Tag Archives: Alfonso Cevola

Sofa King Tasty: a urban foodie’s tour of Dallas

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Italian Wine Guy and the Queen of Dallas Eats took me and Tracie B on a tour of urban Dallas last Saturday. It happened to be the 45th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination and there were a lot of folks gathered at the Grassy Knoll in a bizarre, carnivalesque commemoration (see Alfonso’s post here).

Above: one of the official slogans at the Twisted Root Burger Co. in Deep Ellum (Dallas). If the paronomasia isn’t immediately apparent, read it slowly and you will discover the pen is mightier than the sword.

Above: one of the “chef’s favorites” at the Twisted Root, the “Western Burger.” Top that with spicy bbq sauce and you’re in serious business, although, I must confess, I was still paying for my eating binge the next day! See the dog below…

Above: “Bleu cheese and Tangy Buffalo sauce” is one of the recommended dressings for the all-beef hot dog at the Twisted Root. Sofa king tasty…

Above: owner Quincy Hart on the mic, calling out orders on a busy Saturday. I can’t recommend this burger joint highly enough: the vibe of a restaurant is so important and Quincy’s schtick delivers belly-ache laughs along with great belly-bustin’ food. Lunch there was one of those “I’m officially having fun” moments.

Above: the Mozzarella Company is an old-school cheese monger that reminded me of my Brookalino days (minus the accent). In the pasta she made that night, Tracie B used some salt-less cow’s-milk mozzarella (as good as any I ever tasted in the old neighborhood in Brooklyn) and the next night we sampled its killer goat cheese aged in hoja santa leaves (leaves provided by Alfonso form his garden).

Above: no foodie’s tour of Dallas would be complete without a visit to the amazing and aptly named Tom Spicer, purveyor of some mighty fine farm-to-table produce and musician extraordinaire. I cannot begin to explain how his “Kalimbass” works… Click on the YouTube link to see the impromptu concert he gave us in his excellent and unique shop.

Amazing Amelia and the Tortillas del Rancho (Dallas)

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Above: tacos al pastor at Del Rancho in Garland (Dallas), Texas. Dora at Bahia Don Bravo in La Jolla will always hold a special place in my culinary heart but Amelia’s tortillas can’t be beat.

Tortillas del Rancho Restaurant
220 W. Kingsley Rd. #426
Ridgewood Shopping Center
Garland (Dallas), TX 75041
972-926-1550

Tracie B and I spent the weekend in Dallas hanging out with Italian Wine Guy and the Queen of Dallas Eats. Many great wines were opened (coming soon), fiorentine were grilled, many tall tales told, a Grassy Knoll was contemplated on the 45th anniversary of the somber and sobering day (was irony born that day or did it die?), and a grand time had by all.

Above: the kitchen at Tortillas del Rancho delivered deliciously lime-soaked and lightly fried cornmeal dough topped with gently piquant roast pork.

I am rushed today by a few deadlines but couldn’t resist posting about the amazing Amelia (one of my editors admonishes me for my love of alliteration but the allure of Amelia’s food is truly ambrosial).

Tortillas del Rancho has recently expanded with a new location and a new tortilleria.

*****

A famous example of alliteration (and anaphora when read in context):

    Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona
    (Love, which absolves no one beloved from loving)

    Inferno, 5, 103

That same canto gave Italian (and amorous) literature another one of its most memorable lines:

    Galeotto fu ‘l libro e chi lo scrisse
    (A Galeotto was the book and he that wrote it)

    ibid., 137

Maremma, part 3: drinking from the holy grails

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Ante scriptum: In keeping with a tradition established by Brooklynguy, a wine blogger whom I admire greatly, I feel obliged to make note of the fact that this is my 300th post. I can only echo his typically deadpan understatement, “It has been such a pleasure to write this blog, mostly because of the community of wine people it has given me access to.” Earlier this year, Vino al Vino and Do Bianchi launched a blog born through a virtual transatlantic conversation. Today, My Life Italian and Do Bianchi are driving up to Dallas from Austin to dine with Italian Wine Guy. There are truly remarkable people behind all of these URLs: Neil, Franco, Tracie B, and Alfonso are four people whose lives wouldn’t have intersected with mine if not for blogging, and there are so many others… I am truly thankful for all of them in my life…

*****

Above: Sebastiano Rosa (left) gave me a tour of the storied vineyards where the grapes of his family’s Sassicaia are produced.

My September pilgrimage to the Mecca of Super Tuscia (how’s that for a neologism?) would not have been complete without a visit to the holy grails of Super Tuscandom, Ornellaia and Sassicaia. These wines need no introduction and a click-through to their websites and a Google search will give you plenty of information on their illustrious history and their presence in the market today.

Above: I visited the famed Masseto vineyard, where Ornellaia grows its top Merlot grapes, just days before picking began. While others in the area had already begun to harvest their Merlot, Ornellaia extended hang time to achieve riper fruit and higher sugar levels.

I’ve tasted these wines a number of times over the years and although I am not a fan (nor can I afford to be), they are among the greatest — if not the greatest and most original — expressions of the genre: elegant terroir-driven wines, made with French varieties grown on Tuscan soil, structured and nuanced, long-lived and highly coveted in the market.

My visit to Sassicaia was impressive for how unassuming the facility is. Sebastiano Rosa, whose family owns the legendary estate, is a dude about my age who studied enology at UC Davis. He speaks English like a Californian (like me) and his family’s winery has remained virtually unchanged since the 19th century. There is no vaulted-ceiling entrance or grand tasting room. And aside from the introduction of stainless-steel, the winemaking facility and vinificiation practices are pretty much the same as they have been since the wine was first produced in the 1940s (and first released in 1968). I tasted with Sebastiano and then we drove up to see one of the growing sites. He is one of Italy’s top winemakers and produces one of its most sought-after wines. But he struck me as a mellow guy with whom I’d rather drink a beer and roll a taco…

Above: as Ornellaia’s vineyard manager, Leonardo Raspini oversees some of the most coveted growing sites in the world, producing wines that command top prices on the world wine market.

