Test driving the new chef at Feast: Villa Maria Wine Dinner

When you buy a new car, you get to take a test drive with a hopeful salesman beside you. When you buy a house, you get to visit it with a hopeful realtor and have it inspected by a professional. But what about when one of your favorite restaurants gets a new chef?

Sure, you hope he or she has been thoroughly vetted by people you trust, but the consumer's test drive takes place over multiple visits. It takes time to see how a new chef handles beloved menu items, specials, and timing. We got to do our test drive of Feast's new Chef Rich Velazquez recently at the Villa Maria wine dinner, where we got a preview of his creativity and ability to handle dinner for twenty-five.

In spite of its Italian-sounding name, Villa Maria is actually a New Zealand winery. I wasn't disappointed – a cute winemaker with an accent is a cute winemaker with an accent, no matter where he's from, and Simon Fell is definitely that. Hubby and I hadn't tasted any of their wine before this night, and we were on the fence about the dinner until we saw the food menu. It got our attention better than a car dealer's jerking plastic giants ever could (srsly, what's up with those things?).

There were six courses, so I'll hit the highlights. This chef test drive was particularly effective because we got to see how he'd handle some potentially tricky food and wine pairings. For example, the first course was paired with the Cellar Selection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. New Zealand Sauv Blanc is known for its distinct bouquet, which can range from grassy to cat pee, and undertones that can get pretty odd to sensitive palates. This wine thankfully did not make me think of a litter box, but it did have a certain funkiness that some compared to ripe papaya, and tinned asparagus came to mind for me. Chef Velazquez opened the dinner with roasted cauliflower soup with butter poached lobster and chive oil. The food cut the funkiness and brought out the fruit. My only complaint was that I got two shell bits among the tender, sweet lobster.

My favorite course, and one that our end of the table was clamoring to be added to the menu, was the second one, diver scallops with white truffle mousseline, tomato fondue, leeks, and port wine. It was paired with the Single Vineyard Taylor's Pass Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was more crisp than the previous one, and the acidity played very well with the smooth texture and flavors of the scallops. I made a note that this course was "perfect," and I could have drunk the wine on its own.



The wine highlights for me were the reds. My favorite of the evening, the Reserve Marlborough Pinot Noir, had some coffee on the nose, a lot of good fruit, and silky tannins. In other words, it was a BIG Pinot, and one that shows how New Zealand won this year's Pinot Smackdown. It went well with the fennel coriander lamb loin, kalamata olive and goat cheese farro, oyster mushrooms, and blueberry jus. Another highlight red was the Esk Valley Merlot/Cabernet/Malbec. The fruit in this Bordeaux blend tangoed with the spice of the dark coffee black peppercorn rib loin, horseradish, chive potato puree, asparagus, and rosemary jus.

One odd tasting note for those who like them… The Cellar Selection Marlborough Riesling tasted good and went well with the cheese course, but it had a bouquet of freshly opened pool toys.


The chef and kitchen had the good pacing we've come to expect from Feast, and we left impressed with his creativity. We look forward to returning for more wine dinners as well as to see how Chef Velazquez uses his Latin background to spruce up the menu for fall and winter. Overall, I would say the test drive was a success. I should've figured – owner Terry Rogers seemed more excited-hopeful than nervous-hopeful.

Oh, and the wine? Except for the first Sauv Blanc and maybe the Riesling, I would have drunk any of the ones poured on their own. I was particularly impressed with the reds. For me, a good wine goes well with food or by itself, and several of these satisfied this requirement. I'll be looking for Villa Maria on wine lists since their test drive was a success, too.

Fellow attendee and blogger Dan Browning about to dive in to the rib loin:



Disclaimer: We paid for everything, so I have nothing to disclose.

Tasting Notes: Flight Night at Feast

Okay, I'm not sure exactly what Feast calls its Tuesday night wine special because it's not on the web site. We heard about it through their email list. Tune in on Thursday to see Hubby's and my (but mostly his) idea for addressing this lack of centralized wine special info.

Here's the deal: go to Feast on Tuesday night, and for $10, you get four tastes of any of the wines that are available by the glass. We like Feast, we weren't doing anything last Tuesday, and miraculously, we were both home by 6:30, so we decided to try it out. Since there were two of us, we got to try eight. You can get them one (or two) at a time or have them bring out all eight at once. Yeah, if you know us, you can easily picture us having eight glasses of wine lined up at the table.

