Brad's Montreal Odyssey -- Day Eight, 17 Avril 2013

The eighth of the daily blogs, featuring food and drink, from Montreal!

Last day, always kind of melancholy. But lots to do.
More wonderful cafe au lait and almond croissants, this time with fresh-squeezed orange juice, at the Brulerie St. Denis then off to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
I spent a lot time there and didn't see some of what I wanted to, such as the design collections and Asian art. What I saw was pretty good, including paintings from Matisse, Rembrandt, Monet and Brueghel the Younger, a Calder mobile, sculpture by Henry Moore and Rodin, a good Napoleon exhibit and a dazzling display of old-master drawings from Bernini, Tiepolo, Fragonard and Brueghel the Elder. And all free, too.
Lunch was at the museum's cafeteria, which was a good if strange whitefish-and-artichoke sandwich on tasty black bread. I had tomato juice, advertised as specifically Canadian which was intriguing and was fine, sparkling water and a very good maple-syrup cake. Recommended if you're in the museum and want to save time on lunch.
I then went to one of the province's "signature" liquor stores to look around and was dazzled as a wine geek. Five magnums of Latour, all from different vintages. Every first growth Bordeaux in multiple vintages. D'Yquem in all kinds of vintages in every format. Imperials of vintage Champagane. Mouton Rothschild's marc. Every great Burgundy name (except for DRC) such as Vogue, Roumier, Jayer, Leflaive, Leroy, etc., every Grand Cru red or white. Alsace, Port, Italy, the Loire, all the best vineyards and Crus. Top California wines. It was amazing.
No purchases there -- are you kidding? -- and went on to the free night at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art. Their collection and exhibits were a little disappointing; a large exhibit of Quebecois abstraction was colorful and well-crafted but very derivative; you went to painting after painting and just called out the influences: 'Pollock. Newman. Rothko. Motherwell. Kline.'
They did have a great film by the Swiss artist David Weiss called "The Way Things Go" which is 30 minutes of the world's biggest Rube Goldberg contraption and highly worth watching. That alone was worth the trip to the museum..
Dinner plans called for me to go back near my hotel because I wanted to hear the jazz band at Diese Onze. I had seen a sign outside an average-looking bar on Rue St.-Denis called Brasserie Cherrier advertising Alsatian cuisine at very fair prices. I'd be craving choucroute garnie lately, so off I went.
The situation was a bit unusual. Brasserie Cherrier is your average neighborhood bar where locals of all ages (18 to 65 or older, from what I saw) come to play pool, drink Molson and watch the Canadiens, who were losing to Pittsburgh this night. The place looks like just what it is.
But inside the bar was a restaurant, Restaurant Flamme, run in theory independently from the bar. The bar man brings you your drinks and you pay him for those; the waiter, in my case a chef moonlighting because they didn't have anyone else, handles the food.
The wine list had seven wines, all available by the glass, three whites, three reds and a rose. Two of the whites were Alsatian -- Willm's 2010 Riesling and 2011 Pinot Blanc -- which seemed like a nice coincidence until the waiter told me that the bar man had changed his wines to help the chef out. So the operations, while independent, look out for the others' interests.
The menu had bar snacks (they cook the nacho chips to order for each other), burgers (they grind the meat to order), the wonderful Alsatian snack pie called flammekueche (which I saw rolled to order as a pizza man would toss dough to order) and some other Alsatian mains with sausage, chicken or pork.
I ordered the choucroute ($15), which, for $4 more, was turned into a meal with soup, dessert and coffee.
I started with a glass of rose, a 2011 Lamura Casa Girelli from Sicily, which had a strawberry nose, a lovely deep-pinkish color, and all kinds of sun-splashed fruit on the palate, with a wash of acidity at the finish. A lovely aperitif and good with strongly-flavored salads, fish, or poultry.
The meal was a true bargain. The soup was a minestrone much like a Philadelphia friend makes, bursting with fresh veggie flavor in a tasty, homemade stock. The choucroute was enormous - a massive pile of well-flavored sauerkraut and two boiled potatoes with slabs of Canadian bacon (of course), regular bacon, and pork shoulder plus a frankfurter of high quality and a big link of fresh, chunky, spicy pork sausage. Filling and flavorful.
Dessert was a lemony pound cake with creme anglaise, light and refreshing., Coffee was fine. For less than $20, a terrific bargain.
I drank two glasses of the Willm which was drinking perfectly now; limpid, golden, luscious, bags of Ries appley fruit, enough structure to avoid preciousness, just perfect. I find Willm's basic wines to be very fine in their category.
Service could not have been friendlier, if a little harried and scattershot, and can be summed up by the bar man's leaving the Ries bottle on my table after my second glass, saying, 'there's not enough for a third glass here, finish it off if you like.' That is what they call a lagniappe in New Orleans, something you neither asked for or deserve, but is welcome.
The place is recommended if you can stand the vibe of eating around tables of hockey fans -- Philadelphians who are rightly horrified at the thought of doing so with Flyer fans should know that Canadian fans are much more civilized -- in a neighborhood bar. The food is worth the trip.
I finished up the night at Diese Onze, listening to The Jan Jarcyzk Trio -- the playing of Jarcyzk, the 60-ish piano player, reminded me of Tommy Flanagan, and I have no higher compliment -- enjoying that wonderful stout from McAuslan and chatting with my friend Gary. A terrific way to end what was a magical week.
Returning to the U.S. -- but not home -- loomed. Stay tuned for a report from New York!