Ornellaia is the polar opposite: as you drive through manicured estate and arrive at the corporate offices and winery, you are keenly aware that every detail has been scripted to evoke the same opulence and prestige contained in each precious bottle.

Above: the aging room at Ornellaia is a temple of barrique.

If you’re traveling to Bolgheri, I cannot recommend a visit to Ornellaia highly enough. From the winery and vineyard tour to the elegant tasting cottage, this was simply one of the most enjoyable, user-friendly, and informative winery visits you can make. And unlike Sassicaia, the winery is open to the public: you must reserve in advance and they will customize the tasting according to your palate and your price point (Ornellaia possesses an extensive library of older vintages). He’s not always available but if possible, request vineyard manager Leonardo Raspini as your guide. I was blown away by his ability to convey the artistry of state-of-the-art winemaking technology and philosophy and I was thrilled to shake the hand of the guy who grows the grapes for the first Italian wine to be sold in the Place de Bordeaux.

This just in…

Sue me, Summus. The Italian news weekly L’Espresso reports that nearly 50% of Banfi’s 2003 Brunello has been declassified.

A great SF wine store, Georgian wine, and some interesting posts

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Above: the inimitable Ceri Smith, owner and creator of Biondivino, named San Francisco’s “best wine shop” by the San Francisco Gate the very day I visited her, and Chris Terrell, importer of intriguing Georgian wines.

When I was in San Francisco last week, I had the great pleasure to meet Ceri Smith, owner and creator of Biondivino and one of the top Italian wine experts in our country. Her encyclopedic knowledge of Italian wine simply blew me away and her store — however small — is one of the most delightful places on earth. She specializes in Italian wine but carries a few French, Slovenian, and Georgian labels. Her collection of Italian sparkling wine is probably the best in the country and she sells a few Champagnes as well. She was gracious enough to share a coveted bottle of Valentini 2001 Montepulciano d’Abbruzzo with me, one of her favorites, she said. A fantastic wine…

Above: I really liked Vinoterra’s Kisi, which should cost around $20 retail. Look at the beautiful color on that wine. Really great, oxidized, tasty, stinky stuff — the way I like it. It’s high time to take Georgian wine seriously.

We were also joined by importer Chris Terrell who specializes in Georgian wines. He had contacted me after he read my post on the war in Georgia. Chris first fell in love with Georgian wine when he biked through the Caucusus and tasted these amazing bottlings. We tasted through eight Georgian wines by two producers, each unique, surprising, and intriguing. I particularly liked the Kisi (an indigenous Georgian grape) by Vinoterra, aged in amphora. Vinoterra served as inspiration and model for the extreme wines of Gravner, which he began to age in amphora some years ago after he visited Vinoterra.

In other news…

Here are some top bloggers in my Google reader and some interesting posts I’ve read by them recently. As the saying goes, ubi major, minor cessat…

My good friend Alice Feiring just launched this New York Times blog about her experience making wine for the first time. I’m one of her biggest fans.

Dr. Vino by Tyler Colman is one of the most popular wine blogs in the U.S. and a leading resource for tasting notes, wine news and trivia. Tyler’s pièce de résistance is his research on the carbon footprint of wine. I was particularly impressed by this post in which he debunks the myth of Beaujolais Nouveau, “Boycott Beaujolais Nouveau”. It’s hard-hitting stuff and a must read.

Italian Wine Guy aka Alfonso Cevola, another good friend of mine, is hands-down the top Italian wine blogger in the U.S. This guy knows his stuff and his blog is a daily read for me. I love the way that Alfonso bends our genre, always pushing the envelope in ways that surprise and entertain me. His recent post on Luca Zaia’s “mommy blog” is one of his most daring and politically charged. Chapeau, Alfonso!

The Bartolo Mascarello-Che Guevara mystery resolved.

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Above: me and my friend, top Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola at Terroir in the East Village.

When in New York, do as New Yorkers do: go to a wine bah.

Making the most of my New York sojourn, I met up with top Italian wine blogger Alfonso Cevola the other night at Terroir — New York’s first self-proclaimed “punk rock” wine bar.

Owner Paul Grieco and I had finally exchanged emails about the Bartolo-Che mystery and he generously offered to give me a few tees to send to Maria Teresa Mascarello.

Here’s what Paul had to say (in email) about the Bartolo-Che photomontage:

    The image of Bartolo came off of the web and we did a little correction to make it pop from the shirt. The beret is actually Che’s from his famous/infamous t-shirt. If I had a picture of Bartolo in a beret I would have used it. The original idea for the shirts (and there are 4 more Terroir-ists to be featured) came from my son’s Che shirt. I began to wonder why there were not any cool wine shirts and paraphernalia.

I didn’t get a chance to chat with Paul that night (he was “in the weeds,” as they say in the biz) but one of the wait staff told me that Terroir will soon offer its customers an entire line of enopunk-inspired stickers. (Dare say, have I coined a neologism? Enopunk?)

Given the chance, I’d like to ask Paul why Terroir doesn’t offer Bartolo Mascarello on its growing list of terroir-driven wines. But I fear I know the reason: from what I hear, the importer doesn’t share Terroir’s anarchic spirit.

Food for thought: are enopunk stickers the future of wine writing?