The Restaurant Guys

The Spirits Project: Glen Moray 13 Year (2001) - Blackadder Raw Cask

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Suggested retail price: $169
  
• Thursday, April 30 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring a one-ounce pour for $5

All Blackadder whiskies are single-barrel bottlings, with no chill-filtering and no color added. Their "Raw Cask" bottlings are bottled at cask strength, passing only through a rough sieve. The bottles even contain flecks of barrel char that are not filtered out.

From Blackadder

Filtering and cold stabilization, also remove many of the natural fats, oils and flavors in the whisky which, in turn, removes a great deal of the individual character of a whisky, as the esters, or flavor congeners, in the spirit tend to gather around these fats. The more a whisky is chilled when filtering, the greater the proportion of fats and esters are removed.

Blackadder was founded by Robin Tucek, co-author of The Malt Whisky File. All Blackadder whiskies are his personal selection.

This week's bottling is from This bottling is from Glen Moray, built on the site of the West Brewery on the banks of the River Lossie. Glen Moray Distillery was founded in 1897, but closed in 1910. It reopened briefly a couple of years later, but then closed once more. In 1920, Macdonald and Muir acquired the distillery and once more spirit flowed from the stills.

The two original stills were replaced in the 1970s and two more stills were added, giving the distillery its current yearly capacity of two million liters. In 1996 MacDonald and Muir Ltd renamed itself Glenmorangie and in 2004 the group was acquired by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, for the princely sum of £300 million. The distillery was acquired by La Martiniquaise in 2008. Much of the production is used in their blended Whisky.

We're very happy to have this 2001 bottling from the MacDonald and Muir/Glenmorangie days. The bottle will meet it's fate Thursday evening. We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. I hope to see you there.

The Morel of The Story: Ramps Are Not Alone

The first morels of the season have arrived! My Heaven it's been a long winter, and while spring weather struggles to poke it's head out from behind Mr. Winter's frosty coat, the foods of spring have begun to arrive. Last week we introduced ramps, those lovely first delicate shoots of spring onions that signal the beginning of the season of plenty. We continue to serve them this week, both pickled and fresh with pureed leeks and some lovely local scallops.

Today the first morels of the season arrived. The finest expression of morel I ever had was at my first visit to the famed Alain Ducasse restaurant in Paris. This was more than 16 years ago, long before Ducasse came to New York, even before he relocated to the Plaza Athénée Hotel.

It was my first visit to a Michelin 3-star restaurant. Ducasse was located Le Parc – Sofitel Demeure Hôtels. It was a wondrous lunch and it cost a month's pay, but I learned so much. Some of the dishes were very complex. I expected that. What I did not expect was that some were exceedingly simple presentations of nature's complex and wonderful tasting foods. The simplest of all was a bowl of morels, roasted perfectly and served with an optional finherb cream. I was floored. It was both decadent and simple? Was it supposed to be eaten on its own or spooned over other things I asked. The waiter answered, "Oui." I got it. It was simple and it was perfect. That dish has inspired a large part of what we do and what we care about.

As of today, and as long as we can get good morels, we will serve a bowl of morels with finherb cream optional. Welcome to spring my friends.

The Spirits Project: Clynelish 22 Year (1992) - Blackadder Raw Cask

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Suggested retail price: $249
  
• Thursday, April 23 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring a one-ounce pour for $7

Blackadder is a whisky merchant making some very big waves in the world of whisky. All Blackadder whiskies are single-barrel bottlings, with no chill-filtering and no color added. Their "Raw Cask" bottlings are bottled at cask strength, passing only through a rough sieve. Most whisky is filtered and most of it is cold stabilized. Cold stabilization is a process by which the whisky is brought near to freezing so that certain oils and natural fats (that can make a lower proof spirit go cloudy) fall out. This is done purely for cosmetic reasons. The Blackadder folk don't believe in it. Likewise they don't believe in added color.

From Blackadder

Filtering and cold stabilization, also remove many of the natural fats, oils and flavors in the whisky which, in turn, removes a great deal of the individual character of a whisky, as the esters, or flavor congeners, in the spirit tend to gather around these fats. The more a whisky is chilled when filtering, the greater the proportion of fats and esters are removed.

Bright filtering also removes a large part of these fats and esters with losses of around two to three percent of the cask volume when bottling. The loss when bottling our Blackadder Raw Cask is normally less than half a percent. Blackadder believes in bottling only whiskies that are completely natural - thus keeping alive the centuries old traditions by which they are first lovingly distilled and then carefully aged over the years they spend silently maturing in cask. Blackadder was founded by Robin Tucek, co-author of The Malt Whisky File. All Blackadder whiskies are his personal selection.

