At our last gathering we agreed to make July Rhone Night. We also picked July 23rd (a Saturday) as the date. Since I agreed to set it up, I am asking for some input:

What kind of restaurant do we want to pick? Should we limit it to a French restaurant, or does anyone have a suggestion for some other type that would be acceptable with Rhone wines?

Do we want to strictly limit it to Rhone wines, or just to Rhone type wines?

How many folks are interested? If I am going to try to set something up, I want to be able to give an approx. head count. 10, 15, 20, ??

Is there a price range that we want to stick to? I was pleased with the price at Corduroy ($75 inclusive) and $90 inclusive doesn't make me choke either. But if it costs $120, I think some folks would have a problem.

Should we try to have a fixe price meal of 4 or 5 courses, or should we just pick a place and all order off the menu and pay a corkage fee?

I'll try to start putting out feelers to restaurants soon so please chime in.

Din...

I like the entire Rhone theme....Rhone wines, French restaurant, the whole works.

Count Mrs. T and I in...

I like a fixed 5 course menu like we had at Corduroy or what we did last week at Restaurant Kolumbia, except for those that had the veal. $120 is a bit steep but anything from $75-90 per person doesn't seem out of line.

Hope this helps...

T-Rep

I had an impromptu dinner tonight with my brother and two of my sisters et al at Aquarelle. Located in the Watergate Hotel. Nice place. I talked to the asst. manager after the meal. He thinks that they could set up a 4 or 5 course meal (they didn't have a cheese course) that would be designed to go with the wines we bring, with tax, tip and corkage inclusive for about $90. (Maybe less if we don't have the foie gras.) The view of the Potomic is nice, and the stemware was quite adequate. We all really enjoyed the meal and the service was very good. I'll post about the meal in the Where DC thread tomorrow.

Sorry- we are off to family reunion in Michigan that weekend. Anyone want some of that Tramminette I brought back for Dinwiddie? You still can't get shipping from MI and no local suppliers -- it's a great summer wine.

Norm

Dinwiddie, please count me in. I am happy with Rhones, but I certainly wouldn't look askew at someone that brought a Syrah or Rhone Ranger type wine from the New World. I haven't broached this yet with Mrs. Dave so I may be coming solo. Aquarelle sounds great. I haven't tried that one yet.

There's a good chance that I'll be on vacation that week, so I probably won't be able to attend. I know the chef though, so let me know if I can put in a good word (or a warning ) with him.

So far we have 4 (maybe 5) folks for dinner.

If getting to the Watergate is difficult (the closest METRO stop is Foggy Bottom/GWU and appears to be about 4 blocks away) and folks want us to try someplace else, I can do that too.

so far the 23rd sounds good for the two of us.


now to figure out what we can bring....

Sorry I'm out of town that weekend. Have fun!

Late July, weekends especially are never good for me, unfortunately. Too many birthdays and other stuff related thereto going on with Mrs. TJ and her family and me and mine. At last count we have 8 birthdays total to celebrate.

One of these days I do hope to make a DC cru wine bash. Rhone wines are among my faves - but already have a party scheduled for that Saturday...so another I will miss...maybe one of these days I'll manage...

Me and my wife would be interested. I am a lurking newbie when it comes to the cru but love Gigondas.

mstreger,

Newbies are always welcome at the DC Cru dinners. All we require is a love of wine and that you bring something appropriate. When we get a better count I can give you more details. For now I will tenatively count you as in.

So far we have

Dinwiddie
Dave (maybe with wife)
Mr and Mrs T-Rep
Mr and Mrs AlexRed
Mr and Mrs mstreger (tentative)

I am definitely interested. Tentatively in for now.

dinwiddle, Mrs. PH told me she'd kill me if I brought my last '98 Pegau Cuvee Reservee, so will have to dig down for an alternative.



PH

Sounds great, DW. Put us in for tentative b/c I have another work committment that evening which I can't seem to get out of at this point before we leave for Jo-burg in early August.

Doc

OK I'll count purplehaze and doc as tentative, two each.

So far we have

Dinwiddie
Dave (maybe with wife)
Mr and Mrs T-Rep
Mr and Mrs AlexRed
Mr and Mrs mstreger (tentative)
Mr and Nrs PurpleHaze (tentative)
Mr and Mrs Doc (tentative) and minidoc too.

That's 13 and a half

Sounds like fun, and I had a geat time at the last off-line, but can't make this date. Unfortunately it's not the garden, it's WORK! I may come up for air about Labor Day.

I am a bad forumite.... I have been working my a$$ off, and don't have any time to post anywhere. I am in on this one. Wine to be determined. Just picked up a new Cote Rotie and an unknown CDP which may prove interesting.... Mrs. Ph (she really does exist) is out.

PH

Edited a couple times to correct mis-spellings and other stupid stuff...

Well folks, I'm off to Maine and Jake is off to Paris. I'll set things up when I get back.