Friday, January 20, 2011.
Grazing At The Wine Loft.
My past three evenings have been full with major dinners, each of which caused me to arrive home at midnight. There was a time when I'd laugh when people asked me how I could stand doing this every night. And I did do it every night, back then. Now I can see their point. I'm tired. Not mentally--I still look forward to every significant meal. But physically.
So the radio program originated from home on this amazingly nice day. This is winter? It went up to 77 degrees at the Cool Water Ranch, and was barely below 70 at night.
I skipped lunch completely and looked forward to dinner. A few weeks ago, the owner of the Wine Loft in Mandeville was on the show. It's in the Chenier mall with Carmelo and Bistro Byronz. My impression was that it was primarily a bar. Clark Johnson, the owner, was on the radio show with me some weeks ago, and he disabused me of that error. His food menu indeed goes far beyond bar snacks, well into the range of dinner.
A light supper along those lines was just what Mary Ann and I wanted. We were among the first of the Wine Loft's evening crowd as we took the sofa in the corner. If the Wine Loft has any standard tables, I didn't see them. Several other islands of sofas and chairs occupied the floor, with a big bar and a long, bar-like table with stools in the center.
A couple of televisions were on behind the bar--sports, of course. The music was what radio programmers used to call AOR: all over the road. Soft rock, followed by light country, then Sinatra. A very long song by Queen preceded one or two more tunes from that era. Mary Ann, who rarely pays any attention to background music, said "If they keep playing that Eighties rock, I vote to leave!" For me, there is no such thing as background music. I'm always aware of what's playing, even when it's nearly inaudible. One thing I know is that if you try to play the favorite tunes for every demographic group, you wind up playing everybody's least favorite songs.
Two glasses of wine arrived: a Malbec for me, a Pinot Grigio for MA. That's her favorite varietal, but she didn't like this one. I tasted it and got a little oxidation out of the flavor. That actually appeals to me, but not to many other people. I asked whether the bottle had been open awhile. The waiter said it was uncorked earlier that day. So that wasn't the explanation. He did offer to bring another wine, but Mary Ann only drinks wine to humor me. She shifted for the rest of the night to her favorite beverage: water.
The first food was a pair of skewers generously crammed with shrimp, filet mignon chunks, onions, mushrooms, and peppers, slathered with a sweet-and-savory sauce, atop a small salad. MA liked the shrimp and peppers, and left the steak for me. It tasted okay, but the pieces were too big and a little too firm to eat comfortably. We were sitting on a sofa and eating from a coffee table, after all, and it was hard to bring a knife to bear.
Next came a plate of artisan cheeses. These artisans seem to have been trying to duplicate the flavors and textures of supermarket specialty cheeses. Not Swiss or cheddar, but nothing exceptional. They need to give this a lot more attention if they're going to charge $14 for it.
But never mind. I went into my second glass of wine--Zichichi Cabernet--to balance off the fromage ordinaire. MA and I ruminated on our proposed anniversary cruise in three weeks. The fares have continued to go up, even as more deceased passengers are pulled daily from the sinking Costa Concordia. They are now $600 higher than when we first looked a week ago. I'm game. MA goes back and forth on the idea.
We also studied the other customers. Our initial guess was that they would prove to be a good deal younger than we are. That's all right. Young people need a place to go, too. But folks who were as paunchy, greying, balding, and sagging as we are kept coming in, too. The hot spot seemed to be that long table in the middle. The Wine Loft does have a clientele.
Next food was crostini topped with wild mushrooms, truffle oil, and cheese. I imagined crusty bread with firm, offbeat, earthy, sexy mushrooms in a sort of buttery, stocky sauce. What came out was sort of a duxelles, chopped up into nearly a paste, spread on slices of French bread. Unlike the previous food, this was actually dreadful.
We didn't have to pay for it, though. Friday is Couples Night at the Wine Loft. You get a free appetizer and ten percent off the bill. Somehow, despite that, we were surprised and disappointed. We thought this would be a great new place for nights when we wanted to eat less than, say, the full dinner that Carmelo would all but require us to eat. Instead, it was what you find in cities that don't take food seriously. But that's also true of Bistro Byronz next door, and that's packed all the time.
Wine Loft. Mandeville: 1901 Hwy 190. 985-674-5988.
