It had been a couple of months since we last visited Eat Street Social, so the invitation to join around 20 Twin Cities tastemakers on Wednesday for a first-ever Washington wine-maker event, and food pairing, was too good to pass up. The dinner was held in Eat Street’s new tiki room, which we first visited for cocktails just after it first opened (a current highlight: the spring sangria, lending spices and bitters to rum). Chad Johnson of Dusted Valley (Wine & Spirits’ 2013 Winery of the Year) and Ryan Crane of Kerloo Cellars (Seattle Magazine’s 2013 Best Emerging Winery) teamed up with chef Geoff Little to create a five-course meal to showcase pairings of reds and whites with Eat Street cuisine (our wine-makers have roots in the upper Midwest, which also lent the event a local feel).
We particularly enjoyed the bone-dry Kerloo 2012 Grenache Rose, paired with a plate of springy amuses-bouches, and the elegant Boomtown Cabernet Sauvignon, whose richness combined beautifully with a tomato-braised rack of lamb—much like the strozzapreti available on the Social’s spring menu. The event afforded a perfect opportunity to look ahead to the warm-weather months coming up at Eat Street, whether in the tiki room or having a cocktail on the patio combined with the Wild Acres duck breast that’s calling our name already for our next visit.
