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Philippe Tessier Wine Dinner
7:30 pm
Wednesday, October 29
Five-course dinner with wine pairings
Former NOPA wine director, Chris Deegan will be co-hosting our wine dinner this month! We've known Chris for years and consider him part of the extended Piccino family. We're absolutely thrilled to work with him on this, and the wines he's chosen fit beautifully with Anne's food. They're from Domaine Philippe Tessier, and are represented by his Chris' latest endeavor, import company Sacred Thirst Selections.
Domaine Tessier is a family run winery founded over 50 years ago. Located on the Loire river, in Cheverny, Tessier is a certified organic operation where most things are done manually and as naturally as possible. They harvest by hand, utilize neutral oak and native yeast, minimize the use of sulfur, and do very little fining or filtration. They strive to make what they call 'honest' wines.
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One might ask, what is honesty in a wine? We believe that honest wines distinguish themselves in the same way that truly unique people might stand out - they make us stop and take notice of certain real qualities.
Tessier's overriding goal is for his wines to reflect not the hand of the winemaker, but rather the original character of the vine and soil and vintage. His non-intrusive winemaking approach allows his vines to express their unique combination of place and time. We are proud to share his wines with you and think the evening will be one to remember!
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Nitty Gritty
Dinner starts at 7:30 pm and will consist of five courses, each paired with its own Tessier wine. As always, it will be a casual affair. Twenty spots are available at our two large tables in the center of the dining room, where guests are seated together to foster community and conversation. Join us!! Bring a friend, a group, or whomever. But whatever you do, bring a desire to eat, drink, talk, make friends and make merry with your fellow diners.
If you have a restricted diet and would like to attend, please call the restaurant or send us an email. Tickets for the event are available on Brown Paper Tickets – the cost is $95 per person (including wine), plus tax and gratuity.
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Chickens!
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What’s the big deal about chickens? For those of you not in the food trenches every day, the answer might simply be “nothing, why?” There is a lot going on, though, and I will try to summarize here without depressing, alarming, or boring anyone!
Chickens raised humanely are few; chickens raised in pastures with outstanding feed and in quantities significant enough to be purchased by a restaurant are a rarity! We have had the pleasure to know farmers like Alexis Koefed of Soul Food Farm which raised exceptional birds, but could not survive a fire and the sheer difficulties of being a small outfit. We have Dave Evans at Marin Sun Farms—first to offer chickens raised on the family pastures near Point Reyes—who had to endure vexing restrictions on his practices and suffered
vandalism at their new facility. Get the picture?
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The issues these small farmers are faced with are primarily centered on the fact that USDA has standards based on and tailored to raising animals by agri-business, millions at a time, in cages where they live their short existence in varying degrees of painful conditions, and slaughtering practices designed for abating possibilities of contamination in environments that “process” chickens by the thousands per hour. If you have a couple hundred good chickens who have lived a relatively long and natural life on a farm and want to slaughter them you are imposed extreme, inadequate and daunting regulations, not to mention insufficient locations.
After about one year of befriending, pressing and cajoling the owners of Riverdog Farm, in Guinda, CA (currently the best chickens on the market), we were finally given an allotment of 30 birds per week! We started cooking them about a month ago, and we are having a lot of fun conversations on the best way to feature these very special chickens. They are expensive when compared with those available at the supermarket, but their meat is juicy and tasty like no other, and we are proud to be able to finally offer them in Piccino!
(The unofficial word on the street is that these chickens are fed, among other things, some of the leftover whey from Cowgirl Creamery…Yum!).
Come and enjoy them!
Margherita
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