It’s been a while.  We hit Tales of the Cocktail back in July – and not long after I got back from that I found out that my job was sending me out of the country.  It was the first time for me doing so, which also meant I got to do the fun of trying to get a passport in less than two weeks (surprisingly easy in the DC area once you get past the misinformation and apathy), get my stuff together, and head out to South Korea.

Which, really, at least the parts I was in, seemed to have no cocktail culture.  I didn’t even see a bottle of Campari the entire time I was there which meant that first Negroni back was magical – not to mention how I almost came to tears tasting hops in my Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA the first day back.  I did have my soju, and lots and lots of Cass and Hite, but that’s neither here nor there for this post.

Before I left I had a chance to meet up with Erich and Lindsay from Leopold Brothers over at The Gibson.  They took me on a tour of fourteen of their products, from vodka and gin to flavored whiskey to liqueurs, and I was honestly surprised at a lot of them.  When I got back I was lucky enough to find my favorite liquor shop was carrying some of them.  One thing you might not be able to see from the picture is that each bottle is hand numbered.

Keep away, this bottle is mine

We first started off with the vodka.  It uses multiple bases for it and instead of filtering distills it more.  I was really expected to say “meh, vodka” but liked the complexity I tasted in it when warm.  I haven’t bought a bottle yet but I’d have to say it’s more likely to be the kind of vodka I’ll buy for drinking straight – yes, I do that, shut up vodka haters – than for mixing.  Use the cheaper, more one dimensional stuff for mixing where you ain’t gonna taste it.  This is the kind I’ll knock back and chase with caviar and sour cream on homemade potato chips at New Year’s Eve.

Next up was the gin, which has a number of botanicals that are all distilled separately before being added together.  I picked out cardamom and coriander, I’m going to guess by accident, though I was surprised to see how floral it was and that there wasn’t much of a pine hit to it.  This is the gin I used to make my first Negroni after coming back to the States and while it was fine in that, it really shone in gin and tonic, especially with the Fentiman’s tonic.  I’ll be making more of those now that I managed to steal my bottle back.

After the gin we hit the rum.  It reminded me quite a bit of a rhum agricole – not something I’d necessarily drink straight but an interesting flavor.

The next three drinks we had were their flavored whiskeys.  They’re working on a plain whiskey but I didn’t get a chance to try that.

First up was the apple whiskey.  This was, as I said then and will still say now until I’ve drank too much of it, “slap yo’ momma” good.  (Note: now my momma will probably slap me, but what will be will be.  It’s worth it.)  They use real apples and smash the fruit in house.  I was reminded me of a story my grandfather told me about drinking hard cider made in bourbon barrels that had bourbon left in the bottom.  I seriously need to get at least a bottle or two of this, especially as fall approaches.  In fact, I have plans for me, a bottle, and NOBODY ELSE BOTHERING ME WHILE I WATCH FOOTBALL.  I don’t wanna share.

The blackberry whiskey was much more aggressive in the taste profile.  I almost felt like it was more like a blackberry wine in taste.  It didn’t bowl me over, but I could see how someone who really likes blackberries would love it (coughcoughMarshall) and it could be good in some things.  It was my first hint at what was my problem – there are too many good things in the line-up, I can’t afford them all!  (Not to mention store them, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  If Leopold Brothers (coughing again, man, what is in the air tonight?!) gave me a bottle of each, I’d damn well find somewhere to store ‘em…and not just in my belly.)

The peach whiskey was something I didn’t expect at all.  The proof on this one dropped from 80 to 60, but while I typically am not a huge fan of peaches I liked this.  I immediately started thinking of a lot of drinks that I’ve seen that incorporate peach  brandy or the such and was wondering how this would work (such as the Georgia Mint Julep from the first edition of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails – it might be in the second, but sigh I haven’t gotten that yet).

From there we went to the liqueurs.

The peach liqueur, like most of them if I remember correctly, uses three pounds of peaches per 750 milliliter bottle.  It was very concentrated, almost to a syrup.  It seemed much more of a one-trick pony to me and not something I’d buy unless I had something specific to use for it.

