Bizarre Moments in Drinking
A fine diner at the Woodinville restaurant liberated an 84-year-old bottle from its cellar this Saturday.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 13, 2011 at 08:37AM
The scene of the crime.
Photo: The Herbfarm
Herbfarm owner Ron Zimmerman reports via Twitter that he is “in the market for a bottle” of 1927 Graham’s Port after a guest at his fine-dining destination restaurant guzzled a display bottle that she had removed from the wine cellar.
Zimmerman wrote that the woman plucked the wine from the cellar while returning from the restroom after dinner, and apparently claimed she thought guests were invited to sample cellar holdings freely. Very freely: According to Zimmerman, she drank 40 percent of the bottle.
The Woodinville restaurateur says replacing the bottle will run him $200 $2,000; 1927 was a storied year for Portuguese fortified wine. Read the whole sordid tale on his Twitter feed.
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Lists!
Two Seattle spots made this year’s list. Care to guess which ones?
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 12, 2011 at 07:56AM
Local restaurants deemed worthy of Wine Enthusiast’s list: Canlis and the Herbfarm.
Photo: winerychefs.com
The August 2011 issue of Wine Enthusiast features the magazine’s picks for the top 100 wine restaurants in the country.
The West Coast had a good show thanks to California—25 restaurants from that state made the list (including RN74, the San Fran wine bar with a new outpost in downtown Seattle. We know you’ll pull one out for us next year, RN74 Seattle.)
California even beat out New York, which had 21 restaurants on the list. (Slackers.)
Washington had two. Those are: Canlis in Seattle and the Herbfarm in Woodinville. Oregon matched that number: Portland City Grill and Beast—the name of the latter restaurant gained new significance after we watched chef-owner Naomi Pomeroy yell at her father on Top Chef Masters—were both included in the top 100. I’m just kidding about Naomi Pomeroy, by the way. I adored watching her on that show; she pumped much needed blood into an otherwise torpid season. Plus, I loved that a Northwest chef was the most assertive competitor this time around. How you like us now, America?
Anyway, go ahead and read the full list if you like.
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The Things You Learn on Twitter
The Woodinville eatery dabbles in James Bond’s drink.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 13, 2011 at 02:49PM
Vesper Lynd, as portrayed by Eva Green in the film adaptation of Casino Royale.
The vesper is one of those drinks that comes up again and again in the cocktail canon. It tastes good, for one, but is also captures our imagination with its origin story: it was invented in a James Bond novel from the 1950s, Casino Royale.
In the book, Bond orders a dry martini. This is how he asks the bartender to make it:
“Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.”
Later in the story he names the drink after one of his, um, ladies, Vesper Lynd.
Anyhow, The Herbfarm is serving a vesper tonight paired with smoked salmon-green garlic souffle. So if you have a reservation, bottoms up. But if you don’t, you can still try one. Any good Seattle bartender can, and will, make you a vesper, though not with Kina Lillet, as they don’t have any of that. Take a lesson from Toby Cecchini and ask for one with Cocchi Americano. (The Herbfarm, for its part, is using chardonnay and herbal infusions).
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