Blackadder Raw Cask whisky are released at cask-strength, which keeps them from ever becoming cloudy. The bottles even contain flecks of barrel char that are not filtered out. It's as natural and raw a whisky as if you yourself popped the bung out of the barrel and drew it. This is how whisky was sold in days of yore, by the barrel.

This week's bottling is from The Clynelish Distillery. Clynelish has a history dating back into the 1800s, but the stills currently operating on that site date from 1969. This is a modern operation that produces a clean whisky. It's a lovely North Highland malt with a heavy maritime influence. This particular bottle was distilled on 27 May, 1992 (FIVE DAYS after we opened Stage Left). How crazy is that?

This bottle will meet it's fate Thursday evening. We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. I hope to see you there.

Mother's Day at Stage Left

Stage Left will serve brunch from 10:30 - 2:30. Brunch is $39.95 per person and includes our wonderful dessert bar. View the menu. Kids under 11 pay their age.

Stage Left will serve dinner from 3:30 - 9.

Reserve a table here or call 732-828-4444

Mother's Day at Dinner in Catherine Lombardi (opening early)

Catherine Lombardi was a Mother. In fact, she was Mark's mother's mother! Yet another reason Catherine Lombardi is the perfect place to have Mother's Day Dinner. We're seating from 1 PM - 9 PM. Reserve a table here or call 732-296-9463

Ramping Up (Pun Alert!)

Oh my Lord, ramps, those lovely first delicate shoots of spring onions that signal the beginning of the season of plenty, have finally arrived! We've been waiting all year for their arrival. We find that serving fresh ramps (delicate little spring onions) alongside pickled ramps makes for two expression of a wonderful harbinger of spring. You need a little spring right? So come in and eat this, starting Thursday evening, April 16, in Stage Left.

Pickled Ramps and Fresh Ramps, Fresh Leeks and Local Scallops over A Sauce of Pureed Leeks. It's amazing. It's spring. It's Here. It's $20. It's delicious.

The Spirits Project: Glenglassaugh 40 Year

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

The Malt Whisky Company - Stuart Nickerson
Exceedingly rare pre-shutdown 1973 cask
This Is 1 of only 23 Bottles In The USA

• Suggested retail price: $1,200
  
• Thursday, April 16 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring a one-ounce pour for $33

Glenglassaugh Distillery, at the east end of the beautiful Sandend Bay, was founded by Col. James Moir in 1875. He quickly established a reputation for making a quality whisky and the company prospered. He ran the distillery with his two nephews until 1892, when Glenglassaugh was purchased by Highland Distillers. It was completely re-built in 1960, and continued to produce some very high quality whisky until 1986 when it was mothballed.

1986 was near the nadir of brown spirits consumption in the world. We were all drinking vodka and fuzzy wuzzy woo woos and mind erasers. In short, we were stupid. The distillery sat silent for over 20 years until it was purchased by a group of investors and started production again in December 2008. In 2013, the BenRiach Distillery Company took over Glenglassaugh with the intention to bring it fully back to life and to restore it to it's once iconic status. They are refurbished entirely, but still using the traditional stills, skills and equipment that has been used for over a century.

Glenglassaugh is just outside the Speyside region in Northeast so it is considered a Highland whisky. The site was originally chosen due to its proximity to Glassaugh Springs, a clean and pure water supply of the highest quality. It was known locally to have been the site of one of the many illicit distilleries that had operated in the area prior to the modern era.

Here we have a single malt scotch whisky distilled in December 1973 (during the distillery's first renaissance) and bottled in August 2014. The original cask was a refill sherry cask which was transferred into a first fill sherry cask in 2011. It is an excellent example of Glenglassaugh with the fruity notes of the distillery spirit in evidence and being complemented by the richer notes of the sherry and elements of the wood. Here, my friends, is an historic whisky.

This bottle will meet it's fate Thursday evening. We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. I look forward to seeing you there. If, by some miracle, any spirit remains in the bottle at closing time on Thursday (unlikely I think), we will extend this week's spirits project offering through Friday.

A Super-Tuscan Dinner and a Super-Rhone Dinner

I would like to call your attention to two consecutive wine dinners on our calendar. The first is tonight's Super Tuscan Dinner with Michele Satta. The wines are great. The menu is delicious and we're able to offer it for a steal. It's going to be a laid-back affair. Mark and I are hosting and will guide you through. 

The second dinner is quite an unusual and exceptional dinner from another producer we've never hosted before. The wines of Chêne Bleu are quite serious. Frankly, I think they are producing some of the finest wines in the Rhone Valley. The winery is quite young, younger than Stage Left! Even though they bear no prestigious appellation, they are not inexpensive.