The tart cherry, though, made me thinking “maraschino liqueur that actually tastes like cherry”.  I’m tempted to pick one up – the difference between it, maraschino liqueur, and cherry Heering is a fascinating idea to me and something I’d like to experiment with.

yes it's dark, what, The Gibson is a dark bar

Next up was the blackberry.  If I thought the blackberry whiskey was like wine this was REALLY like wine, made with four pounds of blackberries per 750.  I liked it a lot – however, I saw myself drinking it more on its own as a dessert (or like I’ve done (ahem) to Horton blackberry wines in the past, chilled and straight from the bottle while at a horse race).

Cranberry was described as “great for your mom” and I was wondering if my mom was getting hit on in absentia.  I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but it did make me think of Thanksgiving, maybe kind of Christmas, so I might try to revisit it as those holidays approach.  (What?!  It’s September?  Feh, I guess I better get on that!)

The sour apple liqueur was like apple juice to me and I mean that in the nicest possible way.  Maybe I need an Apfelkorn versus sour apple liqueur battle in my future.  They’re not the same but they are both very delicious.

The French Press coffee liqueur was something I did not expect at all.  The use the same press to make coffee with the liqueur as they do the fruit, with one added exception – they actually add sugar to the coffee liqueur.  My goodness.  You can taste the quality in this one.  If you like coffee liqueurs either be prepared to give all your money to Leopold Brothers or don’t bother trying it.

Overly bright, overly tasty

Then we hit the herbal side.

They had a digestif called 3 Pins.  Very herbal, but sweet, I would definitely enter it in a battle royale with some of my favorite European digestifs.  It honestly probably reminds me of Hog Master more than a lot of them, since it’s so sweet, but I’d love to break it out for my friends who also like 999, the new Zwack, and Jagermeister.  If I was going to make an old fashioned with it like one might do with Fernet it would need a solid hit of bitters but maybe nothing else.

But the absinthe.

A quick note on me and absinthe: I like absinthe okay but I’d never really seen the holy grail of absinthes.  At Tales, over at the Mixo house, I was introduced to an Obsello reserve absinthe that had aged in barrels.  It wow-ed me.  I loved it.  I was like “OH THIS IS WHAT YOU LOVE”.

The Leopold absinthe uses 15 herbs for flavoring, is aged for three months, and uses 15 herbs for coloring.  It has a HUGE oil meniscus when it louches, and was amazingly smooth when I tried it.  At $71.99 at Ace, I was sorely tempted to buy some, the first time I’d really considered spending that much on an absinthe.  I may still do so, once I take care of a few other things, because it’s damn delicious.

If you haven’t tried these yet you really need to do so.  Ace carries a few of them; Best Cellars in Dupont Circle, from what I hear, carry more.  I’ll be heading out there soon to buy apple whiskey, believe you me.

And great to see y’all again!

Specifically, I’m talking about PUG! muddlers.  I had read a few articles on these hand-made muddlers around the interwebs and they have had some great reviews.  Where most bar equipment can readily be purchased on-line at any number of on-line retailers, PUG! muddlers are a little more difficult to come by.  You see, there is no website to sell them.

The maker, Chris Gallagher takes orders via email.  It is actually a great way to talk to Chris and find out what types of wood he’s using at any given time, photos of various muddlers and the cost.  PUG! is actually an acronym for “Pick Up Gallaghers!” and to be honest, I don’t think I’ll pick up another muddler again.  These are that good.

Maple (L) & Cherry Wood (R)

You can see from the photo above that the shape is pretty unique.  The angled top really allows the palm of your hand to rest comfortably on the muddler.  It also gives you more control and a more efficient use of force to muddle.   In other words, it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to really do the job.  The height of the muddler also allows you to really reach the bottom of your mixing glass or tin.  These things are a beast!  And can offer personal protection if an unruly customer comes calling!

Almost as tall as a bottle of gin!

When I emailed Chris, I asked for the cherry wood muddler.  One thing I didn’t think about, and Chris was kind enough to point out before I made my purchase, was that different woods have different densities.  These densities play a discernable role in the job at hand.  A lighter wood will require slightly more force to muddle than a more dense wood.

When Chris sent me the shipping confirmation, he dropped the bomb that he was also sending me the maple wood muddler!  He asked me to put them both through their paces and let him know what I thought.

