I had an amazing evening last night! I got to meet new people & eat the most amazing food paired with fantastic wines You can do the same thing every month at West End Grill & Pub at 354 N. Boyle at their Wine Dinners.
Everyone Is seated at one long table together so you can talk and get to know each other while you are served course after course of incredible food. Chef Logan explained each dish that he made for us to us & Patti McDonald of Lohr Distributing explained why each wine was chosen to accompany each dish. The harmony was undeniable.
This is the aperitif & it was glorious! At a quick glance, I honestly thought those were button mushrooms. LOL! Oh, no, not even close. Those are crab cakes served over chipotle aioli and roquette. It has a great little kick to it that you don’t feel right away but trust me, you’ll feel it. The wine paired with it was Domaine Filliatreau Lena Saumur Blanc (Chenin Blanc). I bought a bottle of this to take home because it was SO good. Hey, it was only $23 for a bottle! No way was I not leaving with this one.
The first course was a Cajun chicken gumbo made with traditional holy trinity mire poix. I won’t lie, I didn’t have this course for 2 reasons. 1) I don’t eat meat & 2) it was Ash Wednesday & I’m Catholic so even if I did eat meat, I wouldn’t have been able to eat this dish for Religious reasons. Chef Logan did make me the most savory & spicy salad that I forgot to snap a pic of! I scarfed that salad down like nobody’s business because it was incredible. My guest did have the chicken gumbo & she loved it. She said it was spicy but not too spicy. Just the right amount of heat. It was her favorite dish of the night. The wine pairing for this dish was Fess Parker Big Easy (Syrah).
The second course & my favorite dish of the night, red snapper with red beans & rice. Talk about authentic Cajun & red beans & rice is the first thing I think of. Mention Ash Wednesday & I think of fish. I got both right here! Chef Logan has a masterpiece in this dish & he could have brought this to me for every course. I would not have complained. The snapper was so tender it just crumbled when my fork touched it. The rice was cooked to perfection & rice can be temperamental as we all know. The red beans married so well with the spices in combination with the fish & rice that when you put all of it together in one bite, the flavor explosion in your mouth left your taste buds yearning for more. This was IT for me. Patti selected the perfect wine for this, too. She’s so good at this! She chose Eric Texier Vaison CDR Villages Rouge (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre).
Onto our third course & a favorite for most, a collection of curated creole & Cajun cheeses. That’s even a piece of house made pita bread! We had blue cheese, dill cheese & cream cheese with olives. I’m not a fan of olives so I shared those with a friend I made at the dinner. That’s the advantage of the large table, group seating! That cream cheese was SO good spread on that slice of pita bread, too. The friend I took with me love to go places for wine & cheese, so this course was quite welcome. The wine that went along with this was Domaine Filliatreau La Grande Vignolle Non Filtre (Cab Franc)
Now, the course everyone was waiting for. Dessert…Chef Logan made the traditional King Cake! Actually, he made THREE King Cakes to accommodate the number of people at the dinner! To answer your question, yes. He put the good luck baby in every cake. No, I wasn’t the lucky one to find it. Darn my luck! He sure can make a King Cake though. The texture was fabulous, you could see & taste the work he put into it.
Chef Logan was telling me about the time he & his parents (who were at the dinner) had recently spent in New Orleans & about picking a few things while he was there. That was obvious in that menu he put together for us. One sumptuous course after another kept arriving from the kitchen & Patti kept the wine flowing with each offering. Both of these talented people kept us mesmerized with their knowledge of food & drink. Without them, dinner would have been good but with them it was an experience for the senses.
West End Grill & Pub has these dinners monthly. For reservations, call 314-531-4607. Who knows, maybe you & I will be breaking bread together one of these evenings.
