We here at Wine-Girl are collaborating with our good friends the Hoperatives to bring you a beer-wine-cheese tasting at Dilly Cafè on Tuesday, July 27th at 6:30 pm. The tasting will be led by the Goose Girl herself, Lindsey Shafer of Goose Island Brewery. The cost is only $20.00 and the number of participants is limited to 30. There will be a waiting list if necessary. Call Dilly to make your reservations (513.561.5233).  We were planning today and already people were calling – so give a call to Dilly ASAP.

Working with Chuck and Chef Eric at Dilly and Lindsay from Goose Island, we’ve managed to put together a tentative list of pairings, although keep in mind that it is subject to a little bit of change.

1. Welcome drink: Sparkling wine
2. Cheese: Chevre  Beer: Goose Island 312 Wine Type: Sancerre
3. Cheese: Triple Creme Brie Beer: Goose Island Sofie Wine Type: Champagne
4. Cheese: Feta Beer: Goose Island Demolition Wine Type: Alsatian Reisling
5. Cheese: Washed Rind  Beer: Goose Island Matilda Wine Type: Grenache Rosè
6. Chocolate: Bitter, dark (80-85% cacao)  Beer: Goose Island Pere Jacques Wine: Southern Bell Shiraz

Just to recap:

Tuesday, July 27th
6:30 pm
Dilly Cafè, 6818 Wooster Pike, Mariemont, OH 45227
only $20.00
RSVP (please!) ASAP at 513.561.5233

Photo by Ryan Kurtz for The Party Source / Goddesses of the Harvest Ads

The dinner will take place at the newly renovated Krohn Conservatory on Friday, August 28. Cost is $75 and you can register online via The Party Source.

This is a great opportunity to enjoy samplings from some of our area's fantastic chefs, all in one gorgeous location.

Here's the menu:

Before we leave, I want to tell everyone about a new tasting that Party Town has added. It's on Tuesday evenings from 6-8 6-7 pm. This is in addition to their popular Saturday/Sunday tastings and their Friday night beer events.

I was told that soon, these Tuesday night tastings will become wine and food pairing events. They're starting off small, gauging interest. Since I know we all want these to evolve into pairing events, please go!

As always, wine tastings at Party Town are free!

Party Town is located at 6823 Burlington Pike, Florence, KY‎, right off Turfway Road. I'll see you there!

Image Credit

Anytime you need to pair some food and wine (or beer), just head to our Wine & Food Pairing page and click either Wine or Food. The widget will walk you through the pairing, giving you all the information you need.

Author and friend Natalie MacLean has always offered a neat online wine and food pairing engine. This widget is courtesy of Natalie. 

Enjoy!

Usually when we host a party, we shell out at least $500 in food and alcohol. Then we kill ourselves trying to make everything from appetizers through to dessert. Kevin often spends about half of the party in the kitchen and sometimes the food goes awry. This time we tossed that entire model out the window.

I did two things differently. First, I asked everyone to bring an appetizer or a bottle of Spanish wine. This worked beautifully, as we ended up with a gorgeous cheese plate and several dips. Kevin also prepared some mini quiches, baked cheese sticks, and mini herbed goat cheese balls. Good Spanish wine can be found for under $15 – in many cases under $10 – so we weren't asking our guests for too great of an expense.

Everyone brought a bottle or two of wine, which was fantastic. In fact, we emptied 10 bottles plus a magnum. I kept the wine out on our bar and just let everyone serve themselves.

Wine and appetizers. So far, an easy party with very little expense to us. But what about dinner? Well, for dinner we brought in Hector Esteve of Paella at Your Place. Hector arrives with his burner, a giant paella pan, all the ingredients and a great personality, and then he whips up some paella. I was worried about the small size of our kitchen, but Hector requires only a stovetop and a small countertop. Alternatively he can use a garage, or in the warmer months, your deck or patio.

We had a sausage and chicken paella, but he made a portion of it meat
free for our two vegetarian diners. He offers other paella combinations
of various meats and seafoods as well. Hector also arrives with a great salad and bread that starts off your meal. Once the paella is ready, he brings it to the table and sprinkles it with sherry. Alcohol makes everything better, yes?  Then he serves the paella to your guests.