Well, this past weekend at Sean’s housewarming party, Sean, Rick and I did just that.  Both muddlers worked wonderful.  The added bonus of the heavier maple was that it could be used to bash the living hell out of ice cubes for crushed ice and swizzles.  We all know how Rick loves his swizzles . . .

I’ll be honest, these muddlers are not cheap.  Depending on the wood they run $30-35 and the more exotic Mexican hardwoods run in the $60 range.  Is this more than you are likely to pay for any other muddler?  Most likely, yes.  Is this one of the best bar implements I currently own?  Yes.  Will I recommend these whole heartedly?  YES!

Medley of Motley Muddlers

If you are interested in purchasing a PUG! muddler, email Chris Gallagher at jcgallagher08@hotmail.com.

No, not drink them! Wait…yes, drink them, taste them, mix with them, see what happens with them.

One thing is not like the other…

…yes, one of these is a mini. Partida only sent a mini of their tequila, while the other three (inocente, Jose Cuervo Silver, and Tequila Ocho) sent fifths. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t experiment as much as I’d like with Partida, but you take what you can. (And keep that in mind – if you want cocktail bloggers to actually make COCKTAILS with your liquor, you need to provide enough for us to work with, and odds are, you won’t send enough in minis.)

I went with my usual way of experimenting with new liquors – smell, straight without ice, straight with ice, and in a mixed drink. Obviously, given Tiare’s post, the liquor, and the fact that tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, I had to go with the margarita as my drink!

Ahhh, my UVA glasses…wahoowah.

I’d tried the Tequila Ocho once or twice in the past, and Gina down at PS7 had hooked me up with tastes of the inocente. The Cuervo had yet to be cracked, though I like their Tradicional (but note this was the only one that wasn’t advertised as 100% blue agave), and I couldn’t recall having tried the Partida before. So it was time to sniff.

First off, look at the colors, if you can see them there. The Partida is by far the most yellow, the color of straw, and the inocent had a slight hint of yellow as well. The others were blanco – white.

Sniffing them, the Partida seemed very smooth. The Ocho I wanted to say was more floral, definitely more complex, but a bit more of an alcohol smell on it. The Jose Cuervo Silver – uh, do not smell this one at length. The inocente is complex, not as floral as the Ocho but a bit more earthy maybe.

Then to taste. I used to always shoot tequila but I had a girlfriend for a while that was from Texas and she managed to switch me to enjoying it on its own. I looked forward to this part most of all.

Partida is smooth, very smooth, just a slight burn on it. I’d have no problem recommending it.

The Ocho had no real burn at all, slightly floral taste. It was also quite good and I’d recommend trying it this way.

The Cuervo – no. In fact, to quote my notes: “no no no no no no”.

The inocente was more complex than even the Ocho, with a hint of floral and an earthy taste. To be honest, for me, leaving out the Cuervo, it was a toss-up between which is the best. Like most straight liquors, it depends on what you like.

Next I added a single ice cube to each of them. I let it sit for a minute – often times the water/ice combination changes the flavor of the liquor.

The Partida, in fact, seemed to me to show even more complexity with a bit of water in it. I also noticed a bit more burn on the first taste of it, but not on the second, so that might’ve been just a bit of a fluke. It’s a throw up which I’d prefer.

The Ocho was lighter than it had been before but still good – you could taste the floral in it but it wasn’t overwhelming. I’d prefer it without the ice, myself.

Then we were onto the Cuervo again.

[21:10] SeanMike: oh dear god now it’s time for the jose cuervo again
[21:10] my friend: hahaha

Yes, I was a bit biased going into it but let me quote my notes again:

* Jose Cuervo Silver – no – gasoline – yuck

It was advertised a shooting tequila and – yeah. Don’t linger on this one.

The inocente, with the ice, seemed to retain its complexity with the ice and did have a bit more burn. Like the Ocho, I’d go without the ice, myself.

Finally, it was time for margaritas. Unfortunately for the Partida, which I’d be interersted to see how it tastes, I was out of it – so it was just the other three. I used the recipe from Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology.

Margarita
1 1/2 ounces white tequila
1 ounce triple sec
1/2 ounce lime juice

I used Cointreau for the triple sec and squeezed fresh limes.

