Not a bad start to the conference. It's sometimes a bit boring sitting at a booth most of the day, but I did catch a few sessions. I also saw a few occasions that I wish I could have found the author to advertise my poster. "Like what you're doing, but way simpler!" Maybe I'll spam them after the conference if they haven't stopped by.
Lunch was a bit meh. I just stopped by the concession stand to get a hot dog:
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| Seriously, you know what a hot dog looks like. |
Dinner was substantially better. I went to
Crush Wine Bar, which had pretty decent food.
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| I like Cote du Rhone, so I went with the "No Place Like Rhone" flight. |
One concern is that the service was really pretty lacking. There were three servers, which I would have thought would be sufficient for the ~12 bar seats and ~8 tables. However, they didn't seem to have much of a system going. This showed up for me as a missing specials menu, no silverware or napkin until I asked for it, and a somewhat slow order taking. It wasn't really bad service, it just wasn't really as nice as I would like.
The specials seemed reasonable, although the duck confit was immediately ruined and removed for me by the presence of broccoli. They had an assortment of tapas-size items, but didn't really have the variety of other places (like that wine place in Austin that I can't remember the name of).
I was also a bit disappointed in the cheese and charcuterie plate. The clipped bit at the bottom notes you can get a 3, 5, or 7 item plate for the listed prices. I would have assumed that that would be a selection of any of the above items (as did the couple next to me). Instead, the three item included the top three cheeses, the five item those three cheese and either of the other sets of two, and the seven all items. I'm also going to be Mr. Fancy-Pants and suggest that the cheese selection isn't really that adventurous. Oh well, I didn't get it, so it's not a problem for me.
I did get the baked mac & cheese. This was good. I could sort out that this had garlic, red peppers (? maybe? maybe just some chili oil? There was a definite spice to it), goat cheese (because duh, goatiness), and cheddar. I think there was probably a third cheese as well. In any case, a very tasty starter.
I went with the special gumbo for my main. Juicy tasty shrimp and crab in a spicy base. I would have liked a bit more crab flavor, possibly by incorporating some crab stock in with the base. It was a touch overly-spicy as well, so the sweetness of the crab and shrimp was a bit overpowered. If they hadn't been super fresh, they would have just been lost.
All in all, not a terrible dinner, and I'm probably being overly picky. Still, I'm not totally convinced that I'd recommend it.
Oh, the wines:
- Domaine de L'Espigouette 09: fruity, with a light body.
- Domaine Charite 09: similar, but with a sharper, spicier note. Probably my favorite of the flight.
- L'Ameillaud 10: This was softer, with a "rounder" flavor. Probably my least favorite, although I'm not totally sure that I have a good reason why.
Is it just me, or do other people get "taste plots" in their head when they try to describe wine tastes?
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