Hector left our kitchen even cleaner than it was when we arrived. Outside of the appetizers, Kevin and I had no need to even be in the kitchen. It was the easiest party I've ever put together and because of that, one of the most fun. I could actually enjoy my guests instead of worrying about feeding them. In fact, we wouldn't have been in the kitchen at all except that everyone was fascinated with the paella process. Hector will tell you about it, step by step, if you wish, with all the patience in the world.

Hector requires a minimum of 10 people (those pans are big you see) and starts at $10 per person. We fed 15 people, although he can feed a party of up to 150. At those prices, feeding 15 people paella is a cheaper option for us than what we would normally shell out to host a dinner party. Kevin just mentioned that by using Hector, we saved about $200 in party
hosting and more than that in time and stress, therefore this is a
Recession Tip! Host a party with your own chef and save money – who
knew?

I know I'll be bringing Hector back for future parties at this house and once we move in about a year. I recommend Hector and his paella (and apparently his tailgating options as well). In fact, I'm trying to figure out how to get him to the pre-Jimmy Buffett parties out at Riverbend. How perfect would that be?

Not sure how you feel about paella? That's okay. Hector will be dishing up his excellent paella at several local stores in the next few months. You can find him at The Party Source on Jan 31 and March 26. I think, although I'm not positive on this one, that he'll also be grilling up some paella at each Liquor Direct for a Jorge Ordonez tasting on February 27 and 28.

I'm embedding a slideshow or you can view our photos on Flickr.

Contact Hector at PaellaAtYourPlace.com or via email (hfesteve [at] fuse [dot] net) or phone: 513.528.5241.

Course 1: Woodford Reserve with Gravlax

Course 2: Woodford Reserve Lemonade with Tomato Watermelon Salad

Course 3: Woodford Reserve Corn Pudding and the Best Roast Chicken

Course 4: Cold Lemon Souffle and Bourbon Flavored Coffee

The evening started with a Gravlax, composed of bourbon treated
salmon. This was a better fit for the type of food that I enjoy instead
of Michelle with the salty salmon and Dijon mustard combining to
provide a very nice appetizer that apparently lasts up to 2 months on
the freezer after preparation is completed.

Watermelon and tomato salad was the next course, and was introduced
to me several weeks earlier at the Gourmet Sensation event. It was one
of the few taste combinations that had eluded lad me so far in my life,
but I was amazed that it had taken so long for me to try what turn out
to be fantastic. As a late
summer dish, when tomatoes are becoming ripe and juicy across the
country, adding a little bit of watermelon provides a side that had
both the amazing tartness of the tomato with the juicy sweetness of the
watermelon balancing out the acidity. This is now a staple of any
summer/early fall dinner menu at my house and I appreciate anyone who
brings any attention to this amazing combo.

The main course was a roast chicken and corn pudding both featuring
an accent of Woodford as the brine for the chicken and a small accent
(1tbsp) in the corn pudding. Both items were a very well thought  out
example of what can be done by using a small amount of bourbon as an
accent to cooking and Michelle was thoroughly enchanted by the bread
pudding.

Desert was a cold lemon souffle that used Woodford new spirit, which
most of us are not able to easily find. New spirit is bourbon before it
has been moved to the barrels, so it’s pretty potent stuff. David
recommended a silver rum as an alternative and made what was very
similar to a lemon pie filling with the meringue mixed into it.

Woodford Reserve Distillery, right outside of Lexington, offers
regular meals during the holiday season. Weather permitting, I
encourage everyone to travel down and try one of their standard or
special meals.

Overall a night of

I’m not much of a seafood fan, so other than mentioning the menu for pairing purposes, I’ll leave the food information sharing to Julie. I want to talk about their wine for the upcoming dinner.

Andrew and Chef Dumcum made a decision to focus on Spanish wines for the meal, all from trusted importer Jorge Ordoñez, distributed locally by Cutting Edge. As many of you know, Spanish and French wines are my absolute favorites, so I was thrilled to see so many high-quality, high-value wines on their list. In fact, if you find you’re interested in the wines, you can order the wines directly from Oceanaire (without a huge markup) during the wine dinner. All of the wines retail for under $15 in Ohio and in some cases, under $10 in Kentucky. In addition, all these wines are "drink now," so if you go home with a few, you don’t have to worry about cellaring.

