It's A Brand New Day

January 20 was a day to celebrate or commiserate. We chose to celebrate, it's better for the cash flow. At Ursula's Wine Bar & Cafe in beautiful downtown White Bear Lake (which I own in case you haven't heard) we held an inauguration dinner for those who couldn't get Wednesday off so they scrapped their plan to fly to DC. We offered a 5 course dinner with wine pairings. I always like to start with some bubbles. We chose the Gruet Blanc de Noirs from New Mexico. This is a well kept secret. Tiny bubbles, refreshing, clean taste. I love it. We served the Gruet with endive spears and cherry pecan chutney. Course two was grilled Mahi Mahi with roasted pineapple and tangerine mostarda. The wine was Andrew Rich's White Tabula Rasa. It's a blend of rousanne and gewurztraminer. It was terrific with the fish, not to heavy, but enough weight to handle the pineapple and fish. We moved on to a lamb tenderloin with roasted asparagus, squash and tomato jam. I love lamb, it was awesome, but the tomato jam stole the show. It was paired with Robert Hall Rhone de Robles. Robert Hall once lived in Dellwood, which is a 3 minute drive from the restaurant. The Rhone de Robles is a syrah, granache, mourvedre blend from Paso Robles. It married very well with the lamb. We moved on to a cheese course. All the cheeses were American. We had a 5 year old Vermont Cheddar, an Oregon Manchego and Northern Lights Blue from Minnesota. I opened a 2000 1.5 liter of Marietta Angeli Cuvee, a zin blend, for the cheese. I've had the bottle since the restaurant opened and I was worried it could take a downhill turn. It wasn't at the top of it's game but it was very good and I'm glad I could share it with our guests. We finished with an apple tart and Pacific Rim Vin de Glaciere Riesling. A great combination to finish off the evening. We were even lucky enough to have a special gust drop in. Check the photo. Stay warm (it's 4 below in Minnesota today). What are you gonna do? Have a big red for dinner, cheers.