The wines (no vintages listed on menu):

Cypress Sauvignon Blanc (California):
Light-bodied. Floral nose and grapefruit-citrus palate.
Rating: Good

Santa Julia Organica (Argentina): 100% Torrontes
Peachy-honey-herbal nose. Floral on the palate with a grassy finish.
Rating: Very Good

Martin Codax Albarino (Spain):
Honey, tropical fruit, and wet sheep nose. Mineral and stone fruit on the palate.
Rating: Good

Le Grande Noir (Coteaux de L’Ardeche): 70% Chardonnay, 30% Viognier
Gardenia-peach with lime nose. The body has the fruit/floral characteristics of the Viognier plus the citrus chard backbone.
Rating: Very Good

Roseum Vina Robles (Paso Robles):
Cran-strawberry nose. Very light-bodied with good acidity and little fruit kick to finish. It wants food and brings out the flavor of cheese. Also remarkable in that it's a pink wine that Hubby liked.
Rating: Very Good w/ food

La Monica Montepulciano (Abruzzo):
Leather-raisin nose, but a strumpet with only a light body with ripe fruit.
Rating: Okay

French Maid Pinot Noir (Pays d'Oc):
Butter and dark fruit all the way through. Very smooth with a little smoky oak. According to Hubby, "black forest cake in a glass."
Rating: Excellent

Delas Feres Cotes du Rhone (Rhone Valley): Syrah, Mourvedre and Grenache
Dark fruit & spice with a lingering finish and a hint of herb.
Rating: Good to Very Good

We worked on the wines through the meal, so I don't have specific pairings. We started with the "Mushroom Chips," breaded and lightly fried slices of mushrooms served with a creamy dipping sauce. We then split a large Feast salad. Here's a hint: the small salad is $6; the large is $10, but if you split it, there's a $3 sharing fee. So, two small salads are $1 cheaper than splitting a large. Hubby had the Cedar Planked Atlantic Salmon, which he pronounced to be very good. I went for the Shrimp, Spinach, Mushroom, and Tomato Pizza, which would've been better without the strong-tasting shrimp. For dessert, I had to have my favorite -- the Kahlua cake. Hubby had a glass of port.

Yeah, the wines were the main attraction that evening, although Feast is still one of my favorites in Decatur for a casual dinner. If you're not familiar with wine, try sitting at the bar. We observed two wine newbies being guided through the process by the very knowledgeable bartender. Just skip the shrimp pizza and get your own salad.

Tasting Notes and Dinner Review: Rodney Strong/Feast Wine Dinner

So it seems to be remote correspondent/guest blogger day at the Random Oenophile. I also have friends that will eat, drink, and make merry notes for me. I'm a lucky girl, right? Regular guest blogger Dan Browning recently attended a wine dinner at Feast that featured wines from Rodney Strong. Click here for his notes. As you can see, he's way better about taking pictures of his food than I am.

Fun Mondays -- really!

Hubby and I have been feelin' a little rebellious as of late and have actually gone out on *gasp!* Monday nights!

Two Mondays ago, we went to the four-year birthday celebration for Feast in Decatur. This has to be one of my favorite restaurants in all of Atlanta, and definitely in our little corner of it. We're on the email list and immediately jumped on the chance to help them celebrate four years of being open, especially since we'd get a special appetizer, free glass of wine, and a certain percentage off our bill. Teri Rogers, the owner, supposedly prepared the special appetizer, which was a combination of a little cheese fondue, chilled soup, and crawfish cake, and she did appear in an apron, so of course she was back in the kitchen, right? We amused ourselves with the thought of chef Melissa Fedorko bossing her around.

We enjoyed our complimentary glasses of wine, sparkling to celebrate the occasion, and ordered a bottle of the 2006 El Roy Proprietor's Blend Red Wine. Oh, yes, it made me happy. Black currant nose, black cherry and a lil pepper. Nice transition to dessert at 15.2% alcohol. My efforts to figure out what, exactly the blend is beyond a Bordeaux, have not born any fruit, fermented or otherwise.

