This was a great serendipitous dinner for me, totally unexpected as I walked out the front door of Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits that I have managed for the last eleven or so years in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington D.C. N.W. our nation's capitol. My old friend Antoine Songy walk up to both Ronnie Miller and me and asks me if I am coming to dinner?
He is referring to Lavandou provencal restaurant at the end of our block where I have known owner Florence for the last seventeen years. I call my wife, clear it with her and we are almost at the front door of Lavandou where their colleague Carole is waiting already for us.
The four of us sit down to enjoy an amazing French meal with French wine, French food and a very nice " new " French waiter, too.
This was on Thursday night just before 7PM on December 17th, 2010 after I had finished a grueling day of having stocked our shelves with wine and helped customers get ready to celebrate the holiday season and welcome in the New Year of 2011! I was bushed and it had been snowing during the day so the streets, the air and the whole demeanor was one of very cold and lots of white shiny snow and ice or the possibility of ice and sliding and ending up on one's butt on the sidewalk or of having one's car fender smash into another car's : neither possibilities desirable at all.
The solution ? Sit comfortably at home or in a great restaurant like Lavandou, a Provencal-inspired restaurant and have some French onion soup, some cassoulet and French bread of course along with a platter of French cheeses and all washed down by an assortment of fine French wines.
That's exactly what we did, too : a dry white Cotes du Rhone from BECCASSONE, a dry and forward and lively yet not tart or too tannic blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon from MAS DE BRESSADES and a " new " dry red from around France's Perpipgnon southwest town close to Spain called MAS LAVAIL. All were showing beautiful, balanced and fruit-forward and warming and just the ticket for all the cold and ice outside.
Before things got really started I saw the potential of this evening immediately and so I excused myself and ran back to the store for my Canon Power Shot digital camera and my sketch pad as I wanted to take lots of pictures as well as make many quick ink portrait sketches of Antoine, Ronnie and Carole to give to them as my " thank you " for such a lovely evening with them - all that worked and promote the wine selections of Bobby Kacher and old ami of mine along with Kelly, too.
It was a complete blast and I enjoyed the time of my life : everything was wonderful and I was thrilled for a break in my hectic routine of buying and selling wines. It was great to focus myself completely on the enjoyment that the holiday season is all about and not simply on selling and selling more wines.
Being an artist I took many artsy photos and that is what I have included here so far. There are more and with time-permitting I will include them here shortly.
But for the meantime enjoy these photos and stay-tuned for more. I hope you like them and appreciate the atmosphere that they help create at Lavandou.
Merci Antoine, Carole, Ronnie et Florence, le chef et le garcon aussi. Quel repas, quel soiree! TONY
P.S. I did four portrait sketches of Antoine, three of Ronnie and ten of Carole.
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