Restaurant Flamme and Brasserie Cherrier, 3638 Rue St. Denis, Montreal. Food 1100-2200; Bar until 0300.

Why I will never buy another bottle of white wine from the Pennsylvania state stores

I've had it.
In the last two months, I purchased four bottles of white wine that turned out to be oxidized and undrinkable.
One, a Macon-Villages, was from Fred's Avalon Liquors near my mother's house in Avalon, N.J. Fred's is a reliable shop with a good selection, if a bit pricey due to being on a resort  island. I have bought dozens of wines from them over the years and had one or two bad bottles. So, a corked Macon was upsetting, but it happens.
The other three  -  another Macon , a Vouvray and a Trimbach Riesling, all 2010 or later - all came from the Pennsylvania LCB operation, indeed from one store, the rather spiffy one on  Columbus Boulevard  in South Philadelphia. All were awful. All poured down the sink, along with about $60 of my money. My lovely homemade choucroute garnie had to be paired with an inappropriate wine rather than that Trimbach.
I suppose it's possible all three wines were bad from the time left the domaines in France, but I suspect  that's not so. All were from quality producers with long histories of success.
What I suspect is that the dunderheads of the LCB have no idea how to store white wine. Red wine can take a bit of a beating and still be OK, but not whites; temperature and proper storage are critical. Look at the 1994 Ampeau Meursault that I have been drinking that is heavenly -- stored properly in  Burgundy, in transit, in Moore  Brothers' store and in my wine cellar.
So no more whites at the State Store for me! No reason to gamble that much cash on potential garbage.

Lunch at Le Bec-Fin: food good, wine off the charts

I was one of the last customers to enjoy a weekday luncheon at Philadelphia’s temple of haute cuisine, as they only serve lunch on Friday and Saturdays now (and just this week chef Georges Perrier announced he was scrapping his prix-fixe-only dinners and will serve a la carte). I still think the $52 lunch menu was a bargain, given that it offered an appetizer, entrée and the fabulous, Lucullan, dessert cart, perhaps the greatest landmark to the sweet meal-ending course ever devised. There are at least 20 choices, you can have as many as you want, and among the classics such as gateau de l’Opera, sorbet de cassis, and floating island, there pop up things such as lemon-basil cake. Get anything with pears.

I have eaten at Le Bec occasionally over the years since 1983, and the food is always never less than terrific, though at times one wonders if it could be a tad less rich and still as good. Perrier’s quenelles of pike in lobster sauce still set the standard for me for seafood and nobody does veal better. His service has had its ups and downs, which it should not given the price (prix-fixe dinner with wine for two was not less than $400 assuming a decent bottle of wine and a tip) but service at a 2007 lunch was near-perfect.

