Dozen Best NOW&FE Wine Dinners:
Cafe B, Robert Mondavi Wines
The dinner Chef Chris Montero has for those shopping the NOW&FE Vintner Dinners is a blast from the past. First in terms of price. This one is $80 inclusive, in a year when most of the dinners have shot well past $100. Second, it presents the wines of Robert Mondavi, which since the passing of the man himself has not held the spotlight it once did. (Although they remain a solid standard for Napa wine.)
For the dinner, Chef Chris brought in the best dish in his current crawfish menu, the wonderful crawfish spring rolls. I expect that the lamb dish will also melt in the mouth.
Amuse Bouche
Wine: Ruffino, Prosecco, Italy, NV
Crawfish Spring Rolls
Wine: Robert Mondavi, Napa Valley, Fume blanc, 2010
Red Snapper with Louisiana Blue Crab
Wine: Robert Mondavi, Napa Valley, Chardonnay, 2010
Braised Spring Lamb
Wine: Robert Mondavi, Oakville, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Chocolate Doberge with Citrus Anglaise
Wine: Inniskillin, Icewine, 2007
The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 22, like all the other NOW&FE dinners. The price is $80 inclusive. Reservations are essential at the number below. I've selected twelve of the menus as the ones most likely to be the best, from the field of thirty-eight. They will appear in this space, in no particular order, every day until the big night. Left out: dinners that are already booked up (!), and those that didn't publish their menus on the NOW&FE website.
Cafe B. Old Metairie: 2700 Metairie Road. 504-934-4700. www.cafeb.com.
Restaurants or organizations with upcoming special events are invited to submit their details to this free department at news@nomenu.com.
