The Restaurant Guys

The Spirits Project: Fuenteseca Reserva Tequila 7 Year and 9 Year

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

• Suggested retail price: $199 & $249
• Thursday, January 26 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce of each for $14.00

Last week's Tequila was a big hit and delicious. This week we continue with the theme. From a different producer, we present you two Tequila with extraordinary pedigree.

Enrique Fonseca Cerda was born in Jalisco. Following a tradition started by his great grandfather, Enrique grew up by his father's side in the agave fields of Atotonilco, . After college he turned his study to all things agave-related.

Enrique expanded the family’s agave plantings to satisfy an ever-growing demand for rich, highland agave by Jalisco’s largest tequila distilleries. When those distilleries later colluded to limit the prices they would pay farmers, Enrique became determined to wean his fate off of the international liquor conglomerate’s and bought his own distillery.

He was able to acquire the Tequileña in the town of Tequila itself. It was equipped with a copper double-column still, a stainless steel still and copper pot alembic still. To that essential equipment, Enrique added agave roasting ovens, fermentation tanks and a number of barrel facilities. Today the modern Tequileña distillery stands as one of the finest in the tequila industry.

From a legacy of more than one hundred years of agave cultivation and twenty-five years in tequila distillation, Enrique Fonseca now stands over one of the industry’s largest private agave holdings in addition to possessing one of the largest stocks (24,000 barrels) of superlative, very old tequilas. With Fuentesca, he has begun to release single-vintage tequilas with an age statement, among the oldest ever to come into the market.

Thursday evening, we will open one bottle each of TWO different bottle ages at precisely 6:30. When it's gone, it's gone. I hope to see you there.

Next week in The Spirits Project
Distillers Art Bunnahabhain 27 Year Scotch 1988

Valentine's Day

Stage Left Has Been a Go-To Valentine's Spot for 24 Years

For the Specialist of Special Occasions
Reservations

Catherine Lombardi is Perfect for Valentine's Day

It's Painted Red for Heaven's Sake
Great Italian Food!
Reservations

Billecart-Salmon Champagne
Available by the Glass in Both Restaurants
February 10 - 14

A New Neighbor: Thirty Stories Tall

Yes that's a picture of us (under the billboards) and our new neighbor!

Twenty-five years ago we opened on the forward edge of New Brunswick Downtown's redevelopment, and it's been a great ride. Now the neighborhood is about to take another step forward, a very large step, like 30-stories large.

It seems our neighbors are going to rebuild...and add about 28 stories of new neighbors on top AND a parking facility right next door.

NEW BRUNSWICK – A new multi-use complex in the Hub City's downtown will include new theater spaces for George Street Playhouse and Crossroads Theatre Company.

In a just-sent letter to George Street patrons, the theater company announced its plans to move operations into a to-be-constructed facility, complete with two stages, by fall of 2019.

The new complex will be built where the George Street Playhouse and Crossroads Theatre Company now sit on Livingston Avenue... Both buildings will be torn down to make room for the new performing arts complex, said Tracey O'Reggio Clark, executive director of the New Brunswick Cultural Center. [and both theaters will occupy the ground floor of the new building.]

The State Theater and restaurants including Catherine Lombardi and Stage Left, which sandwich George Street Playhouse and Crossroads, will remain in place and open during the construction, O'Reggio Clark said. Read more on MyCentralJersey.com here.

The Spirits Project: Tres-Cuatro-Cinco Extra Añejo Tequila Grand Reserve Limitada

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

• Suggested retail price: $399
• Thursday, January 19 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce for $12.50

La Tequileña "Tres-Cuatro-Cinco" Tequila is made by The Foneca family. The Fonecas have been crafting Tequila in Jalisco for four generations. This Extra Anejo Reserva Limitada is a blend of three, four and five-year aged tequilas (tres-cuatro-cinco, get it!), made entirely of Weber Blue agave. It defines the category of Luxury Tequila.

It is packaged exclusively in crystal decanters by Alonso Gonzalez, a noted Mexico City artist. Only 1000 have ever been produced. Each bottle is signed and numbered. It is rare and highly collectible. The blend of three distinct, aged tequilas make for a complex and sophisticated final product, cognac-brown in color, and unlike any I've ever seen.

We will open one bottle at precisely 6:30 PM. We're going to offer this as long as the spirit lasts. If it's not gone tonight, we'll extend Spirits Project pricing through Friday.

Stage Left Black Truffle Menu

White Truffle Season Has Passed.Black Truffle Season Is Upon Us.

50 Day Dry Aged Beef, Jamon and Truffle Terrine
Shaved Black Truffles

Truffle-Poached Gulf Shrimp
Truffle Seafood Chowder

Truffled Veal Loin
Anson Mills Polenta
Hen's Egg, Roasted Shibumi Farms Mushrooms

Mascarpone Cheesecake
Figs, Truffle Honey, Truffle Powder

$149
plus tax and service

Available in Stage Left Nightly
Reservations here or 732-828-4444

Do They Love You Like The Way We Do? - Melissa Etheridge Friday!

Perhaps one of the best angry-spurned-lover-rock anthems ever performed is Melissa Etheridge's Like The Way I Do. If you click on the picture below and watch her performance you will not be able to get that song out of your head. I double-dog dare you. She's a master of the genre. Similar Features, Refugee, Come to My Window (I'll Be Home Soon), I'm The Only One, Angels Would Fall all completely rock the house.

