My wife and I had dinner together at Stephen's Restaurant in Roanoke on the evening of April 10 for the purposes of enjoying a night out together, trying wine pairings with various foods, and completing a wine blog dinner report. My wife loves the Wine Class and really enjoys helping me with the various class assignments. She wants me to pursue further study in this field.
Stephen's is located on Franklin Rd. in southwest Roanoke. We have been going here for over 20 years for special occasions and for dates in general. The bill of fare is varied and all of it is good, but we have found the seafood selections over the years to be exceptional. The atmosphere is casual and relaxed, but this place can do a robust business on the weekends, and we have preferred quiet evenings in the middle of the week over the years. This Wednesday evening was no exception. The crowd was light. We were seated at a quiet table well away from other patrons and had some time to enjoy our meal. We told the waitstaff about the nature of the class assignment, and they went out of their way to be helpful with wine suggestions and with things in general. The waitstaff at Stephen's is exceptional. They know their food and their wine.
Although we discussed a lot of different whites because we knew we were going to order seafood, we really wanted a red that would go with all the courses (including dessert!). The Meiomi Pinot Noir was recommended for this purpose, and we bought a bottle of this wine.
Name: Meiomi Belle Glos Pinot Noir
Variety: Pinot Noir (Monterey County, Santa Barbara County, Sonoma County)
Region: Central Coast (majority of grapes from Monterey County)
Country: USA (CA)
Year: 2011
Price: Restaurant Bottle Price--$30
Notes from menu--Rich flavors of berry, cola, and spice
My tasting notes: This wine was listed on the "light" end of the reds. Nice ripe red berries on the nose. Very nice fruit character (berry) with a hint of spice on the mid palate. Very smooth finish. Not hot at all at 13.9% ABV. Maybe the best Pinot Noir that we have tasted all semester.
As for other wines to be tried with food pairings, we selected a glass each of Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc as follows:
Name: Fritz's (Fritz Hasselbach) Riesling
Variety: Riesling
Region: Rheinhessen
Country: Germany
Year: 2011
Price: Restaurant Price (bottle) : $26, (glass): $6.95
Notes from menu: Tart apple and sweet honeysuckle
My tasting notes: On the sweet side for Riesling, but quite enjoyable. Could sense the apple on the nose, but it wasn't especially strong. Nicely tart apple on the palate. My wife really liked this one.
Name: Whitehaven Saunvignon Blanc
Variety: Sauvignon Blanc
Region: Marlborough
Country: New Zealand
Year: 2010
Price: (Restaurant price) : $28 (bottle), $6.95 (glass)
Notes from menu: Bright and crisp tropical fruit
My tasting notes: The nose on this wine was pretty faint, pineapple best describes it. On the palate, kind of unremarkable with some hints of the tropical fruit on the mid palate. Finish unremarkable. We were kind of disappointed with this one.
We paired our three wine selections with appetizers. My wife chose Lobster Bisque.
I chose the Jambalaya with rice cake for my appetizer. This had a sweet and tangy lime-chili-ginger-garlic sauce.
The Meiomi Pinot Noir was a great complement to both of these appetizers. My wife enjoyed the Riesling with the Lobster Bisque as well. The Riesling was good with the Jumbalaya, it helped to cool the spicy nature of the sauce. Neither of us thought that the Sauv Blanc did much for either appetizer.
My wife chose the "Eastern Shore" for her entree. This featured grilled filets of Chesapeake Rockfish topped with saute of shiitake in sauce Diane and topped with broiled shrimp and lump crab meat.
I chose the Rockfish Vidalia, which featured grilled filet of Chesapeake rockfish on carmelized vidalia onions with tomato coulis and warm sherry vinaigrette accompanied by a grilled grits cake and velvet sweet potatoes.
Both entrees came with a good salad of mixed greens and bread.
The Meiomi Pinot Noir delivered handsomely with both entrees. In keeping with the waitstaff's observation, it did not overpower either selection. The Riesling also did well with both selections. Again, we felt that the Sauv Blanc trailed the pack. In theory, this one should have gone well with both selections (that is the reason we chose to sample this wine), but I guess our palates thought otherwise.
We shared a dessert of chocolate neopolitan with both dark and sweet chocolate on a light shell. Meiomi was a good pairing with the chocolate. The Riesling was even pretty good with it. We had given up on the Sauv Blanc at this point.
Stephen's is not an inexpensive dinner. The entrees run on the order of $25 to $30 each, and the appetizers and dessert go for the $5 to $10 apiece range. We generally go to this restaurant about 2 or 3 times a year. In order to economize on most visits, I usually do not order alcohol or just one beer and my wife will get one glass of wine. Of course, we needed to complete the homework assignment on this visit. The total cost of this visit will remain classified (I don't want to think about it by writing it down) but one can get the picture that it was well over $100 with the food and the wine (we did buy a bottle on this visit, something we very rarely do), without the tip. In defense of the price, we have never eaten a bad anything at this restaurant. The seafood is absolutely the best that we have found in Roanoke and the side complements are superb. The waitstaff earns their tip. A very nice place for a special occasion and I would highly recommend it.
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