Made with the Ocho, it made for a good, if not anything inspiring. It was good, but nothing I’d jump up and down about it. I dunno. Maybe I was spoiled by the mezcal margaritas from Marshall‘s recipe on Friday night…

The Cuervo – I initially wanted not to like it. But the more I tried it, the more I’d say “it’s not bad” – it had more personality, perhaps, than the Ocho, but it also had more of a “off” taste to me in addition. So – yeah – 50-50 – more taste, but also more bad taste to it. Not bad, but not great. I’m betting if you added something more to it – maybe some orange bitters, for instance – it wouldn’t be half-bad. (And if you’re one of those heathens using the HFCS-infused neon-green mixtures, well, it won’t matter so much.)

The inocente won out overall. It has a bit of complexity that sticks out through the lime juice and Cointreau, while not overwhelmed by the problems of the Cuervo.

Overall results: The Cuervo was advertised a shooter tequila and was the only one not made from 100% blue agave (according to the bottles). It, perhaps predictably, also fared the worst in taste, and really didn’t have much to recommend it. If I can find something to make with it, I’ll suggest it, but it might be something more complex than a margarita.

The Partida wasn’t bad, especially over ice. For a sipping tequila, I’d recommend it if you wanted it over ice, but I’m still interested how it’d do in a margarita.

Between the Ocho and the inocente, it depends on what you prefer, personally, but I think overall I have to go with the inocente if you wanted to also make margaritas with it.

Once my bottle got here, I was taken by two things.  First, the label on the whiskey touts it as a “prohibition era recipe.”  The back label tells the story of how Templeton Rye became a favorite of Al Capone and became a centerpiece of his bootlegging empire.  The second thing that stood out was the aroma.

On the nose, this whiskey smells of caramel, toffee, citrus, banana and that unmistakenly spicey aroma of rye.  There is no alcohol burn on the aroma just sweet sweet whiskey.

So it smells good, but how the hell does it taste?  Sipped neat, the 80 proof rye brings plenty of flavor.  Toffee and caramel (just like the nose) are prevalent and there is a floral quality on the finish, almost like elderflowers.  There is certainly the robustness of a good whiskey, yet there is no burn on the finish at all.  Over ice, the oakiness of the rye seems to jump to the fore.

I haven’t used the Templeton to mix very many cocktails.  I did use the Templeton with a little simple syrup and a few dashes of my homemade bitters (more on those soon!) – pretty much an old fashioned whiskey cocktail without the muddled fruit salad.  It was quite delicious!

One thing to keep in mind with the Templeton Rye is that it certainly isn’t as spicey as most ryes on the market.  The only other rye I have with a similar spice level is the Ri1.  However, the Templeton is heads and shoulders above the Ri1 in my opinion.

Templeton is just now starting to be distributed further than their home base in Iowa.  Check their website for current locations.  If you can find it, I highly recommend Templeton.

Cheers!

The week before Christmas, I was perusing one of my favorite food related sites, DonRockwell.com, and came across an entry for Chilhowie, Virginia.  I was a little dumbfounded.  Chilhowie is a very small town right off Interstate 81 in the southwestern part of Virginia, very close to the Tennessee state line.  You see, I grew up in an equally small town, Saltville, which just so happens to be about 8 miles from Chilhowie.  In fact, you have to get off the interstate at Chilhowie in order to get to Saltville.

Anyway, I was reading several posts about a restaurant in Chilhowie called the Town House.  The posters were throwing out platitudes such as “best meal of my life” and “one of the most exciting restaurants in the country.”  I immediately called my Mom and said, “Mom, we need to eat at this place while I in town.  Let’s get reservations.”  She agreed and after some discussion we settled for 5:00pm dinner reservations on Friday, December 26th.

Much more after the jump . . .

A little history of the restaurant.  Opened in 2002 by Tom and Kyra Bishop, the Town House was generally a steak and seafood place.  More upscale than the normal “out to eat” places.  Back home, going out to eat either meant a fast food restaurant or a Chili’s/Friday’s/Ruby Tuesday’s type of place.  Keep in mind that this area of Virginia is nowhere near a metropolitan center.  Roanoke, Virginia is two hours north and Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee is about half an hour south – neither huge urban areas in their own right.  Not happy with their success, Tom and Kyra decided to make the Town House into a world-class sophisticated fine dining restaurant.  In this vein they began a nationwide hunt for a chef that would, borrowing from an over-used cultural reference for a second, kick it up a notch.

