Bam and I ran into another poster at GW Fins for the wine dinner last night. They were generous with the Twomey wines and a little more conservative with the Silver Oak but there was definitely enough to go around.
The dinner itself was very good. The grilled shrimp in the first course were excellent. The scallop and pork belly second course was wonderful. The sablefish course reminded me of something you would get at Stella! I loved it, especially the Peking Duck dumplings which I could have eaten my weight in. The fourth course was boursin stuffed veal tenderloin which was very tender and perfectly cooked. Loved the morel mushrooms with that.
We were seated at a table for 8 people and had a good group of conservatives to chat with.
Where did you go and how was it? I definitely want to hear from anyone who went to Commander's!
“I'm sure when Peyton Manning was growing up he always wanted to throw the TD pass that gave the Saints a Super Bowl win," Jorge Arangure wrote. "Now he has."
Commander's was great, just a very neat atmosphere. Little one bite lump crab with champagne in the garden to start as a greet and meet period. The pepper sauce oyster w/ghost pepper caviar. The whole party was taken through the kitchen to the upstairs Garden Room. The vichyssoise was outstanding, for some reason cool soups do not sell well in NO, even though it seems a perfect place for it. Yellow fin couchon de lait, rare and really good, man tuna and bacon. Squab was nice but the antelope steak was better. There was a huge amount of food and wine. The wine flowed very freely with the winemakers who wanted everyone to drink the 06 and 07 pinot side by side because of the drastic different weather conditions between the two on the same grapes. Everyone toasted and was toasted by the end, I had to get up early the next morning, and go find my car. I found all the wines perfectly paired to the food.
We had a great time at Antoines with the folks from Trinchero winery. They were not selfish with the wine at all. It kind of suprised me at how much wine they were pouring. The best of the wines to me was the 2007 meritage.
We had a friend who knew Charles the waiter very well, so he may have taken a little extra care of us. We def. enjoyed the extensive tour of the whole restaurant he gave us after the meal.
Below is the food list. The very good dishes were the shrimp canapes, cheese cake, and the soup. I thought the lobster thermidor was quite dry and the quail was kind of a pain to eat, but that is probably just me being dumb. I still don't get the love for souffle potatoes.
Soufflé Potatoes and Shrimp Canapés passed
*
Oyster Artichoke Dressing
With bacon and mushrooms served over a breaded artichoke bottom with horseradish sauce, and a
spicy Bloody Mary oyster shooter on the side.
*
Tomato, Basil, Green Bean Soup with Andouille Sausage*
Roasted Semi deboned Free Range Quail
Served on dirty rice with a Madeira wine sauce
*
Lobster Thermidor
Served in a Puff Pastry
*
Antoine’s Cheesecake
With a Vanilla Rum Blueberry Sauce