Ohyeah, we ate, too. Hubby had the Grilled Bistro Steak on Pita, and, ever mindful of my triglycerides (really!), I got the grilled vegetable pizza. Both were good. Of course I had to get the Kahlua cake for dessert:



Yeah, it was a good night. My only complaint was that the service was a bit uneven, and the bar got backed up. I don't think that they were expecting the turnout they got.

This past Monday evening, Hubby and I went to a fund raiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at Agatha's - A Taste of Mystery. I was really excited because I've been wanting to go there for quite a while, being a big mystery fan and writer. They serve a five-course meal, which includes appetizers as you gather, then seated soup, salad, entree, and dessert courses. A complimentary glass of wine is served with the salad course, and all other alcohol can be obtained at a cash bar.

The appetizer course, which was a hot and cold buffet, was probably the best course with a variety of hot munchies like fried mushrooms, cheese puffs, and nicely spiced mini meat kabobs, and cold cheese, antipasta salad, and crudites and dip. The soup and salad were average, and the entrees, for which there were four courses, were good but not great. Dessert got mixed reviews as well, but overall the kitchen did well for having to serve that many people all at once.

The mystery itself was entertaining, and it was obvious that the actor and actress were enjoying themselves. They did a good job of drawing the audience in, even those of us who didn't have "speaking parts." As for the wine, the red was a Cab, and it was definitely a red for beginners.

Overall, the experience was good, and I would definitely go back for the entertainment.

Wine Dinners, aka, Pairing for Dummies: Room at 12 and Feast

As an oenophile who also happens to really like food, I love wine dinners, especially ones where someone else does all the pairing work for me. As luck would have it, I have two to report on this week. They actually took place last week, but I'm still playing catch up.

On September 21, Hubby and I took advantage of Concentrics Restaurants' Wine Week Atlanta and went to Room at Twelve. The menu of this self-described "modern American steakhouse" has a range of meat-centric entrees as well as fish and, surprisingly, sushi. We went with the prix fixe menu for the Wine Week dinner.

The fun thing about wine dinners is that you get to see how food changes the taste and feeling of a wine, hopefully for the better. At this wine dinner, we got two wines per course. The general manager told us that they had featured a different winery every night, and this evening, they were all from the E&J Gallo Winery. I admit to being a little shocked -- a classy restaurant with Gallo wine? I remembered Gallo as being the stuff in jugs that my parents would make wine coolers with, and when we visited the Healdsburg tasting room, we weren't really impressed with the offerings that weren't in jugs. Plus, they were one of the few that made us pay for a tasting. The wines we got for the wine dinner were generally good, and I realized while writing this that they're different international wineries under the Gallo umbrella. They were as follows (I apologize for the lack of vintages; that information was not supplied):

Appetizer Course:
Pre-food:
McWilliams Riesling (Southeastern Australia): Oak/citrus nose with minerality and subtle tropical fruit. My reaction was, "This is a Riesling?" I've had several dry Rieslings, but this is more like a Sauvignon Blanc.
Martin Codax Albarino (Rias Baixas, Spain): Lychee and soft fruit nose, very herbal along the back and sides of the palate. Interesting herbal finish.

The first course, an excellent wild American shrimp and miso soup, had savory light orange broth with slices of mushroom and green onion. The shrimp itself tasted like it had been marinated in garlic and herbs before being put in the soup. It smoothed and brought out the fruit in the Riesling, whereas the Albarino became more mineral and acid.

Salad Course:
The second course, an arugula salad with walnuts, goat cheese, raisins, cranberries, apricots, and red onion, was also served with white wine.

Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand): The nose was herbal and reminded us of how our tomato vines smell when we pick the tomatoes. The wine itself was fairly mineral with a little citrus. The salad calmed the green qualities of the wine and brought out floral notes.

MacMurray Pinot Gris (Russian River Valley, California): Subtle nose with citrus and vanilla notes and some acidity. The finish was lingering. The food highlighted the floral qualities and coaxed a hint of vanilla from it.

Third Course:
With this course, I felt I was in a "modern American steakhouse." The New Zealand rack of lamb with panzanella and zucchini mint sauce was served rare and turned out to be quite garlicky, especially when heated for leftovers later in the week. All the flavors of the dish worked well together.