Mark and I are quite taken with them...smitten actually. Well Mark says he's not smitten, but that's only because he doesn't 'do' smitten. They are crazy-great. They're smart and singular wines that I would expect from a very old winery in Europe with very talented and sensitive people at the controls. But it was only in 1994, that the Rolet family established Chêne Bleu on an abandoned property in the foothills of Mont Ventoux.

[email protected] or 732-828-4444.

Le Chêne Bleu Wine Dinner

Though the vineyards had long been neglected, they have a history dating back to the early Middle Ages. The estate had once been a priory of the Knights Templar. Under the Rolets, reclamation of the vineyards led to excavation for a gravity-flow winery, which led to exceptional, estate-grown Rhône varietal wines.

But where exactly in The Rhône. The estate sits on complex mineral and limestone soils at the intersection of FOUR Rhône wine regions: Gigondas, Côtes du Ventoux, Côtes du Rhône and Séguret. The Rolets were faced with a problem. They have the ability to produce extraordinary wine that doesn't fit neatly into appellation rules. So they took a lesson from the Super-Tuscan producers. They decided to combine the best of New World and Old World perspectives on their project. They chose to eschew the prestige of any higher appellation, in favor of the freedom they would have by just calling their wines Rhône Table Wine.

Will Lyons wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "Like the Super Tuscan producers, they decided to step out of the appellation system...which resulted in wines of stunning grace and freshness...one is going to be hearing a lot more about Chêne Bleu — it could be the world’s first Super Rhône." We could not agree more.

On Tuesday, May 19, Nicole Rolet will be here to host a dinner with her family's wine.

If you can clear your calendar, please come to Stage Left and discover something extraordinary.

Le Chêne Bleu Wine Dinner

Tuesday, May 19
Hors d'Oeuvres start at 6:45
Dinner at 7:15 

Hors d’Oeuvres
Rose 2014

Roasted Escolar and Morels
Viognier 2013
Viognier 2012

Charcuterie Plate Wild Boar Terrine, Rabbit Roulade,
Jamon Iberico de Bellota, Hazelnut Bread and Candied Pistachios
Abelard 2009
Grenache/Syrah

Loin of Colorado Lamb Spring Herbs and Roasted Vegetables
Heloise 2007 or 2009
Syrah/Grenache/Viognier

Lemon Cake with Curd
Toasted Meringue
Coffee

$159 per person

The Spirits Project: Ben Nevis 15 Year - 1998 Cask Strength (Exclusive Malt's Bottling)

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Suggested retail price: $149
  
• Thursday, April 9 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring a one-ounce pour for $5

Ben Nevis Distillery is one of the oldest in Scottland. It is situated at Lochy Bridge in Fort William and sits just at the base of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles, which rises to 4,406 feet above sea level. It is considered a coastal distillery in the Western Highlands. Ben Nevis draws its water from the Allt a’Mhuilinn which originates from two pools, Coire Leis and Coire na’Ciste. The distillery was founded in 1825 by 'Long John' MacDonald, a 6'4" descendant of a ruler of the western Scottish kingdom of Argyll.

There are some who would have you believe that there exists a kind of divine secret, a miraculous ingredient or genius behind the manufacture of Scotch Whisky. I however, acknowledge no miracle other than that which is worked when science and nature combine. The principal ingredients are three, notably water, barley and yeast, with a measure of peat smoke or reek.

Of these there can be no doubt that water is the foremost. On Ben Nevis I was fortunate to find a constant and consistent source of pure clean water in two small lochans.

In order of importance, the second ingredient is barley. This must be clean and plump, fully rounded and quite dry, containing exactly the right amount of protein.

Special distiller's yeast is the third ingredient. This has the texture of dough or putty and is vital to the process of fermentation.

And fourthly there is peat, which comes to the whisky through the water passing over peat bogs on its way down the mountain, and from the 'reek' from the fire lit during the manufacturing process.

Once again, we are fully fortunate in that nature in her magnificence, has created on the hill behind us, an ample supply of peat in our own banks to fuel the fires drying the barley.

John MacDonald
14th June 1827
Ben Nevis

Thursday evening, we will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. We will raise a glass in toast to the long-gone Long John. When the bottle is gone, it's gone. I look forward to seeing you there.

Next Week in The Spirits Project: A Remarkable Whisky - NOT TO Be MISSED
Glenglassaugh 40 Year (exceedingly rare pre-shutdown 1973 cask)
This is a $1,200 bottle of whisky. We will be pouring one ounce for $33.