The wine list for the dinner is amazingly easy-drinking and approachable, even for those who aren’t big fans of wine.
My overall score for their wines and pairing:

Marques de Gelida Brut: The list I have states this is a non-vintage Cava, but Andrew shared a 2004 vintage with us. This is high in acidity and tart, with a lemony fresh result. It had soft bubbles that tickled the back of my throat. Throughout our tasting I kept returning to this particular glass as a palatte cleanser. Sparkling wines are a great substitute for sorbet, and I found this one light, refreshing and up to the task.
Pairing: Tatmagouche Shooters, Iced Granny Smith Apple Mignonette

Basa Blanco Rueda 2007: This is a light and fruity wine composed of Verdejo, Viura, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. If I was just sniffing away blindly, I would have called this a viognier. Told I was wrong, I probably would have guessed a sauvignon blanc. That’s how tropical and light this particular wine is. It’s the perfect summer wine, and enjoyable on a day when the temperature breaks 90 degrees.
Pairing: Mixed Field Greens, Pickled Watermelon, Sunflower Seed Brittle, Tarragon Chevre, Mango Vinaigrette

Vega Sindoa Chardonnay 2006: This particular bottle wasn’t available for us to sample, but I hear that it’s earthy and only lightly oaked.
Pairing: Grilled Hawaiian Sea  Bass, Sweet Corn Butter, Charred-on-the-Vine Tomatoes, Baby Bok Choy, Roasted Peach Beure Blanc

Tres Picos Garnacha 2006: I love this wine. Kevin and I have purchased cases of previous vintages and the 2006 is no disappointment. This wine is such a great drinker for such a bargain. This has a lot of deep berries and plums. It’s 100% grenache from some pretty old Spanish vines.
Pairing: Seared Earl grey Brined Duck Breast, Butternet Squash Puree, Chocolate-Blackberry Demi Glace, Mint Oil

Jorge Ordoñez Especial Moscatel 2005: Ah, dessert wine! I do enjoy dessert wine – almost as much as I enjoy dessert. This particular wine is not what you might expect – it’s not heavy and mead-like. Instead, it’s light and floral. In fact, I was sort of hit upside the head with the floral nose of this wine. It’s bright and easy to drink, with some honey, floral, and lemon notes – a perfect ending to a meal on a hot summer night.
Pairing: Brie-Pear Tart, Lavender Honey, Fig Compote

Other than the Moscatel, I’m fairly certain you can find the majority of these wines at either Liquor Direct or Party Source, both right across the river in Kentucky. I know that I’ve tried most of these before, which is what leads me to believe they came from one of those two stores. Party Town out at Turfway also has a fairly large Spanish selection. Overall, these are excellent pairings for the food and approachable wines.

In addition, to the previous wines, Andrew brought out a bonus wine for us, which got sent home with me in one of those remarkable Ohio Doggy Wine Bags. The 2005 Volver won’t be served at the wine dinner, but I’m on a quest to find out where to purchase it. (I emailed Cutting Edge as soon as I got home last night.) This wine is 100% Tempranillo, and although slightly less approachable than the rest of the wines we tried, really hit the spot for me. It’s a tempranillo filled with some spicy goodness of cinnamon and cardamon, but tempered greatly by the plum and currants. I loved this wine. I had Kevin try it last night as well, and it’s by far a for us both.

As I mentioned, I had never been to Oceanaire, so I learned a lot of things while we were there. Andrew sent me home with their wine lists – both the regular list and the reserve (which is quite an extensive book). I haven’t figured out the "sweet spot" on their list yet, but it looks like the decent selection of wines by the glass is priced at about what a bottle of the same wine would cost. Don’t get upset – this is a fairly standard pricing structure. For example, I recently picked up a bottle of McWilliams Chardonnay for $7.99 at Liquor Direct and a glass of that wine at Oceanaire costs $8. The list does mention that these are "generous 8 oz pours," which made me laugh. Remember that you’ll almost always get a better deal with a bottle at a fine restaurant. I imagine the wine list sweet spot falls somewhere in the mid-priced bottles.

Andrew also sent me home with their Happy Hour menu, which thrilled me to no end. Oceanaire’s Happy Hour runs from 5-7 every day and all drinks are $7. Kevin and I are always looking for new Happy Hours to try for dinner before we go to a show and I think next time we’ll go to Oceanaire. The food offerings run the seafood gamut, but also include Mt Carmel Beer Battered Fish and Chips. That’s my sort of seafood!