Well tomorrow, Melissa Etheridge is going to be performing at The State Theater and it's not quite sold out. I suggest to you that a great way to spend Friday Evening would be to dine at Stage Left or Catherine Lombardi (click on restaurant name for reservations) and go see Melissa Etheridge rock the house. Buy tickets here, while they last. $45-$95 You can dine before or after the show. Come see us. We'll Bring You Some Water, and much more!

The Spirits Project: Bourgoin "Microbarrique X.O.--Single Cask" Cognac 1994--22 year

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

• Suggested retail price: $149
• Thursday, January 12 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce for $9

You would be hard-pressed to find anything quite like Bourgoin Cognac. This is a completely independently owned family operation. Look above for the people that make it. The family estate is located in the village of Tarsac, in the commune of Saint Saturnin, in Charente. They consider themselves terroiriste, as they are grape farmers first, then fermenters of their own grapes and then elaborators of Cognac only from that wine. This is quite rare in modern Cognac.

They have been at it at Bourgoin since 1909. They are bottled by hand by individual plot and from individual vintages into only half bottles (we have two ready for this evening). They are made without filtration, dye, sugar, caramel color or any pumping whatsoever. This "Microbarrique" bottling is an atypical XO cognac with 22 years of age. It is finished with a finish in micro-barrel of 10 liters that has been treated with a "crocodile bushing" (45 seconds touching flame). This fire at the finish is designed as a tip of the chapeau to lovers of single malts, Speyside in particular. It remains a round and beautiful cognac, with good fruit, vanilla, salted butter caramel, and a whiff of strawberry. Distilled two years after we opened our doors, it is finally time for you to come and drink it. See you at 6:30 or shortly thereafter.

We will open one bottle at precisely 6:30 PM. We're going to offer this as long as the spirit lasts. If it's not gone tonight, we'll extend Spirits Project pricing through Friday.

Next week in The Spirits Project
Tres Cuatro Cinco Tequila

Pyrotechnics Set To Music: The Best In The World

Click the image above to see a video of this year's fireworks and the fantastic sound track. It's pretty mesmerizing.

The fireworks in New Brunswick are launched every year by The Santore Family, who have owned Garden State Fireworks since 1890!

I happened to be in San Sebastian, Spain this summer during their annual fireworks competition, the greatest fireworks competition in the Western World. Every night during the annual Semana Grande festival, 70,000 spectators climb Mount Urgull on San Sebastian’s northern shore or crowd the railings of the Playa de la Concha to watch the world's best fireworks artists light up the night. An expert panel judges gives out some of the most coveted fireworks awards in the world. It's stunning!

Imagine my surprise when, among my newfound Basque friends, I discovered that Garden State Fireworks had placed silver in 1986 and actually took first place for the USA in 1991 AND 1994! They've taken top honors in Monte Carlo as well. These guys are world class artists.

Chris Santore is the genius who choreographs the pyrotechnics to music. Check out the video. It's addicting.

The Santore Brothers (Italian immigrants) started Garden State Fireworks in 1890. The company has passed from father to son since that time. They put on the Macy's 4th of July fireworks in New York, Washington DC's Fourth of July fireworks and they were responsible for the Statue of Liberty's Bicentennial display; world class folks.

The Spirits Project: WhistlePig Rye "Boss Hog III" The Independent

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

• Suggested retail price: $295
• Thursday, January 5 (for as long as it lasts), we're pouring one ounce for $9

In 2006, Raj Bhakta purchased a 500-acre dairy farm in the rolling hills of Vermont’s Champlain Valley. Today, the farm, which is being painstakingly restored to grow organic rye grains, is home to Master Distiller Dave Pickerell’s WhistlePig Rye Whiskey. Pickerell has Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering, and served as Chairman of the Kentucky Distillers Association when he was Master Distiller at Maker’s Mark.

After leaving Maker’s, Pickerell embarked on a journey to find the perfect rye whiskey. “Rye, in its own essence, is just a brilliant grain,” says Pickerell. “I wanted to do rye because it’s America’s historical whiskey.” During the Revolutionary War, English blockades of American ports prevented the colonists from purchasing molasses in order to make rum. As a result, American distillers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, started making rye whiskey.

WhistlePig is one of the few 100% rye whiskies available today. “Rye is the brat of whiskey grains. The higher the percent rye you get, the worse it behaves,” says Pickerell. “It gets sticky. It foams. A lot of my colleagues laugh at me for persisting to work with 100% rye because the nuisance level of going from 95% to 100% is unbelievable. Most people stop at 95%. We go ahead and push the envelope and make it 100%.”

After fermentation, WhistlePig is aged for ten years – first, in new American oak casks and then in second-use bourbon casks on the farm in Vermont.

Boss Hog Limited Edition

The Boss Hog bottlings are special single-cask reserves. They are limited and hard to come by. This Third Edition is the first rye whiskey ever finished in hogshead barrels. A hogshead is a 250 liter Scotch cask, the largest barrels in the whiskey business. These particular hogsheads were refitted with new American oak heads. Boss Hog III "The Independent" is a 14 year whiskey, bottled at cask strength (60.1%) into numbered bottles. This is a truly unique and truly American 100% Rye spirit at.

We will open one bottle at precisely 6:30 PM. We're going to offer this as long as the spirit lasts. If it's not gone tonight, we'll extend Spirits Project pricing through Friday.

Next week in The Spirits Project
Bourgoin "Microbarrique - Single Cask" Cognac 1994 - 22 year