Life is Great!!! 

Another birthday rolled around too soon, but like I said last year, whom am I kidding, I love life and it’s another year to celebrate being alive and healthy. Recently, I started playing and enjoying Michael Bublé’s Feeling Good to kick my day off now. A hot swinging little number, delivered perfectly with tons of swagger by Bublé: It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life and I’m feeling good. You know it Michael. Plus, I’m lucky in that the web gal likes to ensure I have a good time around my b-day which means a trip to a nice restaurant. This year it was Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar, a fantastic seafood restaurant that’s part of the John Howie empire in Bellevue, WA. (A post on that fine dining experience soon to follow.) 

Next day we had some time to kill before the annual charitable wine auction – Winemaker Picnic & Barrel Auction by Auction of Washington Wines at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, so we decided to have lunch at the Barking Frog, an in-house restaurant of the 5-star property Willows Lodge which is just down the road from the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. The Barking Frog’s patio looked like it could have been imported from some fine Tuscan villa. And while I’m not much of a fan of el fresco dining, the usual complaints: too cramped, insects, pollution, noise, etc. But the Barking Frog’s patio had none of that, lots of space at their nice white cloth tables, a beautiful running fountain, lots of eye-catching flowers and plants, excellent service and a good luncheon menu.  

But what really attracted me to the Barking Frog, was the chance to converse with their Master Sommelier, Tyler Alden. According to the Court of Master Sommeliers, there are only 275 Master Sommeliers in the world, so when I get a chance to chat with one of them, I’m there. I like to think my palette has gotten better over the years, but I know I could never pass that MS exam in a million years, no matter how much I sipped and studied. It’s that hard. So, I’m a little in awe of anyone who can pass the damn thing.  

But Tyler didn’t put on any airs, brought a few glasses of wine to the table with him and was totally into doing the NSI quiz, although he was extremely busy with meetings and wine people in town for the Auction of Washington Wines events. In fact, he had such a good time doing the quiz, he was 15 minutes late for his next meeting because he was having so much fun with us. 

What was last night’s dinner? My wife is a very good cook, so I had stuffed ravioli with bread, it was great. 

What’s your favorite music? I love Metallica, but I can go from that to the finest classical. Depends on my mood, but I love music.  

What’s your favorite drink? Oh man, you’re torturing me here, hard to name one, but these are great questions, I guess if I had to choose one, is White Burgundy, followed closely by Reisling.  

What is your favorite dining experience in Seattle? I love this Malaysian place on East Pine called Kedai Makan. It started as a pop-up, but it got so popular they turned it into a physical restaurant. And I just love it. Don’t mean to get too esoteric here, but if a restaurant is good, it should leave you with a haunted memory of it, like you can’t wait to go back and try some more. And it sure does that for me, love all the flavors and tastes. 

What makes a great wine tasting experience? Thoughtful attention. You’ve got to curate their experience from start to finish, making sure you meet all their needs. It’s a marriage of the people and wine, distilled down to its essence.  

What’s your favorite thing about living and working in Seattle? I lived in Seattle all my life, and I realize it’s gotten so much bigger over the years, but one thing has never changed, is the sense of community. People here really care about each other, not just in the hospitality industry and it’s a beautiful thing. Probably why I’ve never felt the need to go anywhere else.  

Any brush with celebrity? I met Cal Ripken Jr. and his wife and they were great people. A real gentleman who took a sincere interest in the wines I was pouring for him.  

Any wine, trip or restaurant on your bucket list? (This is where you could really see Tyler’s MS experience.) There’s a place in the southern half of New Zealand called Otago that make the most sublime Pinot Noirs. And there’s an area in Hungary called Tokaj, that make these incredible, dry dessert wines that are very vibrant. A trip to either place would be very cool. 

Final thoughts? There’s been no better time to be in the wine biz or a wine drinker. Wines just keep getting better and better. There’s never been more of a selection and price range in wine. It’s a huge and thriving, vibrant industry that I’m so proud to be part of.  

After lunch, we were fully sated, the web gal ordering a gemelli & three cheese mac dish that she really liked, taking the leftovers for late night snacking and we split a very tasty grilled chicken club sandwich with salads on the side, me trying to eat healthy.. ha ha ha.. We drove a few hundred yards down the road and had some fun tasting and buying some wines from Chateau Ste. Michelle before the picnic opened. We didn’t stay long, had some fun tasting a few booths and said hello to chef Kevin Murray of Ray’s Boathouse, who was working his butt off but told me he liked the post I did on him and Ray’s.   

We were off to THE place to blow it out in Seattle: Canlis. A gorgeous restaurant of glass and wood that overlooks Lake Union. But we weren’t there for the full-on tasting menu experience. Like my buddy in Vegas, John Curtas, who writes a very good food blog, said why he’s through with tasting menus, you pay outrageous amounts for courses you don’t want and then when you do like something, you get a tiny morsel. Like wtf? Is this torture or what?  

No, we were there to soak up the vibes and atmosphere and because the Seattle Times food critic, Bethany Jean Clement said the $28 charge for a burger was worth it. While I really admire her writing, she knows what she’s talking about from the lowest of dives to the swankiest places, she can tell you what’s good and why, but I think she missed the call on that Canlis burger. While it wasn’t horrible, there was nothing to distinguish the beef and it had way too much melted cheese piled on top of it. Literally there was a great big glob of melted cheese left on my plate when I finished the burger. If I had wanted that much cheese and grease, I would have ordered a pizza. This may be your burger if you are a fan of extra cheese. But in all fairness, the burger wasn’t so great, but the service from the staff and gorgeous views were amazing. A nice wine guy told us he had moved from the east coast to be part of Canlis’ wine program and couldn’t be happier.  If you want to blow a whole bunch of dough, have an enjoyable evening out, I can assure you that you can’t get better service than at Canlis. 

Next day, on the road we stopped at Premium Outlets, next to the Tulalip Casino for a little b-day shopping. I didn’t care if I bought anything, not much of a shopper or materialistic guy, but got lucky with a deal for some shoes. Anyone notice, shoes tend to wear out way faster now? I bought a good pair of burgundy, casual walk around shoes and a real fine pair of tan dress shoes with a nice dark burnish on the toe that will go great with any suit. Believe me guys, women notice your footwear.   

And then it was on to the Rod Stewart concert where Cheap Trick was the opening act in Vancouver. The web gal had been on the fence about seeing Rod, so I told her, look the guy is 78 and his family has been telling him to hang it up, so if we don’t see him now, you’ll never see him. And that made up her mind and boy, was she ever glad that I said to go for it. What a great concert!  

Totally different from the show I saw 30 years ago when he just came on with a straight-ahead rock band and sang the hits. This time he came on with these 5 babes playing air guitar and sang Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love song. May sound ultra-cheesy, but it worked and he had the crowd in the palm of his hand for the rest of a fantastic 22 song set. You got your money’s worth, unlike a lot of concerts these days.  

And those gals weren’t just eye candy, they could really sing and backed Rod up perfectly on multiple numbers. The talented gals were also playing instruments throughout the concert and during his ballads. There wasn’t a clunker in the whole set, I didn’t even mind Do Ya Think I’m Sexy because his backing gals made it so much fun. But my favs were, You Wear It Well and the encore tune, Stay With Me, the best ode to one night stands ever.  

We had so much fun that when the web gal got home, she Googled where Stewart’s next gigs were going to be and found a Nov gig in Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday with. So now we got plans to go to Vegas for the Stewart show and attend the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival happening Nov 8-12. Don’t miss the festival’s Grand Tasting down on the waterfront, one of the best, if not the best Grand Tasting on the circuit. Cheers.