Don Miguel Malbec (Mendoza, Argentina): Dark fruit/berry nose that leads to a smooth red and a nice, buttery finish. Hubby and I agreed we liked this one better on its own. The food went well with it but gave it a little bite at the end.
Louis Martini Napa Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa, California -- did you really need me to tell you that?): I can see why they paired this with the lamb. It has mint and spice on the nose, and is definitely a big, spicy Cabernet. The food smoothed it out and brought out nice dark fruit.

The GM brought the McWilliams Shiraz out for us to try with the lamb. It was supposed to go with dessert, a rich chocolate layer cake. It actually went really well with the lamb and with the cake, which gave it a little smoke and brought out more dark fruit. The other wine to go with dessert, the Gallo Family Cabernet Sauvignon, was very smooth on its own with a little caramel to it. The dessert washed it out. The GM also let us try some Plunger Head Zinfandel (Dry Creek, California), which was like drinking spice cake and earned a "Zin-gasm" comment. However it, too, was killed by the cake.

In spite of our vows not to eat again for a week after that dinner, Hubby and I found ourselves at Feast the following Tuesday evening for their Summer Harvest Australian Wine Dinner. It ended up being a beautiful night to sit outside, and we even got to hear famous violinist (at least in Decatur) Kirsten Browning play. Oh, the food and wine were good, too.

The appetizers included beet and goat cheese crostini, chicken satay, and cucumber slices with salmon, dill, cream, and capers. It was served with the 2005 Chrismont Riesling (King Valley, Victoria), which had a pineapple/citrus nose, tropical fruit taste, and dry finish.

The Massoni Sauvignon Blanc (Mornington Peninsula, Victoria) smelled like seashells to me and tasted of lime, mint, and stone. It made sense to pair it with the ceviche-like citrus marinated shrimp, scallops, and squid wrapped in bibb leaves and served over a passionfruit puree. We couldn't find the "spicy chile sauce" mentioned on the food list.

One of the fun things about wine and beer dinners at Feast is that I get to try foods I would otherwise not eat. The second course was pan-seared Ostrich medallions with bacon and summer beans. It was served with the Austins Shiraz from Geelong, Victoria. Dark plum and ripe fruit aroma, tannic and acidic with spice and more plums, it took on a nice overtone with the food. The chef later came out and confessed that it was her first time to cook Ostrich (I don't know why I feel the need to capitalize that; I just do). She did an excellent job. It was tough to cut, but very tender to chew. The applewood smoked bacon wrapped around the medallions kept it from being dry.

The third course consisted of smoked pheasant, peppers stuffed with Israeli cous cous, and chocolate hazelnut vinaigrette. The Six Foot Six Shiraz/Viognier (Geelong, Victoria) was my favorite wine of the evening. Blackberry aromas promise and deliver lots of blackberry fruit with pepper and a hint of chocolate. It's very smooth to drink with and without food.

Finally, dessert sounded strange but tasted very good. Olive oil and thyme cake was topped with sweet cream and served with macerated figs. One table member liked it so much he told the owner and chef he'd like to see it on the regular menu. The Chrismont La Zona Rosato Mezzanotte (King Valley, Victoria) is a rose wine comprised of 50% Sangiovese, 25% Barbera, and 25% Marzemino. It has lots of berry characteristics, specifically cranberry and strawberry. Overall, I thought it was nicely balanced. Hubby drank it, which is as much of a compliment as a pink wine will get from him.

Those were our wine dinner adventures. I'm glad it made for a low effort week on my part, especially since Hubby and I had been up in the mountains with some of his work colleagues, and I may have been up playing Rock Band 2 until 5:30 one morning after having helped to polish off a huge bottle of Bogle Petite Sirah. One of said work buddies is a former chef, so we ate well up there, too. What have I been doing since the hedonistic weekend and the decadent wine dinners? Going to the gym and taking advantage of the lovely weather we've been having to go walking/jogging outside. A lot. I'm probably still a few thousand calories behind.

JavaMonkey wine tasting tomorrow! I have no clue what it is. We stopped by today on the way home from the Decatur Farmers' Market, but Jess hadn't put out new lists. Maybe she doesn't know what it will be, either.