By Zach Ortenzio

We arrived at the restaurant and were told that Saturday night was buffet night, so we should look at the buffet and then decide if we wanted to select that option or request a menu. After looking at the buffet the four of us decided to order from the menu. We looked at the appetizers and did not find any that looked appealing. For our main courses two ordered the Crab Cakes that came with two side dishes, one ordered the Flounder stuffed with crab meat and topped with a cream sauce over garlic mushroom risotto with no side dish and the other ordered the Chicken Carbonara with one side dish.

I will speak to the main courses and then the side dishes. The crab cakes did not have a lot of filler, but they also had very little if any taste. The Chicken Carbonara had a cloying aftertaste. Surprisingly, the Stuffed Flounder was very good. But it was given extra care because the first plate had slipped off the edge of an overloaded tray and crashed to the floor! For side dishes we had french fries, which were very good, two Caesar salads and a Citrus Spinach salad. The lettuce on the Caesar salads was fresh, unfortunately, the croutons and the Caesar salad dressing appeared to have been purchased at your local grocery store. The spinach salad was a large bowl of stemmy spinach heavily coated with oil and with slices of one large strawberry, a few pieces of canned mandarin oranges and, if you searched closely, a few shreds of candied pecans. We did not even consider dessert.

I titled this article “How Wine Saved The Meal” because we brought three whites: a California Sauvignon Blanc, a Sancerre from
France’s Loire Valley, and a Sauvignon Bianco from Alto Adige, Italy. We also brought two reds: a Pinot Noir from California and a Pinot Nero from Alto Adige, Italy. The white wines added a freshness and citrus flavors that woke up the three, to put it kindly, boring meals and they enhanced the Stuffed Flounder. The Pinots with their berry aromas were a welcome contrast to the citrus notes of the whites. Having any wine would have enhanced these meals, but ours were fortunately fine examples!

National Wine Day January 1 – December 31 (just to make you smile!)