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DB Bistro Moderne

My favorite chef for savory, full-flavored, creative, soulful food is Chef Olivier Müller, a young, 30 something fellow who apprenticed under Daniel Boulud, and runs Daniel’s modern bistro in NYC. This fabulous cuisine is loaded with flavor, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. His extraordinary lamb ragout with homemade orecchiette pasta, the Nantucket Bay scallops, and the escargot & chicken oyster fricassee were to die for. Moreover, the DB Burger Royale stuffed with black truffles in season as well as foie gras and short ribs is the greatest hamburger in the world. It is an American classic with a French inspiration.

As for the wines, the dense purple-colored 2003 Chapoutier Ermitage l’Ermite was totally closed. It tasted like liquid stones and blackberries, but it was so backward and tannic that it was unapproachable. It was stupid of me to bring a bottle and try and coax something out of it. More developed, rich, full-bodied, and Provençal was the 2003 Mon Aieul Châteauneuf du Pape. This sensational wine is consistently great, no matter when I have it.

More articles from this author

Petit Louis Bistro

From Gourmet

A lookalike, authentic French bistro, Petit Louis in Baltimore's Roland Park is the creation of restauranteurs par excellence Cindy Wolf and Tony Foreman. You feel like you’ve walked into a bistro on the Left Bank of Paris when you enter Petit Louis. The food is classic bistro, and they do it well. All of the courses we had were flavorful, sometimes a trifle rustic, but delicious in their intensity. This was good comfort food prepared extremely well. The wines started with one of the major surprises for me over the last year, the 2006 sparking wine from Tony Soter in Oregon. I had this several times while I was out visiting Oregon, and I had always been impressed, but this is a 10-year-old sparking Rosé that is just sensational, and I’m talking world class—it’s that good. Something this good from France would cost at least two to three times as much, so kudos to Tony Soter. The 1995 Billaud-Simon Chablis Mont de Milieu was oxidized and undrinkable. The 1996 Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Clos St. Urbain Rangen de Thann was sweet, and although it went well with the foie gras, it was just a little too unctuous and sweet a wine...

La Toque - Cheval Blanc Dinner

From Gourmet

This was a spectacular night of fabulous food at La Toque in Napa, California. Every course was right on target, and we had the joy of hosting Château Cheval Blanc’s administrator Pierre Lurton for this night with Wine Advocate subscribers.
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