Times showed sixteen wine labels and explained that four of them would be freely served every night. The wines and wineries represented are not among the greats, but there are some that are good and some that are very good. I always say you don't have to spend a fortune to get good wines (though that would be a good use of a fortune) and getting four different good wines along with good food for $59 is my idea of a good time at a spectacular price. With the original Cite promotion extended to all of Allan Stillman's restaurants, a skilled restaurant patron can avail himself of an abundance of choices in food and wines.

Here's the list of the wineries represented in the current promotion: Mondavi, Beringer, Franciscan, Louis Latour, "J" Sparkling Wine (J as in Jordan), Chateau Bel Air, St. Francis, Rosemount, DeLoach, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Clos Du Val, Markham, Simi, Burgess, Louis Jadot, Georges Duboeuf, Penfolds, and Sterling.

Now those eighteen are one very good group. (That's two Australian, four French, and twelve from California if you're counting.) In all probability they are not going to give you a $75 a bottle Reserve Cabernet from the likes of Mondavi, Beringer, and Sterling, though you never know, but you are sure to be served some very nice wines. As I look at the group I notice that in my first seven columns for Union Square Journal I have managed to recommend wines from six of these wineries and mentioned a seventh. Coincidence I am sure, but my stock in trade is good middle class wines that you don't have to spend an arm and a leg for, and that's what we're seeing here. I'll tell you about my meal at the Manhattan Ocean Club in a little bit, but let me move on to deal Number 2.

This promotion is called Winter Restaurant Week 2001. It's a lunch deal running from Monday through Friday that started January 29th. You get a three course meal for $20.01. Twenty bucks for lunch in a good restaurant in this town is pretty good to begin with, but this deal includes some really first-class places and more than a few "super seconds," to borrow a (Bordeaux) wine term. If you're lucky you might be able to get a reservation at the likes of Cafe Buloud, Vong, Montrachet (what a nice name), Nobu, Aureole, Aquavit, La Caravelle, Le Régence, Grammercy Tavern, San Domenico, and Union Square Cafe. A few of the participating "second growth restaurants," to coin a phrase, that I've enjoyed are Mesa Grill, Duane Park Cafe, Zoë, Christer's, and Waters Edge. All seven of Allan Stillman's restaurants are participating too. (Follow this link for the entire list of restaurants: http://www.restaurantweek.com/3.html)

I believe this promotion started with what was called New York Restaurant Week in June of 1996. Lunches were, naturally, $19.96. They've let the price inflate by a whole five cents in five years, which is, as we say in New York, bubkes! Most of the restaurants, maybe two thirds, continue offering this lunch deal throughout the summer.

One of the better known participants is Aquavit on W. 54th Street. On the Zagat 30-point scale for food, decor, and service, it received 25, 26, and 24 in the current survey. They have excellent Scandinavian food, the Rockefellers used to live there before it was a restaurant, and there's a waterfall in one of the dining rooms. Last June they had a Navarro Anderson Valley Riesling on the wine list for $36 (with the lunch deal you pay for the wine). If it's not the best Riesling in California, it's certainly in the running (and it's made by really good folks too). You can have an excellent meal, with an excellent wine, in a lovely place, with good service, and run up a tab of $76 for two, before tax and tip. You can go first class all the way for under $100.

Deal Number 3 comes courtesy of that nice Allan Stillman and it happens twice a year, in the Spring (Monday, March 19 to Friday the 23rd) and the Fall (in September). September is a particularly good time to visit Manhattan. The temperatures are temperate, the mob of tourists is at a more manageable level, and the air is a bit sweeter and certainly more romantic. These offers at Stillman's restaurants (listed above in the third paragraph) are "Wine Weeks." Buy lunch and you will be served all you want or care to drink of about ten different wines. The wines are different every day, and different at each of Stillman's seven restaurants. They are mostly good middle class wines as you might expect, but they can surprise you with some heavy hitters. A few years back at Manhattan Ocean Club they gave me a glass of the 1988 Pol Roger Cuvée Winston Churchill, and at Maloney and Porcelli they served the 1990 Dom Perignon. Surely these luxury cuvées are overpriced at over $100 the bottle, but when they're serendipitously handed to you, basically for free, they taste absolutely great.

