Crisp, White Wine on a Hot Tuesday Night

Tonight, Mandy and I finally got the chance to keep a months-old dinner date at our favorite place, Sonoma. This wine bar in Capitol Hill holds a special place in our hearts as the site of, now, two, long, wine-soaked, girl-bonding evenings. I hope everyone out there has a place like this of their very own!

The Wine:
Now, I fully admit my notes on the back of my Studio Theatre ticket stub from several nights ago got all smudged in my wallet. But I'll try to report here what wines we sipped.

First off, at the upstairs bar, we went for a bottle of the Cantina Terlan "Terlaner", a blend of reisling and sauvignon blanc. This was listed in the "light, crisp and refreshing whites" section of the menu, and it was the perfect thing to have on such a hot night. And the a/c on the upstairs bar was broken, so this particular wine helped us keep cool and refreshed in the ridiculous heat.

Once we made our way to our table in the air conditioned downstairs, Mandy switched to the allegrini soave classico, which she really liked. I moved on to the verdicchio, which was also crisp and refreshing. That gives us a count of 4 glasses of wine each. Score! ;-)


The Food:
We began the evening upstairs with a two-cheese plate. We selected one of the goat cheeses and one of the cheddars, which came out with some toasted bread and a red wine sauce. Deelish! I admit that once we ran out of bread, we both finished off the cheese using just our little cheese knives. And there may or may not have been dipping of the cheese-covered knives in the red wine sauce.

Once at our table, we made the very difficult decision on which way to proceed food-wise. Mandy went first for the beet salad. I am glad that she respected my fear and loathing of all things beet-related (only slightly less intense than my absolute fear and loathing of olives) and didn't make me try it, but she assured me the salad was excellent. I had the Mendocino Salad, which was basically the house greens with a tasty dijon vinaigrette.

From there, we moved on to the main course. Mandy went for the tasty corn risotto, and I continued my gourmet pizza theme for this week (had it for lunch yesterday) with a create-your-own concoction of deliciousness: red sauce, goat cheese, sauteed spinach, and forest mushrooms. I wanted to lick the plate.

Then... dessert! Mandy had the vanilla custard/flan option (I can't remember what it was called) and it looked very pretty on the plate. And it jiggled! She must've hated it, cuz there was none left at all after just a few minutes. :-) I had the berries-and-cream dessert, and it was so fresh and tasty I almost wanted to weep.

The People:
A big shout out goes to the hostess, who gave us the tip on waiting upstairs at the bar while we waited for a table to open up. She'd told us it was an hour wait, but within just 1/2 an hour she came up to find us to let us know we could now be seated in the A/C. She was friendly and helpful when she didn't have to be. Rock on.

And while a part of us really hoped that the bartender, Mick, who we'd had such a great time with after Christmas would be there (go ahead, you know you want to search the archives), it was okay that he wasn't. We had a great time shooting the breeze - well, really, trying to create a breeze with our menus - and comparing mullet stories with cute, snarky, vegetarian bartender Jared, who was sweltering up in the non-A/C-ed upstairs bar.

The Conversation:
What can I say? The best part of the "friend date" is the conversation. We talked about everything - jobs, relationships, outlooks on the world - and were able to share our real joys, fears, anxieties, and amusements. If I *remember* them, there are lots of good potential blog posts that could come out of this marathon of girl talk. Good times!

PS - Mandy, I lost one of my earrings tonight! If you happen to find a gold hoop with a bead on it in your car, hang onto it for me! :-)