Both the menu and the happy hour menu both feature some incredible vintage cocktails, so I’ll definitely be back in to try a Sidecar.

Jumbo lump crab cake, drunken shrimp, and fried calamari from the Happy Hour menu

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Don’t forget to sign up for the wine tasting benefiting the
Krystal Pepper Memorial Scholarship. It’s Sept 11, 6-8 pm at the Party
Source. Pre-registration only. Sign up here.

Greater Cincinnati Independents

   - Kevin

Our overall reviews:

Whiskey
Meat
Boi Na Braza

(We only had our cell phones as cameras. oops!)

Follow the jump for all the gory and gluttonous details.

To start, I avoided breakfast and lunch, instead concentrated on
drinking plenty of water to make sure I would be able to try all of the
different offerings that were going to be available in the evening.

The
evening started off with a trip to the salad bar, which is a slight
misnomer at Boi Na Braza. The salad bar contains everything that is not
cooked meat. Mashed potatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, palm hearts,
cheeses, and finally salad were just a few of the items that could be
found on the "please don’t just eat meat" bar. I had the mushrooms, broccoli and a few other items that were all very well prepared as a
warm up course. Shel had a salad, a large selection of cheese, and a healthy serving of smooth and buttery mashed potatos. The nice thing about the salad bar was you could take
as much or little as you wanted and keep it to go along with the main
course.

The salad course was paired with what could be considered a Johnnie Red
Bull: Johnnie Walker Red, on the rocks, with a splash of guarana soda.
The soda sweetened the scotch which still provided a nice light peat
flavor on the finish once the sweet faded. A great matching on the
first course and we still had 4 to go.

Up next was what the menu referred to as the beef and lamb course. We
had 7 different cuts of beef and 2 types of lamb brought to our table.
If you have never experienced rodizio style dining, let me explain.  Men in gaucho pants and ascots, carrying large skewers of meat, come to your table and
ask if you would like whatever they are carrying. So if you would like
a piece of the filet mignon, you take a little pair of tongs, tell them
what level of done-ness you prefer and they slice off a bit that you
grab and transfer to your plate. This then repeats itself until you are
unable to move.

Michelle found the combination of meat, swords, large
knives, and all male wait staff to be a little too masculine for her
tastes – I believe she used the word "primitive." I didn’t notice as I think I had started to slip into a meat
coma in the second course. This was paired with Johnnie Walker Black
Label and the alcohol in the scotch was a nice compliment to the fat in
the meat. Another very nice pairing, although the garlic
steak destroyed any possibility of tasting what you were drinking, but
the house special was not to be missed.

Round three saw found me starting to slow down. There was no longer the exuberance to try everything as soon as it showed up at the table
knowing that I could always request anything we had already tried. This
worked out well as this was the pork and poultry selection. Sadly there
were only a few types of preparations in this course and I think it was
misleading to have it listed separately. Luckily beef ribs and a second
round of the last course were available to compliment the chicken leg
and pork chop that covered off this course. It was served up with
Johnnie Walker Green label, which Michelle preferred with a twist of
orange and a few ice cubes. It also paired nicely with the beef
offerings and would probably be very suitable for poultry if it is
available.

Now, dessert. Michelle likes to judge a restaurant solely on how they do
in this her favorite course. Sadly, all of the goodwill that had been
generated up to this point starts to fall off. The choices were,
according to the menu, a papaya creme or a chocolate mouse. Now, as
most people are not on a fixed 5 course menu, my guess is that dessert
in not something the servers usually need to know anything about. We
asked, as always, if there were nuts in either of the offerings and we were assured they were nut free. We ordered one of each to make sure we would have as many different
options as possible. First the good: the papaya creme had a nice balance
between the papaya and did not end up too sweet although it was drenched in chocolate sauce. It was
a very nice end to my dinner.

Michelle, on the other had, tried the
chocolate cake and it arrived with what looked like the outside edge covered
in ground nuts. I took a quick taste and they had the texture and taste of
walnuts. We asked the server to confirm with the kitchen that there
were no nuts and left said he would go and check the box. He returned
and said that the box did not list nuts in the ingredients, but that if
we felt those were nuts we should just not eat that part of the cake.
No offer to switch to the other dessert, no offer to remove the
suspected nuts from the table, overall not a good answer for anyone
with a deadly nut allergy.