So when I was invited to luncheon by an old friend on his dime, I was of course thrilled. Since both of us needed to be functional afterwards, and we like different foods (he almost always orders a steak) we decided on wine by the glass.

And was I glad I did. Three brilliant wines, each better than the last – I was left staggered at the quality. I would imagine Le Bec’s glassware (Riedel of course) helped a lot.

I wanted a wine aperitif, knowing that: a) Le Bec’s liquor prices are staggering and b) their mixed drinks have always been so-so. So I chose a 2002 Domaine Armand Gilg Grand Cru Moenchberg Riesling from Alsace, and it was just what I wanted: a bouquet bursting out of the glass, pure Riesling fruit, a little petrol-scent, apples and peaches, tons of structure and acidity carrying the fruit, long, scented finish. Talk about whetting the palate! Served perhaps too cold, warmed up nicely. A solid ****. Now-2015.

For my monkfish-and-lobster napoleon first course, the sommelier ravished praise on the 2005 Domaine de la Chapelle Pouilly-Fuisse. And he should have – this was perfection. Easily one of the best white Burgundies I have ever had, even better than some Grand Crus – this blew away a 1998 (I think) Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne I was unimpressed with once. If I had been served this as a Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru I’d have been very pleased and it would have trounced most village Pulignys and Chassagne-Montrachets. Pale, aroma rendolent with tropical fruit, toasty nose, spicy, creamy, rich, even a hint of pineapple, crisp, steely finish, a little vanilla there. If there was oak, it was judiciously used. Went on and on. Served just chilled enough. As I said, if this had been a Cote d’Or Burgundy, I’d have been thrilled, but this kind of splendor from the Maconnais, even from Pouilly? Who could have expected that? I didn’t want to finish it because then it would be gone. I kept the glass to savor the aroma. Easily a top-5 Chardonnay-based wine. This just shows how good the 2005 vintage was in France and especially Burgundy – as I said if the Pouillys are like this, what must the Pulignys be like (or the Montrachet and its hyphenated Grand Crus)? I can’t imagine. ****1/2. Now-2012.

Couldn't get better? Well, came pretty close. With my perfectly-done duck breast in a rich demiglace came a glass of 2000 Domaine de Courcel Pommard “Les Fremiers” Premier Cru. Here’s an example of fine winemaking in an iffy vintage; 2000 was not an easy year in the Cote de Beaune and the pinot noir can be temperamental even in a fine year. But Courcel, a family concern with four centuries of winemaking in Pommard under its belt, has few peers in Pommard; they do not destalk and try to get the most out of every grape. They conquered the elements to produce this earthy, fragrant, cassis-soaked wine which had a beguiling, soft, earthy, nose; sweet cassis and cherry on the palate, tangy, a hint of vanilla and coffee, but still tannic at the end, oak helps the structure, more cassis on the elegant finish, which never seemed to end. A mouthful of this was like having a succession of small flavor-filled fireworks going off on the tongue, one following the other in harmonic excitement. As I said, heavenly with the duck. Would have been spectacular with veal or even a well-roasted capon. At its peak, I’d say, but the tannins may last. Now-2010. ****1/2.

No wine with dessert, which included a pear tart, pistachio ice cream and macerated cherries. Finished with a lovely Cognac, I did not catch the label, smooth and well-balanced.

Let's do lunch again, eh?

Looking for offbeat wines? Good bargains?

The circular for the Chicago-based Wine Discount Center came the other day and I was once again reminded of their fascinating selection and very fair pricing. They are not paying me for this, by the way, but I’d recommend a look at their Web site and signing up for their newsletter – this month it features a dry Alsatian Muscat, a Prum Mosel Kabinett and some excellent Portuguese wines among other treasures. They are especially strong in Champagne and sparkling wines, Beaujolais and the Rhone, also ports and the like.