What luck in that they found two chefs for the new direction of Town House.  Tom and Kyra hired two executive chefs, both from Chicago, John Shields and Karen Urie.  Chef Shields came from Alinea where he was sous chef under Grant Achatz and helped Alinea win Gourmet Magazine’s Best Restaurant in America award.  Karen Urie came from Charlie Trotter’s where she was Head Pastry Chef for two of her five years at the restaurant.  Chef Urie also spent two years at TRU working under Gale Gand, a James Beard Award-winning Pastry Chef.  In addition to these fine chefs, Tom and Kyra added Charlie Berg as Sommelier.

Chefs Shields and Urie use fresh, seasonal ingredients in all their dishes and wherever possible source their ingredients from the local farming community.  I was very happy to hear that most of their ingredients come from the local farmers and learned that the restaurant hosts a monthly “farmers table” dinner which highlights the produce or proteins from a particular farm.  Even the coffee comes from a local roaster.  Mr. Berg has amassed an impressive wine list and was very impressive with his knowledge of each particular wine and it’s pairing with a dish.  Ahhh, but I’m jumping a little ahead of myself here . . .

The Town House’s menu is divided into three sections.  The first section is called “one, two, three.”  This is basically your ala cart menu.  You can choose one course, two courses or three courses.  The second section of the menu is their four-course tasting menu.  The third section is their eight-course tasting menu.  With each tasting menu wine pairings are available.

I should say that honestly, I was a little worried about taking my Mom to Town House.  She isn’t a very adventurous eater and tends to stick to things with which she’s much more familiar.  She even told me that she looked at the Town House’s menu and didn’t see much she thought sounded very good.  Oh oh.  That had me worried.  But as I told her, when she was a kid she ate squirrel and I remember her fixing fried chicken gizzards when I was a kid.  Nothing on the menu would be as strange and exotic sounding as squirrel or fried chicken gizzards.

I had already decided that I was going for the full out eight course tasting menu with wine pairings.  My mom decided to go for the four course tasting menu without the wine.  Mr. Berg, who also performed server duties, asked if we would either both do the four or eight course menu in order to make it easier on the kitchen.  I was more than willing to offer to take the four course menu when my Mom, bless her heart, decided on doing the eight.  She said it was probably the only time in her life she’ll have this opportunity and she might as well go for it.  Huzzah!

And now for the good stuff . . .

While waiting for our first course, we were presented with an amous bouche which was as Mr. Berg described it, “Our version of an Oreo.”  It was a black olive cookie with olive oil filling rolled in parmesan.  They were light, intensely flavored of parm and olive oil.  Very very tasty and a great start to the evening.  In fact, it was so good, I completely forgot to take a picture until too late.  You’ll notice that this happened far too often during the meal, or rather when I’ve already taken a few bites and then thought, “OH CRAP!  A picture!”  Yes, I yell at myself in all caps.

Our next dish came out and like the amous bouche, it was a little taste, not included in the menu.  This time we had a profile of crab.  It was a crab chip – think of the texture of pork rinds, but made of crab – with a hunk of fresh crab in the middle dusted with Old Bay seasoning.  The crab crisp/chip was fantastic in texture and flavor, but once you got to the sweet morsel of crab in the middle – Wow.

Next was our first course.  Because my Mom had originally asked for the four course menu, she was presented with the first course she chose from that menu – the “Hot Chestnut” described on the menu as “quince braised with grapefruit, bay leaf, bacon ice cream, potato starch.”  I tried a taste and it was pretty good.  It was served warm and the main component was a mousse like substance that had shaved black truffle.  To me, the truffle overpowered everything else, including the bacon ice cream which I was dying to taste.  My first course was another crab dish.  This time it was king crab served on a gelee of lime accompanied by a coconut foam, tamarind and a muscovado sugar crisp.  It was light and delicious.  The flavors worked wonderfully and I loved it.

