A Moose Bouche Underground Dinner

      The best part about underground dinning is not knowing the location of the event or what to expect until you walk into the front door. Being surprised can be a wonderful thing. For the A Moose Bouche inaugural event they chose the location of a biker bar called Godspeed located in Emeryville California. We later found out that this would unfortunately be one of the last events to be held at Godspeed as they are closing their doors for good. It gave everyone great pleasure to host diners in a location they would not normally venture into. It seems that this is A Moose Bouche's style, to dine fine in unlikely place. With a vampire castle motif and full working bike garage, the location was superb for a dinner party. 
      We set up 3 tables of 12, decorated with olive branches, miniature motor cycles and vegetables from the amazing organic garden of Baia Nocchia. The kitchen was set up on the second floor overlooking the dinning area. It was across from the stripper booths which housed the Flamenco guitarist and the live painter giving the guests all kinds of entertainment during dinner. With the movie “The Wild Ones” projecting on the movie screen, fine tunes floating around from the stripper booth and the smell of braising short ribs filling the air, we were ready to seat guests. 
     The first food item to be served was the amuse bouche. A three part amuse consisting of a quail egg topped with chilli sauce, a bite size piece of speck wrapped around arugula and shaved parmesan and table grapes sauteed in olive oil and rosemary with an amazing sheep milk cheese.

      The first course was a squash soup with a coriander spiced yogurt ice cube, garnished with a fried piece of sage and prosciutto.  This was paired with the 2009 Idle Cellars Chardonnay.  The very sweet tasty squash from Baia Nicchia paired well with the creamy side of the Chardonnay.

      The second course was a sliced Hamachi with pink peppercorns, assorted fresh herbs and a splash of yuzu.  We paired this with the 2008 Idle Cellars Sangiovese.  The pink peppercorns and Sangiovese were the prize pairing of the evening.  The acid from Sangiovese blended very well with the spicy flavors of the pink peppercorn.

      The third course was braised short ribs with a cranberry glaze, carmalized sweet carrot puree with black sesame seeds and dwarf kale with champaign vinegar.  This was paired with the 2007 Idle Cellars Syrah.  The Syrah has notes of cranberry and black fruits in it, so it went well with the sweet glaze.  It also has characteristics of earth that went well with the flavors of the ribs.  The dwarf Kale was superb with champaign vinegar.

      The final course was a two part desert.  The first part was a chocolate Mousse with candied cumquat and sea salt.  The second part was a walnut cake with pure banana ice cream.  This was paired with The 2008 Idle Cellars Merlot.  The fruity quality of the Merlot paired well with the desert.  A good choice worth examining for future dinners.

      With the first seating done we had 15 minutes to clear the tables and prepare for the second seating.  With a pro wait staff and a killer kitchen crew the turn around went well.  The second seating started at 9 PM and lasted until 1130.  People hung around after dinner and bought drinks from the bar.  Our Flamenco guitarist was one of the last people to leave, so we had killer music all night.  I would like to thank Robin Jolin our photographer for taking such nice photos.  The A Moose Bouche crew put together an amazing night with absolutely no problems.  We're looking forward to their next event and hope to be pouring more idle Cellars wines.  For those of you who have never been to an underground dinner we recommend that you try one.  They are different, fun and have amazing wine, food and ambiance.  This event was full of idle moments, great conversation and lots of laughter.  We hope to see you at the next one.  Cheers.