Daily Archives: 06/07/2014

(Community Matters) where else can you be so comfy?

with Rick Bond & Charles Santos (& Sienna who’s joined us in the pic) in Dallas for the weekend. Attending Brett Lester’s & Maria Redford’s wedding.

(Community Matters) An evening in the center of someone’s creativity. Exec Chef Troy Knapp hosted us in his office, just off the Grill’s kitchen. Our friends Scott Mason (Driskill GM) & Scott Ertresvaag organized Thursday’s dinner Thursday. Allison Jacques, the newest Driskill exec team member, joined us.

Chef Troy’s food and wine pairings are new to us, and we’ll definitely be back. Tucked away in a corner, just outside the original hotel building, Chef Skyler Gordon (chef de cuisine) delighted us with course after course. Troy’s pairings, including the small lot champagne from a favorite vineyard demonstrated his sommelier certification – I’ve got to follow his column in Savor SA. Chefs Troy and Skyler are food stewards – both obviously governed by ethics of local, seasonal & authentic, preparation that solicits the best of each nibble’s flavor.

Steven, Allison, Chef Skyler, Chef Troy and Scott Mason

Blistered shishito peppers with sea salt & an aioli, a tomato & melon sushi, pasta with seasonal vegetables, spicy cauliflower paella, octopus and vegetables, grilled peach soup, medallions of duck on a carrot puree w/ leafy vegetables, slightly sauteed mushrooms (trying to remember what kind – exquisitely delicate), petit fours & chocolates & fruit and grilled pineapple on glutten free short bread, an old vine Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Wasn’t only the food & wine that made our evening – though they could have on their own – new friends and the sharing of intimate thoughts and opinions made for an all time evening.