Dinner - Blue Apron, Salem VA

As another part of my class, I am required (sounds terrible right) to do some wine dinner’s.  What we mean by that is basically we are to have at minimum 3 bottles of wine paired with three different dishes.  So for my first wine dinner, I decided to do a date night with my other half and go to the Blue Apron.  The Blue Apron is about 30 minutes from me but is probably the best quality restaurant in the area!  They serve American style cuisine in a very traditional looking restaurant.  It had the original brick walls still there with the old creaky wooden planted floors but it was dressed up with well-done accents of dry wall and crown molding to give it a very homey feel.  First impression was definitely a hole in the wall style (only could seat 40 people at once) but felt very exclusive for being there.

So we had a reservation for 5:30 for the two of us.  Surprisingly enough, we were not the only one’s there.  There was another table that had a couple at it and another table with the parents and their one son.  Anyway, we sat down and the adventure started.  First thing we did was tell our waitress, Christine (I think), that we were with this wine class.  Christine was familiar with it and said that she would go ahead and pick out wine pairings for our dinner as we went along.  She would just pour a flat (not a full glass but less than a tasting) and leave us the bottle so we could take pictures and write down what we needed.  For warned, she knew what she was doing!

For the meal part of dinner, that was much more complicated.  The restaurant has daily specials and their regular menu, and both of those you can have an appetizer, a small plate, or a regular plate to eat for dinner.  Having never been there, I had no idea how to choose.  Christine recommended that we do three small plates (for those of us who are indecisive).  Since she sounded just like me, I decided to go with the three small plates while my other half went for an appetizer and a regular plate.  With my meal, Christine decide to break it up into three courses so that I could have a wine paired with each meal and they went from lightest fair to heaviest fair, which was kind of hard since I basically went down the seafood for my dinner.  And with my other half, she would bring his appetizer when she brought my second course and then we would be eating at the same time.

We started the night off with some Italian Prosecco by Tocco to cheer’s to.  The smell was very nice with a full nose of pears and then hints of mango and papaya.  The color was a warm golden tone and of course looked so pretty with its bubbles!  The taste was a great way to start the night.  It was definitely very good and light on the tongue and refreshing.  It had a nice balance between the sweetness and acidity with the bubbles.  

Once we finished with the cheers round, we put our food order in and within a few minutes they came out with my first round of food.  I had chosen, based on Christine’s suggestion, a Blackened Rare Hamachi.  A Hamachi is sometimes referred to as Yellow Tail, a very light and good fish.  It was served over a bed of asparagus and red potatoes with mandarins as a final touch.  As paired with wine, Christine brought me a

2012 Crois Torrontes from Argentina.  (The way I did the pairing was by first tasting the wine, then the food and then tasting them together.)  The wine smelled mostly like plum with some earthy undertones.  It was a very light in color and definitely a light wine to pair with the Hamachi.  The taste of the wine was quite interesting.  It started out as if it was going to be sweet when it first hit your tongue but dried right out.  It seemed to have a fuller body but had a very light finish.  It had some floral tones to which I wasn’t too much of a fan of but it was definitely a nice wine.  The Hamachi was some of the best fish I had had in a very long time.  I am very picky about my fish (have spent years catching some of my own) so I can be very judgmental.  It did have some fishy undertones to it but with the sauce you could barely even taste it.  The best part of this fish was the true blackened and rare part, the outside was literally seared so it was warm but the inside was still cold!  Now for the pairing part.  The pairing went very well together and the fish actually brought out the acidity in the wine.  I think it made the wine more refreshing and when you had them together they brought out the best in each other.

Now we went onto round two.  This is where food came out for both of us.  I had ordered the Spinach and

Radicchio Salad with a grapefruit vinaigrette and goat cheese.  Very light fair but the combination of the vinaigrette and the goat cheese was amazing.  My other half ordered the Potato-Leek Soup, which was very interesting.  It was a potato puree soup with bacon in it and some smoked paprika on top.  It was interesting and a heavier soup than I expected.  The wine paired with it was a 2009 Pinot Blanc from Oregon.  The smell was very similar to a Chardonnay but had only a few hints of oak on it and of course some toasted barrel with it too.  The taste of this wine was definitely more full bodied than I expected with a nice back bone to it.  It was a little more acidic and had a citrus bite like a perfectly ripe granny smith apple.  Due to the lightness of the food, I wouldn’t say that they helped or hurt each other but were a good break in the meal.

For the third round, it was time for the heart of the meal.  I had ordered a small plate of a crab cake with orzo and my other half ordered the pork chops with a cabernet reductions sauce and toasted vermicelli.  What was great about this part of the meal was that Christine actually brought us two different wines to go with our very different choices in meals.  She brought me another white, an Austrian that I had never had before.  It was a 2011 Lois Gruner Veltliner, never had anything like it before.  It was similar

to the first one but much less floral.  It also had more an acidity which suited me very well.  My other half had a Touringa from Portugal by Cabeco de Mocho.  Once again, we had no idea what this was but it was very good.  It was similar to a pinot noir from a lightness side but it tasted like a cross between a Chianti (smoothness) and a Carmenre (spiciness).   Now for the food part, my crab cake was made very true to the Chesapeake Bay style with lump crab meat and no filler.  The crab meat was very fresh and it was fantastic.  The rice on the bottom was good but I would have been just as happen without it.  My other half’s pork chop was quite good, it was a little sweet with both the sauce and the vermicelli but it was very good.  For the pairing part, my wine pretty much became a pallet cleanser between the meal and my other half’s wine was a great addition to his meal.  I think his wine offset some of the sweetness and made the pork even better.  So far, my food wins but I think the Touringa was the best wine I had had in a while.

We originally were going to do dessert but ended up not having time.  My other half had a friend coming in so we had to get back to host him.  Lucky for us, Christine was understanding and let us finish our meal with a dessert wine.  She brought both a Porto from Portugal and Sauternes from France.  I have had port before but this was really good.  It did not taste like cough syrup!  It reminded me of maple syrup but had a very hot feeling from the alcohol.  The finish was much lighter than I thought it was going to be and was pleasantly surprised.  The Sauternes was definitely my favorite of the two.  It was much lighter and not as thick as the port and it really finished off my white wine binge of the night!  In the end, it was a wonderful finished to a romantic night.

Overall, I was very impressed with this whole experience.  I love the restaurant because they made you feel at home.  The staff there was very pleasant and wanted you to enjoy your time there.  And trust me, you spent a lot of time there.  We easily spent 1.5 hours there and if I had it my way it would have been over two.  And the best part is the staff there knew that because they only take reservations but they space the reservations at minimum 2 hours apart so the whole time we were there, no one was waiting to get to a table.  Which meant you never felt rushed.  The other amazing thing that my other half noticed is that food was only brought out when you were ready for it.  The servers and table runners were attentive and made sure that the service the whole time was impeccable.  In addition, we did get to meet the owner and chef so that made it even better.  I have never been to such a nice restaurant and I was very impressed with having something that nice so close to my school!  So, if you are ever in Salem, VA get a reservation at this restaurant and plan on eating there!  It was a very romantic night and lived up to its ratings!

Here are all the pictures of some of the wines we tasted: