We had a wine maker dinner at Verjus with Rajat Parr who was previously the somm for the Mina group but now has his own wineries (we had not heard of them before). I’ve been wanting to go here with Andrea ever since I went in January, since I know she’d enjoy the food here. The event was being hosted in the room off the back right of the main dining room (towards where the bathrooms were), which was a good thing since the main dining are is really loud. Seating in the back room is spaced out more and there is setup with a turntable and some vinyl which is always cool to me.
We were setup in 2 tables of 10 with assigned seating. We were seated across from another couple, Jolie and David, from Sacramento. I guess they put all the Asian’s together, lol, but they were delightful and fun to talk to. To their right was Cyrus, a solo diner whose daughter is the somm at Californios (we’ll definitely have to say hi to her next time we go!).
Dinner was 4 courses, with a small bite beforehand that consisted of small stalks of radish planted in what we thought was a dip, but turned out to be butter which was presumably intended to go with the bread. The radishes were nice, but that presentation of the butter was a bit clunky.
This was soon followed by our first dish, the Terrine Maison, a three slices of two different terrines. It was a shame that they didn’t provide 4 slices of each given that this was provided to a table of four. In any case, the terrines were delicious. These were paired with two different sparkling wines – 2023 Scythians Sparkling Palomino and 2023 Black de Noirs for Phelan Farm. Both were fine, but I didn’t really have a preference between the two.
Second course was the Poached Oyster, Cucumber & Lovage. The oyster as well as the lovage were incorporated in larger pieces as well as smaller pieces in other components of the dish. It was a fresh tasting dish, but Andrea wanted a bit more acid. These were paired with two Phelan Farm Chards from the 2020 and 2021 vintages. The 2021 vintage was much cooler and it definitely showed with the 2021 being a much thinner, less flavorful wine.
Third course was the Poulet Rôti et Tian served with a couple red wines 2022 Leon and 2021 Autrement both made with a blend of Jura varietals (with which we were not familiar since we didn’t make it to Jura when we were in Burgundy and have only rarely had Jura wines). The chicken was served two ways, the brash and a stuffed wing. The breast was very moist. Since I’ve roasted a lot of chicken, I wondered how they prepared this chicken (I should have asked), although the skin was not very browned so I wondered if they sous vide it. The wing, which was stuffed with a sort of sausage was very flavorful and much more my preference.
Raj also had a seat right next to me (he also had a seat at the other table of 10) and I did ask him about why he used Jura varietals and said because the Jura wines did better in a cooler climate and his vineyards are coastal with weather like San Francisco. Even though Raj was seated next to me when he was facing us (i.e. speaking to the other foursome), it was impossible to hear him. He didn’t really spend a lot of time at the table since he was split between the two tables, but he also had a lot of friends visiting (apparently he hadn’t been in SF for over a year) so he spent a good amount of time elsewhere talking to them.
Last came the Brie au Four which had a nice presentation. The brought it in on a round plate and was cut into quarters. It was a big round of bread with brie baked into the center. For the last course, it was a huge piece of bread for this late in the meal, but the melted brie was delicious. Neither Andre or I could finish the bread, but it was mostly about the brie anyway. These were served with the two vintages of Phelan Farm Savagnin & Chardonnay, a 2021 and 2022. I also liked the 2022 over the 2021 (again, the cool year). I asked Raj if he changed his production of the wine at all based on the vintage and he said no.
All in all, it was a good meal, but not great. Service was hit and miss (e.g. sometimes they would drop off our dishes and not tell us anything about them until we asked). I think we would have preferred dining here more just ordering a la carte. I think they tried to provide more elevated dishes for the event, but I just want good tasting bistro food. Wines were ok, nice to try some of the Jura inspired wines (really wishing we had visited Jura…), although since Raj didn’t spend much time interacting with us (at least our table), it seemed like a wasted opportunity.
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