Locanda Veneta

This was my first Italian dinner with Yarom & The Hedonists, however, the night just felt different without our chief. No pictures, no facebooking, no 69n tee-shirt. We missed you, Yarom. Get well soon!

For those present, it certainly was a fine night of food and wine. The table's favorite Locanda dishes seemed to be the grilled calamari salad, the polenta with boar ragu (did I get that right?), and the branzino.

We tasted many wines as usual. Ron couldn't resist bringing some vintage boutique champagne ('90 Alain Robert Mesnil) and the first whites just happened to be the perfect producer side by side tasting (we had the '04 Latour v. Bouchard Corton Charlemagne). My vote was for the Latour which really blossomed during dinner and was very nice to revisit with dessert. A '95 Paolo Scavino Bric Del Fiasc Barolo had been decanted before we arrived and went quickly. The '98 Romana Dal Forno Valpolicella Superiore and the Bordeaux (sorry, I didn't get the notes) didn't get quite the same attention as Robin's silky '01 Vega Sicilia Valbuena (they didn't make Unico that year), Ron's '79 Grange, and Howard's '02 Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Saint-Jacques.

Shout out to Ron and Lana (thanks so much for organizing and hosting the dinner), Ron's son, Andrew (who joined us for the first time), Howard (who I finally met), Michael Gold (for making me feel like I still know a thing or two about wine), and Robin (for making the trek from SD). Great night! Hope to see everyone again soon :)