by Richard Foss
In the ‘80s I was a fan of a Santa Monica-based pop band that had smart lyrics, excellent musicianship, and a terrible marketing strategy. In ’83 they released a delightful album called Poison Summer under the name Danny and the Doorknobs. After doing so, they changed the name of the band to Trotsky Icepick and released another album, also called Poison Summer. This attracted critical attention, but the record company was dismayed when they realized the name of the band would change again, and they planned to release another album called Poison Summer. The band knew this would confuse even diehard fans, but commercial consequences were not at the top of their minds. The record label balked, and they reverted to the more conventional strategy of changing the name of the album each time rather than the name of the band.
One local restaurant has flipped the script in a way that echoes this strategy, though in this case it’s actually a smart move. At most restaurants the wine menu is generally static, but the food menu changes on a regular basis. The Palos Verdes Wine Club, which opened in June on Deep Valley Drive, changes the wine menu completely every two months while the food menu undergoes a much slower evolution. Even more unconventionally, there is a focus on only three producers from the same region each time, to create an experience more like visiting three wineries and tasting your way through the selection at each one.
Asked whether he knew of any other restaurant that operated this way, owner Jeff Rinna answered in the negative, and offered an explanation of the concept.
“At a place with a conventional wine list, there may be a great variety, but you don’t learn much about the wines of any one region, you can’t taste your way through what they offer and learn about the style of the winemaker. That’s the experience of a tasting at a winery, and that’s what we’re bringing here.”
When I visited in July, the region of interest was Paso Robles, and the wineries were Mid-Point, Optio, and Caelesta. While these are respected producers, they’re not household names. Optio’s website refers to them as a micro-boutique winery, and while the other two may have a larger annual production, neither will be on the shelves at Costco or Bevmo any time soon.
Since the nature of this strategy means patrons are unlikely to have experienced any of the wines, the establishment needs to provide exhaustive descriptions of each one or have staff describe them in detail. The PV Wine Club chooses the latter, and two different servers we interacted with showed impressive wine knowledge and enthusiasm. They conferred with the owner when a problem arose – Paso Robles is noted for Rhone style red wines, which are in abundance on this list, but the area makes few whites, and one of our party prefers those. Jeff suggested a wine that was in stock because it is planned for next month’s menu, a Reichwage Chardonnay, which we liked very much. And though few whites were on offer from the featured wineries, Mid-Point’s “Spirit of Distraction” Grenache Blanc was a memorable start to our tasting experience. The bright, fruity flavor with balanced acidity caused someone at our table to exclaim that this was like Martinelli’s for adults, and indeed it was. One person at our table ordered a flight from Mid-Point while the others opted to try selected glasses, and the wine tasting aspect of our evening was off to a good start.
The food menu was created by Chef Aaron Esquibel, whose resume includes the Patina Group and the Michelin starred Orsa & Winston in Downtown LA. The selection includes the expected meat and cheese boards along with a smattering of American favorites and eclectic items. We started with shared plates of mushroom risotto cakes, cheddar mac and cheese bites, roasted carrots with middle eastern spices, a fennel and citrus salad, and boquerones, the Spanish fresh sardines marinated in vinegar.
Everyone who has an exploratory attitude toward food has something that they keep trying to get other people to sample, with the promise that if they did, they’d like it. Boquerones are one of those items for me. Lots of people who recoil at eating anchovies have only had them heavily salted or preserved in oil, neither of which shows them at their best. Marinating them in vinegar and seasoning them with a bit of garlic and parsley shows off the virtues of this oily, flavorful fish very well, and they’re great paired with crackers and olives as they’re served here. My companions admitted that they enjoyed them more than they usually like anchovies, though I ended up eating about half of them.
My companions were happier with the roasted heirloom carrots, which were served over labneh yoghurt with a drizzle of tahini and sprinkle of dukkah seasoning. There was also a dash of pomegranate molasses, an ingredient that I use to balance heavy, meaty flavors and that I thought was superfluous with the carrots. We ordered a side of pita to scoop up the last of the cheese, because we didn’t want to waste it. We might have actually used the mac and cheese bites for this if we had thought of it, because the cool creaminess would have gone nicely with the rich crispness, but we didn’t think of this until we had mere morsels left. I generally scorn deep fried mac and cheese as kid food modified to be a bar snack, but had to admit that this version has a nice enough chile kick and parmesan richness to not be out of place in a wine-centric establishment.
The mushroom risotto cakes and the fennel and citrus salad arrived together, and there could hardly be a better set of complementary flavors. The risotto included both fresh and pickled mushrooms, an innovation I’ve never seen before, and a very good one. Alternating a bite of this with the citrusy, fresh fennel and orange salad with fresh burrata and pistachios was an experience I could repeat any time. We might have ordered seconds had we not known that the main courses were coming.
These were a saffron risotto with pickled cauliflower topped with grilled prawns and a plate of meatballs in a zingy, rich sauce topped with a single large sheet of freshly made pasta, crowned with a bit of pesto and fresh parsley. The meatballs were larger than any I’ve seen in Italy, but had the fluffy texture of an Italian meatball rather than the more dense American version. If these are still on the menu when you visit, get them – they’re very good. Save some bread to mop up the sauce.
The prawns and risotto were a beautiful presentation adorned with circles of zucchini, edible flowers, and sprigs of fresh herbs, and they tasted as good as they looked. The pickled cauliflower was less of a flavor element than the circle of chive oil that rimmed the bowl, but there were little bursts of flavor each time you hit one. Like most items here except the boquerones, the portions were substantial — we had dithered over ordering another starter but were glad we saved room for dessert.
That said, the dessert was the only disappointment, albeit a mild one. The menu promised a Basque-style cheesecake, which is distinctive from other versions because of the intense cheese flavor. This version was better than an average cheesecake but lacked the rich cheese funkiness that we expected. The crumbled nuts, fresh ricotta, and berry coulis made it an above-average cheesecake, but a bit short of the boldness we hoped for. We paired it with a glass of Rotta Black, a sweet dessert wine from Mid-Point that had a rich grape flavor and the overtones of butterscotch and caramel that you get in deliberately oxidized dessert wines. And yes, I’m back to discussing wines again even though I left out several that we tried in the course of the meal, because there just isn’t room in this article to cover all of them.
Though the Palos Verdes Wine Club has been open for only two months, the service is assured and the experience flows naturally. There are questions about the future of the business, as this area is scheduled to be redeveloped in a few years. Owner Jeff Rinna says he plans to move when he gets the word from the landlord that this building is headed for bulldozer oblivion, but plans to stay here as long as he can because he likes the space. He’s building a clientele that might support larger and fancier digs while figuring out the logistics of changing his wine list bimonthly, a challenge that most restaurateurs don’t have. This is an adventurous operation that deserves to succeed, and it will be fascinating to see how it evolves.
The Palos Verdes Wine Club is at 767 Deep Valley Drive in Rolling Hills Estates. Open Thurs. — Sun. 4 — 10 p.m. Street parking. Beer or soft drinks served if you don’t like wine. Some vegetarian items. (310) 377-7892, PVWineClub.com. Pen
