Food I think I'm going to get to meet David Burke next month.

One of the restaurants in the suburbs is having a private dinner for members of their wine club. There are only 100 available spaces, first come first served. The menu for the night was put together by David Burke, and he's supposed to do some food prep demonstrations for the group, hand out a copy of his cookbook, and there is supposed to be a meet and greet.

It just so happens that my parents are members of the wine club there, and my mom let me know about the event because she knows I'm a David Burke fan. So today she reserved spots for us to go.

I'm psyched.

Here is a link to the menu:
https://coopershawkwinery.com/public/downloads/menus/upcomingevents/friends-of-coopers-hawk-featuring-chef-david-burke.pdf

 

OMG, so jealous. So, so jealous.

 

Tonight is the dinner with David Burke.

 

hmmm... I think I'm going to have to go to one of his restaurants here in NYC.

 

Just got to talk with David in the bar. Very friendly guy.

 

View of the dining room and view from our table:

 

How's the wine there? It looks like they specialize in being négociants. Nothing wrong with that--I've had some excellent wines from négociants. I'm just curious since they seem to be a chain operation, which is a weird concept to me, since I live in the middle of wine country. You've been to one of our (if not the) biggest producers. It's a completely different model here, so I have a hard time understanding their model.

 

It's good, better than most around here. But not like out there. You guys are spoiled. I'll explain more later.

Presentation was awesome. So was the first course.

 

Second course:

 

Main course:

 

Dessert:





The second pic is a cheesecake lollipop tree.

 

Very cool night. . I got to talk to him quite a bit through the evening. At one point we talked about our BGEs. At the end of the night he was signing complimentary cookbooks for anyone who wanted one. He saw me and wrote 'To Borla, the Eggman'.

 

Here is a little more on this, since I promised to add more detail.

1) It has grown into a chain, but it was opened in 2005 by a local (to me) family when the owner was about 28. Now there are 12 locations, almost all in the Midwest. The owner and CEO is now 36 and I got to talk to him for a bit last night. His bio is on the Cooper's Hawk website, but he was telling us stories of opening the first one and going there after his other job, painting walls and doing remodeling work himself with his family. He was a very friendly and down to earth guy.

2) The wine here in the Midwest is mediocre at best IMO. There are a handful of decent wineries, and they are all négociants in my experience. The growing season here just isn't right for good wine grapes. Too short of a cool season, too long of a hot season, to dry and/or inconsistent of a hot season, etc. So most of the places that produce good wine import all of their grapes. The best ones (again, just in my experience) import the grape clusters completely unprocessed. They usually come from California, Oregon, or South America. At the best places the winemakers travel out to the vineyards and select grapes themselves. After that the process is the same as anywhere else. Some of the wine they make is very solid. I've had a couple wines that were really good. Most of the wine is just ok. However, considering it is the only local option, it is better than nothing.





3) The Cooper's Hawk wines usually fall into the "ok to solid" category for me. Most of their regular wines are ok, most of their 'lux' wines are solid. Starting about two years ago they came out with an Anniversary line that they only sell one month a year. I bought a few bottles of the first vintage and opened it a couple months ago and it was really good, better than anything I've had from them. The appeal for a place like this is that the food can be very good, and it's really one of the only options around for locally made wine served with fine dining. It's a niche market, and they fill it well. They do some special events (like last night's) that help put them over the top and/or keep people coming back.

 

I responded to one of his tweets last night and he sent me a message back today saying he remembered our chats about the BGE.