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 And The Beat
Goes On
A Wine Tasting Garden Dinner at Le Café-Hot Food-Cool Live Jazz
If you have been following these pages for the last few
months, you will remember that I have been pounding the theme that right
now, there are just too many grapes being produced in Italy, France, U.S,
Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Chile to name a few, based on the
reduced buying power of today’s wine enthusiasts. The most recent and
obvious example took place in the Central Valley of California where the
farmers rebelled at a Gallo offer for bulk Thompson grapes. They claimed, and
probably with justification, that the price was 25% below the cost of
producing the grapes and bringing them to market. Of course, these same
growers must accept some responsibility for their continued rampant optimistic
overproduction.
 Obviously,
there are lots of attractive but nervous bottles of wine still on lots of
shelves waiting to be adopted and taken home, and the pressure mounts with
the coming harvests. Since vintners are generally horrified at any thought of
dropping prices to stimulate demand, they have their distributors into heavy
promotional campaigns with limited price stimulants, but with lots of wine
tastings.
This frenzy hit a Conejo peak on the weekend of
August 22-25. Within a radius of less than a mile from the intersection
of T.O. and Westlake Blvds, there were three very high profile wine
events. The first at Le Café was a combination of very serious
sit-down food and wine along with very serious live jazz, set in romantic garden
ambience. It is a monthly event that is worth considering for the future in
spite of its high perceived cost. Then there was a Saturday evening charity wine
and food event at Gardens of the World. On Sunday afternoon,
The Westlake Inn then sponsored its first Summer Wine Festival for charity
on the patio at Bogies and in the rear garden of Le Café
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| It may seem hard to swallow
but as noted, those monthly wine dinners at Le Café (generally 5
mini- courses with 5 different quality wines poured generously) are actually
a dining-ambience-entertainment bargain at $75 per person. Consider that the
deft hands of young tiger executive chef Robin Nishizaki prepare the very
sophisticated dishes. They are accompanied by the serious jazz-club quality
sounds of pianist Cliff Banta and bassist Snooky Brown along
with copious pourings of fine wine. |
Le Cafe Executive Chef Robin Nishizaki
working the first Westlake Inn Wine Festival.
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 It
may sound like hyperbole but the interplay of the above duo evoked thoughts
of Oscar Peterson and another Brown named Ray as Banta and
Brown riffed on the music of Duke Ellington, Antonio Carlos
Jobim, Luis Bonfa, among others and even threw in one of my all
time favorites, swing classic, Cherokee, made famous by venerable
jazz alto saxophonist and band leader Charlie Barnet. It all combined to
provide an wonderful evening of multi-faceted enjoyment. In the first few
dinners, the food portions were too generous and most people were done
eating after two courses. This destroyed the entire idea of a tasting menu.
But now all the portions are manageable. Diners now feel satisfied but not
stuffed.
Since the menu changes each time, there is not much
point to reviewing the recent dishes. However it is worth reporting that the
plates featured as the prime ingredients, Manila clams, Dungeness crab
risotto, Muscovy duck, Ahi tuna and a large plate of assorted premium
domestic and imported cheese as the finisher. Each plate was perfectly
prepared and designed to tantalize even the sophisticated palates of those
previously seduced by the tasting menus at Jean George, Babbo, Aubergine,
Boyer and Valentino. Premium wines served were Cakebread
Sauvignon Blanc, Acacia Chardonnay, Kenwood Pinot Noir,
Kempton Clark Zinfandel, and Penfold of Australia Cabernet
Sauvignon.
| If you are ‘gauche” enough to do the math, you may be in
for a very big surprise. Figure the wines above at a very conservative
$9 a very full glass and the entertainment value of 2 ˝ hours of very
high grade jazz music at an insulting (to the musicians) $15. Without
even bothering with the computer, you come up with a cost for the dinner
of an enigmatic $15. Of course, this is all plus tax and tip. |
Cliff Banta and Snooky Brown
deliver high quality jazz at monthly Le Cafe wine dinners.
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By now you should have solved that enigma. Your
friendly and altruistic local wine distributor has subsidized this event
with some hope of selling wine to you through local wine purveyors such as
Conejo Wine. And…. there were some worthwhile buys. I particularly
liked the Acacia Chardonnay enough to order a case.You are, however, placed
under no pressure.
Le Café
32037 Agoura Road Westlake Village 818-889-9105
Most Credit Cards
Plenty of Convenient Self Parking Space |
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