The dessert drink was Johnnie Walker Gold label served from the
freezer but arrived at room temperature. A little longer in the cold
should have imparted a bit more creaminess and viscosity that would
have paired well with the papaya.

Lastly, we had Johnnie Walker Blue label with a few cheeses and grapes.
Since we still had room after splitting a dessert, we opted to have the
cheese and fruit while most of the others in the group went with just
the finishing drink. Johnnie Walker Blue is a smooth, easy to drink blend with no
component being less than 18 years old. The complexity and depth was
surprising for its lack of smoke or peaty-ness. I would have expected a
heavier amount of the thicker scotch flavors, like peat, iodine or seaweed, but instead found a nice
well rounded flavor that had more honey and sweet characteristics. I’m now considering adding a few nice blended items to the
home bar to complement my current selection of single malts.

Our Master of Whiskey had a bonus bottle with him and we tried the enjoyable Johnnie Walker Swing. The bottle was created to move with the rolling movements of a ship in the 1930s, when large oceanliners were often crossing between the US and Europe.

Overall, it’s sad that one thing can change a dining experience, but when you have a customer who is deathly allergic to nuts, finding an unsympathetic staff is one of the few things that can keep us from returning to a place. Otherwise, Boi Na Braza had excellent freshly cooked beef and a great salad bar, but sadly the final note is that we will probably not return as the fear of a hospital trip outweighs the positives.

As a final note, we had a bagpiper. Jeff Linn, our Columbus-based bagpiper (think Johnnie Walker Scotch, not Boi Na Braza), chose to lead us across Fountain Square to Nicholson’s, with bagpipes jauntily playing. We had our own little parade, which was a fantastic top-off to a generally enjoyable evening.

A quick cell phone video of our march across the Square:

In fact, we’re spending a fairly low key Valentine’s Day (or, you know, THURSDAY) evening at the Party Source’s Smooth Wines for Your Valentine tasting class at the EQ Center.

I would think that all of our area restaurants would be having Valentine’s Day specials, but I just wanted to call out a few. If you’re lucky, you can still get reservations.

I think the Henke Winery event, which includes dinner and paired wines for $89.95/couple, is an incredible deal. If we didn’t already have plans, I’d jump on that one.

Remember, you can also take a few moments to do a standard wine tasting, which can be romantic. Cork-N-Bottle always has Thursday night tastings, but I advise swinging by MicroWines in Kenwood to get a little more of the appropriate atmosphere.

Not part of a couple? It’s perfectly fine this Valentine’s Day. The event at the new Chalk is probably right up your alley. If you’re of the female persuasion, then pop by the always fun Tino Vino for a pure girls’ night. Enjoy!

__

Chalk
318 Greenup Street
Covington, KY
859.643.1234
Love Stinks: Singles Dining Event
Tasting Menu: $49
Wine Pairings: $29
Communal Seating Available
Reservations recommended.

Henke Winery
3077 Harrison Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45211
513.662.9463
Valentine’s Day Wine & Dine
4–10 pm, $89.95/couple
Reservations required.

Jean-Robert @ Pigall’s
127 West 4th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513.721.1345
Pigall’s has one heck of a menu planned.
$125/pp, $50 wine/pp

The Party Source
95 Riviera Drive
Bellevue, KY 41073
859.291.4007
Smooth Wines for your Valentine
6–8 pm, $30
Reservations required.

The Polo Grille
8035 Deerfield Blvd
Cincinnati, OH 45202
513.701.7656
Wine & Dine Your Valentine
All bottled wine 30-40% off
Special Valentine’s Menu from Chef Thom
Make reservations through OpenTable

Tino Vino
3665 Erie Ave.,
Cincinnati, OH 45208
513.871.8466 (VINO)
Love Yourself! Valentine’s Day Girls’ Night Out:
Representatives from Pure Romance, designer jewelry, purse vendors
Special prices on wine & appetizers
No admission fee. Reservations are not required.

The Wine Store 
9905 Montgomery Road
Montgomery, OH 45242
513.984.9463
Thursday Wine Tasting: Ultra premium Cab Sauv from California
7 pm, $60
Reservations required by Jan 22.

Wine C.A.R.T
6206 Mulhauser Road
West Chester, OH 45069
513.860.WINE
Wine Murder Mystery Dinner
6–9 pm, $75/pp
Reservations required.