The weekend of April 26-27 is out for me and a few others from the cru who are headed to Chicago. Shall we drink some wine in April?

PH

We shall. We're in - 4/11/08 is out for us though.

Looks like the weekend of the 19-20th gives us the most time to work on details. Looks like at least 3 for April, sarbuze....

PH

Tentative, us, for all but April 11, 24-on.

I do believe I can do 4/19-20. In-laws are there that weekend. I need an excuse to get away.

After missing out on last weekend's festivities, as well as being generally absent for the past couple of months, I'd really like to make this one. Depending on the date, put me down!

Shall we say April 19, 2008?

Venue? Theme?

I can't comment on Venue (again, our row house won't accommodate a sit down meal) but I nominate German Riesling as a theme. It's warming up out, white wines might be fun!

Or we could try our luck with Argentina and do a BBQ?

Just a few ideas!

I nominate the Loire.

German Riesling is good. White Burgundy is another possibility. Or a 1982 White Hermitage horizontal could work....

PH

quote:

Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
German Riesling is good. White Burgundy is another possibility. Or a 1982 White Hermitage horizontal could work....

PH

Sounds great, I'll bring the Champagne!

And jfoobar: Loire would be interesting as well!

Oh Hermitage is sooo Rhone - Le Montrachet would be sooo much better ($$$).

I'd second the Argentine thing, and try to tweek it to high-end malbecs; very good with steak with a sword through it.

The riesling thing also sounds nice (I luv upstream Mosels), but you're right - I can't image wrapping a meal around it [apples und schnitzel?]...we could get crab cakes from Lexington Market...

I'm out, golfing the weekend of the 19-20.

Hope to catch you all again in May!

We don't have the luxury of a lot of prep time for this one, boys and girls. 2 weeks. We need a location and theme. How's about start with German Riesling and finish with South American reds? Kind of an ODESSA offline...

PH

I haven't been here, but it's BYO and the menu looks OK:
http://darkerthanbluecafe.com/

If there's interest, Kim and I could go there for dinner this weekend to see if the food's any good. If it's good, we could talk to them about hosting our group.


As far as theme, Riesling and Malbec would be fun.

If you guys are doing it on the 19th, I hope your theme is Kosher wine, that is Passover you know.

quote:

Originally posted by sarbuze:
I haven't been here, but it's BYO and the menu looks OK:
http://darkerthanbluecafe.com/

If there's interest, Kim and I could go there for dinner this weekend to see if the food's any good. If it's good, we could talk to them about hosting our group.


As far as theme, Riesling and Malbec would be fun.

The menu looks good, sarbuze. Let us know if you guys check it out. I'm thinking either the coconut shrimp, stuffed shrimp, crab cakes or curry chicken skewer with the Riesling and the dry rubbed baby backs with some Malbec. Yum.

PH

This message has been edited. Last edited by: PurpleHaze,

quote:

Originally posted by PurpleHaze:
The menu looks good, sarbuze. Let us know if you guys check it out. I'm thinking either the coconut shrimp, stuffed shrimp, crab cakes or curry chicken skewer with the Riesling and the dry rubbed baby backs with some Malbec. Yum.
PH

We're going for dinner tomorrow night (if anyone wants to join us you're welcome to). Maybe I'll take a Riesling and a Malbec to do a proper evaluation!

Just got home a few minutes ago from our dinner at Darker Than Blue. The food was very good- down home cooking. Service was slow at the start of the meal (very busy) but got better as the meal progressed. The blues/jazz music in the background was a great pairing with the food! Overall, I'd recommend it as a place for dinner or a small wine tasting (6-8 people) but for our types of tastings, this isn't the place. The dining area isn't very large and is pretty loud. Another turn off from the wine tasting perspective is the glade plug-in scent that took a bit of time to get over.

For those in the area, it's worth checking out. The Chef/owner came around and talked to everyone in there like they were old friends (including us) and the rest of the staff were very friendly and welcming. It's a bit off the beaten path (on the same block as a bail-bonds/check cashing store) but we were very happy with the food. The crab cake appetizer was good, the cornbread was outstanding, the BBQ Ribs were very good, and the fried chicken (Kim's entree!) was also great. One nice thing: the meal was onl $75 (app, 2 entrees, dessert, no corkage fee, including 25% gratuity) and we have enough left-overs for a big dinner tomorrow!

So now's a good time for other options!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sarbuze,

Hmmm, too bad! A stab at closer this way....We ate at a little bistro et wine bar in upper Georgetown last week, that indicated they could entertain a cru (of up to 14) called Bistrot leptic & Wine Bar {WWW.BISTROTLEPIC.COM].
Glad to contact, but it would be good (for me) to talk to prior arrangers, to get what we want.

Doing wine dinners in DC proper is easy, there are lots and lots of places that will accomodate corkage. There are even places that will be glad to negotiate a fixed price to include a certain number of courses, tax, tip, and corkage all in one. PH was at one of those dinners several years ago with Jake and me.

There are also lots of places that have free or reduced corkage on certain nights (usually Sun-Wed.) and the VC DC Crü has had many a dinner where the corkage fee was waived or greatly reduced for us. If you want a list of places that we've used, let me know.

Bad news from Baltimore: Kim and I can't make it that weekend anymore (work stuff came up and threw our whole month off).

We look forward to May!

With the Chicago event already on the schedule, I must pass. Looking forward to May

I'm out. At least from an organizational standpoint. If anything comes up for the 19th, I'll try to attend. Between Chicago and my other obligations, I'm pretty maxed out this month.

PH

Me too (out)! Deck off

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Jace,

Donna and I would be out for May 31.