An Idle Dinner with Chef Andrew Greene ⋆ Idle Cellars

We recently reconnected with our old friend Andrew Greene over a casual glass of Grenache and a plate of whatever cheeses were left in the fridge. The evening ended up leaving many bottles of wine empty and a couple of porter houses devoured off of a cutting board. It also produced some interesting discussion of what Chef Greene had been cooking in his home as of late. We were particularly intrigued by his mention of pickled berries with himachi sashimi and decided on the spot it was high time for another winemaker dinner.

We have been dying to work with the Naked Kitchen as well. Ko has brought an amazing vision to life by taking a beautiful San Francisco Victorian and turning the ground floor into a quazi-industrial kitchen with a gorgeous dinning room that feels like someone’s home. So we put two and two together and hit the ground running. Sometimes prep and sales can feel like a chore but in this case it was all a breeze. Apparently you all like what we’re doing lately as the tickets sold in about six days. Before we knew it the big day had arrived.

As the crowd trickled in the door we poured some ice cold 2013 Sauvignon Blanc and greeted them with an amuse bouche of seared scallop with crispy lardo and chamomile syrup.

Some guests made their way to the Chef’s table for a front row view of the kitchen magic. Other guests were seated at communal dinning tables and made fast friends as the wine flowed. The crowd favorite was hands down the duck confit with pickled ramps and lion’s maine mushrooms, those flavors made the Grenache sing like Sinatra – smooooth as silk.

The dinner ran well into the eleven o’clock hour but I’m not sure anyone noticed as the company and flavors left no desire to check the clock. Hopefully you’ll make it next time until then I’ll leave you with the menu and some photos so you can better dream about the evening – we still are.