Filet mignon & smoked shortrib.

I’ll admit it.  A truly terrible experience with a nasty bartender at Liberty Tavern when it was still relatively new made it less likely that I’d ever want to eat there.  Eventually, Liberty Tavern opened Northside Social and Lyon Hall. So, I figured it was time to give the restaurant group a chance again and I tried Lyon Hall (a while back when they had an event for food writers) and I’m a regular at Northside Social.

But, I’m not a fan of food that I think is more upscale and pretty than good, and that is the impression I get from that restaurant group (except for the desserts). I had sampled one good dessert at Lyon Hall at that point, some sort of chocolate cheesecake hybrid. The baked goods at Northside are really good and in my opinion, and much better than the food. I would have even cut Northside some slack on the food and say they aren’t a restaurant but a wine bar (although I was not happy with the two wines I tried there) and a (very good) coffeehouse, but when an employee told me I couldn’t use my laptop upstairs , she told me “it’s a restaurant” and that they want to keep the “restaurant feel” upstairs.

Dessert Tasting.

So, is that the end of the Lyon Hall story? I certainly wasn’t putting it at the top of the list to return to.  But, Lyon hall then had a twitter contest for tickets to the following wine dinner and I won so gave the restaurant another shot:

Winemaker Dinner: Chateau Rivalerie

Lyon Hall is honored to host a winemaker dinner with Jerome Bonacorcie from Chateau Rivalerie in Blaye, Bordeaux. Together, we will taste ten vintages of Rivalerie’s signature red Bordeaux blend 1995-2005. All ten tastes will be paired with a small bite created by Chef Liam LaCivita. ($50 per person plus tax and gratuity.)

I knew that they recently had farm dinners, one featuring pork, and one featuring strawberries, and was curious, and now had tickets, so CAF and I attended.

Strawberry rhubarb almond cake with vanilla yogurt sorbet from the regular menu.

There were 2 dishes per course, paired with two (red) wines from Bordeaux‘s Chateau Rivalerie. Both Rivalerie’s vintner (Jerome Bonacorcie) and distributer were present, the former of which walked us through the dinner with wonderful commentary about the vintages we were trying, including describing what the weather was like during the years in question, and how it affected the wine.  One of Jerome’s wines is the house red at Lyon Hall ($10 a glass).

The menu (and vintages of the red Bordeaux pairings):

• Scallop & foie gras (1996, 1997):  Scallop crudo/Bordeaux gelee/peppercorns & seared foie gras/poached rhubarb.  Seared seems to be the only way I like foie gras, so this dish worked for me.  The rhubarb was close to flavorless, so was the weak point of the dish.

• Veal “carpaccio” & veal confit (1998, 1999): Foie Gras sabayon/olives/Bordeaux poached white asparagus & morel froth/ramps.  You already know how I feel about non-seared foie gras.  I didn’t taste the Bordeaux on the asparagus.  They had to not include the morels (since I’m allergic to mushrooms).  Still, a good dish.

• Lamb chop & braised lamb shoulder (2000, 2001): Pistachio pistou/ash ripen chevre & roasted garlic chevre/favas.  My lamb chop was unfortunately cooked less than that of other diners, but the lamb shoulder was one of my two favorite things that evening and was paired (with wine) well.

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  Scallop & foie gras.

  Filet Mignon & smoked shortrib (2002, 2003):  Bordelaise sauce & gribiche/Spring vegetable salad.  This was my favorite plate (and wine pairing) of the evening, with the shortrib being my favorite component (and the lamb shoulder being the second).

• Dessert Tasting (2004 & 2005 (with the desserts), 2006 (at end of meal)):   Blackberry napolean and soft chocolate ganache.  The chocolate ganache was smooth, rich, delicate, and had a deep chocolate flavor.   The Blackberry napolean was tasty and was peppery.  Both desserts were very good.

CAF can’t eat chocolate, so when one of the cooks (who I happen to be friends with) came to see how we were doing at the end of the meal, found out about the allergy, and did a very sweet thing by giving us a strawberry rhubarb almond cake with vanilla yogurt sorbet (from the normal menu ($8)); that particular dessert had many components (including strawberry maracons) and was very good.

Room for improvement (I’m sure this is all being taken care of since one of the chefs asked me for feedback):

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  Lamb chop and braised lamb shoulder.

  We checked in at front 10 minutes early, but they never came to get us when they started seating the group. We had to ask them if they were ready, so we were one of the lats tables seated.

• When we checked back regarding being seated, one hostess was seating people upstairs, and the other was on the phone, so there was a further lag in seating.

• There was lag between courses at certain points, and it as particularly bad at one point.

• Due to food allergies there were a couple of people who asked for the exclusion of mushrooms (ok, one was me) and one who asked for the exclusion of nuts. They would have delivered the dishes that didn’t have mushrooms to the wrong couple (if that couple hadn’t have noticed) and they gave a dish with nuts (a pistachio pisto) to a woman with a nut allergy. Nut allergies are particularly dangerous, so this could have been a real problem.

• There was a typo on the (event) menu and the desserts weren’t listed and described (as the other items were).

The dinner was well-executed and well worth the $50 price tag, especially when you count all the wine pairings.  They do seem to excel at desserts (even on their regular menu) which shouldn’t be surprising since Northside Social (as I mentioned) also excels at desserts (baked goods).

-JAY

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