Speaking of serendipity, it's time to tell you about my unlimited wine $59 meal at Manhattan Ocean Club. MOC, as it's sometimes known, gets Zagat ratings of 25-22-23. I find it to be an elegant place. It looks like a luxury liner without the forty tons of steel. We started off with a Markham 1999 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($12 or $13 retail) that was inexplicably served too cold (even the sparkler that followed was served warmer). Coldness suppresses taste, which explains why people drink those mass-produced American lagers near freezing. My notes kept saying things like "correct" and "some," reflecting the hidden nature of the tastes of the wine, but it came alive after a sip of The Reluctant Connoisseur's clam chowder. Besides being excellent, it might be the only New England Clam Chowder in the world with "Manhattan" in its name. The Markham was good, not great, with my oysters in morel cream sauce. The oysters were every bit as good as the name sounds. I can't recommend the dish enough. It was a taste of the sea and a taste of the forest all in one. They didn't skimp on the morels either. (If I only had the Chardonnay then that arrived later, but who knew.) I had the last oyster (they give you five) with the "J" sparkling wine and that was a fine combination, but not as good as the sparkler with the salmon with tandoori spices, perhaps their "signature dish."

The "J" is a textbook California sparkling wine. It's not yeasty and complex, but it is fruity and has a good depth from the fruitiness. It turned absolutely luscious with the salmon. I've had red wine with fish on numerous occasions, but probably half of those times it was Pinot Noir with salmon. I don't know the percentage on Pinot Noir in the J, but I'll venture a guess that it's about 35%. (My thinking is the winemaker deliberately balances Chardonnay and Pinot Noir so neither one predominates and you really have to think about what went into the wine. It's an intellectual pursuit I always say.) Whatever the exact percentage was, it was just enough Pinot to make the wine marry perfectly with the salmon, in a truly fine food and wine match. You never know just how the wine and food matches are going to turn out (and for deal Number 1 you don't know what the four wines are going to be). It was so far so good for the food and wine matches but the really big surprise came with the Chardonnay. I only had a little with the salmon, and it went just fine, perhaps a little behind the match of the salmon and the J, but it was one of those wines that made a statement all by itself. It was from Babcock, one of the better wineries in Santa Barbara County. If you don't recall Babcock being on the advertised list that's because it wasn't. Surprise number 2 was that it was the Reserve (the Grand Cuvée) and not the regular. (I recently saw the '99 regular reviewed and it was $18. The Grand Cuvée must be $30.) Surprise number 3 was that it was in magnums. (Magnums are double bottles that are better for aging wine. It's a surface area of air to wine ratio thing.) Surprise number 4 was that it was a 1994. '94 was an excellent year for California Chardonnay, but California Chardonnays are not known for their aging abilities. Hopefully being in magnums would help pull it through. We were game to try but the sight of the wine in the glass was inauspicious. It was a dark yellow, going towards actual gold, just the color of a wine starting to oxidize. Fortunately one whiff of the wine dispelled all thoughts of oxidation as the nose said deep down creamy Chardonnay, and the taste? Well...to use the musical analogy this one was Thus Spoke Zarathustra. You know, from 2001, A Space Odyssey (which will certainly be shown many times this year to conveniently jog your memory), da-da-dA-DA-DUM!, then the rising kettle drums, you remember. Remember the long fadeout after the last big DA-DA? That's what this wine had, the proverbial long lingering aftertaste. I probably could have counted to 60 while still tasting the chard after swallowing but I was too busy saying "WOW." It had dropped its fruit but it was still great wine. Amazing aftertaste. If you come across the '99 Grand Cuvée and you have good storage conditions put some away until 2003 or 2004 and you'll be greatly rewarded.

If you were wondering what the fourth wine was don't bother. It turned out to be an over the hill 1991 Chianti Riserva. It was not on the list either, but lightning wasn't going to strike twice. 1991 Tuscans got 81 and 83 on my two vintage charts, not bad, but the wine had dropped its fruit and was charmless. I left it sitting in my glass but I didn't mind one bit as I was forced to have a second glass of the Babcock.

Lastly, the state of the MOC's deserts can be summed up by the remarks of the young woman who sat behind me as she saw the desert cart, "Uh-oh. We're doomed." The Reluctant Connoisseur had the sorbets and I went with the white chocolate mousse in the dark chocolate "bag," topped with strawberries and surrounded by strawberry puree. It was quite yummy indeed.

If all that sounded as if it was well worth $59 it's because it was. At this point there's nothing left to do but to quote from the old baseball song, "There's nothing to it but to do it." Do avail yourself of one of these deals. Enjoy.

© Mitch Kornfeld 2001 All rights reserved


Previously by Mitch Kornfeld...

Dad's Cardinal Zins and Other Clichés (01/20/01)

Some Basics for a Winter's Eve (01/12/01)

And if They're Spanish That's Fine (01/05/01)

Hello Carbon Dioxide (12/29/00)

Wines for Christmas (12/22/00)

Nouveau Beaujolais, Etc. (11/24/00)

Going to a Tasting 101 (12/01/00)