We recently celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by eating at
Herons. One of the things that Herons is known for is the option to do a chef's tasting menu with wine pairings which is of course exactly what we opted to do. The menu the night we were there was listed as follows:
Chilled Oysters
Sturgeon Caviar, Celery, Okra, Horseradish
Sauvignon Blanc, Talinay, Limarí Valley, Chile 2011
White Asparagus Soup
Black Olive, Sun Gold Tomato, Sheep’s Cheese
Grüner Veltliner, Chehalem, Ribbon Ridge, Oregon 2011
Seared Wreckfish
Frog Legs, Fava Beans, Spring Onions, Dill
Nerello Mascalese, Graci "Etna Rosso" Sicily, Italy 2010
Smoked Ribeye Cap
Lamb Sweetbreads, Green Almonds, Ash
Merlot, Soos Creek, Columbia Valley, Washington 2008
Pink Lemonade
Lemon, Cranberry, Vanilla, Pimm’s No.1
Beerenauslese, Römerhof, Rheinhessen, Germany 2009
To put it plainly - dinner was awesome! First to commend the service. The staff were highly attentive without being intrusive. We had a main waiter who was as needed accompanied by two other servers to provide water, bread, and switch out the utensils between every course. We also were served by the sommelier who did a wonderful job describing each wine and why it was selected to go with that particular course. Dinner took roughly three hours from the time we were seated till when we left. There was a tad of a delay between ordering and the first actual course but after that the pace of the meal was perfect considering all the courses and needing time to enjoy the five different wines presented.
In addition to the menu we started with something like an amuse bouche only it had three different one bite dishes instead of a normal amuse bouche single one bite item. It had a rabbit truffle (like a small meatball), fresh pea custard cube topped with fresh peas and micro greens, and smoked salmon ice cream topped with caviar. All three tastes were incredibly good. My favorite was the smoked salmon ice cream which had a mild sweet/salty taste. Brad liked the rabbit truffle best.
Then they brought us breads to choose from. I picked their pretzel roll and a herb, mascarpone scone. Brad also had the pretzel roll and their rye roll.
The first official course, chilled oysters, was good but the oysters were small. They were served on glass dishes shaped like oyster shells so we finally figured out to just pick up the dish and slurp like we were eating out of the shell. The dish consisted of a celery leaf, sliver of okra, and caviar on top of the oyster then topped with a horseradish foam. Really salty from the oyster and okra and bitter with the celery and horseradish. It was a interesting, pleasant flavor combination. I did not like the wine for this course but then I don’t like Sauvignon Blanc in general. Brad thought it went great with the dish.
Second was the white asparagus soup. They brought the bowls to the table with the foamed sheep's cheese in it and poured the soup (thick puree) on top and then topped with dehydrated black olives and sun gold tomatoes. I loved the soup. I didn’t like the dehydrated olives and tomatoes (not a sun dried tomato fan). I do believe that the flavors of the olive and tomato worked well with the soup, it was just a texture issue for me. The wine was really good on its own and it paired surprisingly well with the soup. Because asparagus is one of those foods where most wines do not compliment it Brad was impressed with how well this wine did compliment the soup.
Third was the Wreckfish (called that because they hang around the debris of shipwrecks). It was nice and flaky and I thought it was a lot like grouper. The frog legs with it of course reminded us of chicken, and the flavors of the fava beans with fresh dill really went with the fish. I ate all of it – as well as all of everything else up to this point. The wine was a nice light red that was kind of like a pinot but kind of not. It paired well with the fish but it smelled a bit jammy on its own.
Fourth was the smoked ribeye. It was served sliced next to the lamb sweetbreads which were fried kind of like fritters, a row of vegetable ash as a mouse and then they poured a dark sauce onto the dish which we swear they said was a chicken roux but it was the darkest chicken roux ever if that is what it was. The ribeye tasted really smoky in a good way and I thought the sweetbreads were good but at this stage I was getting full so I only ate half of mine and Brad finished it off. The wine smelled a tad jammy on its own but went extremely well with the smoky flavors of the food.
Fifth was the dessert which was absolutely amazing. I think it took three people to serve it with all the things being added to the plate table side. It was a study on pink lemonade and at this stage the details are a bit fuzzy. One form was shaved ice, one form was as a foam, one as a cranberry jello, some sort of lemon sugar wafers, and I think we also had an ice cream. It was so fun and so pretty! The wine was very sweet, honey tasting and very good with the dessert to balance out all the tartness.
And to end the evening they brought us the Mignardises course, bite sized desserts, on a plate on which they wrote Happy Anniversary in chocolate. There was a small chocolate cake, a fig bite, a chocolate macaroon, and a candy coated cream. And they gave us homemade candy covered chocolates shaped like rocks in a container to take home with us.
It was a fantastic experience!
While individual courses were small, the sum total was a lot of food. It did take a long time but it was such a pleasant way to spend an evening. It isn't cheap, in fact it is really expensive but worth it for a very special occasion.