Our next dish was a “Candied Yam & Golden Char Roe.”  This dish was a perfectly cooked yam wrapped in a thin sheet of “prosciutto” which was made from Benton’s ham.   On top of the bundle of tasty were tapioca pearls which were the consistency of rice krispies, the golden char roe, and “candied” portion of cotton candy.  All of this sat in a pool of black sesame oil which highlighted all of the flavors without overpowering them.  Another fantastic dish – easily within the top three dishes I had.

Prior to our next course, Mr. Berg brought out two freshly baked black-pepper ciabatta loaves and olive oil for dipping.  The bread was warm, crusty and delicious with the olive oil.  Obviously Chef Urie’s passion for baking brought these little loaves to our table and we were quite delighted to have them.

Our next course was “Chorizo Bouillon.”  It was a clear soup that had the requisite flavor of chorizo – absolutely delicious on its own.  However, the soup contained many surprises.  Small dices of cuttlefish swam with cubes of gelanitized sherry.  Liquid manchego cheese and egg yolk had been encapsulated to look like gnocchi floating in the soup.  Finally, one large capsule contained cuttlefish ink.  The ink was intensely flavorful, but in a good way, and everything about this dish sang.   I really wish I had taken a photo of this dish.  I don’t think I remembered my camera until I thought about licking the inside of the bowl but was afraid someone would take a picture.  But I was very close to not caring!

The next dish was the lone quasi-disappointment of my meal.  I say quasi-disappointment because I think the dish was executed really well and for the most part I enjoyed it, except for the protein of which I’m not a big fan.  The dish was “Poached Squab Breast” and it contained Thai basil, a “golden egg” which was a bright yellow capsule (which looked just like an egg yolk) containing liquefied fois gras, and a root beer consume.  My problem was that the squab was very gamey and I’m not a huge fan of gamy flavors.  The fois, basil and rootbeer blended nicely with the squab and helped tame the gamy quality quite a bit and overall the dish was good – not great as the rest had been, but good.  This was the only dish of the night my Mom didn’t like at all.  Again, I was too wrapped up in eating to take a picture.

Next came the 36 hour Confit of Lamb in Nicoise Olive Oil.  Wow.  Just flat out Wow!  The lamb was fork tender and packed with flavor.  It was accompanied with a red wine reduction, mustard greens, crushed pistachios and a carrot taffy.  If I remember correctly, the foam you see in the picture is made from a brine that was used on the lamb.  It was salty and olive-y and a great addition.  Everything on the plate contributed to the dish without overpowering the lamb or the dish as a whole.  Fantastic dish, hands down.

Next up was another dish that I had seen on the online menu and was excited to try, the Gorgonzola Custard.  This had, as you might expect, a gogonzola custard (more like an ice cream to me), with a dollop of cooked cranberrys, a length of candied buddha’s hand and a beet meringue.  The meringue was crispy and a nice contrast to the cool smooth custard (ice cream.)

Our next dish was the “Crab Apple” desert.  Basically it was a scoop of the best apple flavored ice cream you would ever want to eat, a caramelized pudding ice cream, a funnel-cake-esque caraway seed tempura and oats.  The oats were scattered along the bottom of the plate and also contained in a thin test-tube looking container on the side.  When you cracked the tube’s shell (I’m pretty sure it was made of sugar) you could mix the oats with everything else.  Somewhere I read a review of this desert and the author said something to the effect that this was simply the best apple crisp you could ever have and it is unabashedly so.  I don’t think I can argue that point.

Our final dish was another desert called “Fall Colors.”  This one is hard to describe.  The flavors were of chocolate, raisins, hubbard squash, Indian curry and granola.  The colors were shades of brown and black, a bright orange carrot sauce, and a white chocolate sauce.  Textures ranged from crispy to soft and everything just worked.  Without having one in front of me to eat and explain as I write, I’m afraid my words will be insufficient.  Again, like just about everything else, it was surprising, daring and delicious.

Each of the dishes listed above was paired with a wine or beer by Mr. Berg.  Each went with the corresponding dish beautifully.  Mr. Berg was also kind enough to write down each wine I had with each course, which is unfortunately not with me as I write this.  But I can say that at least one of the wines, a Marenco Brachetto d’Aqui, I loved so much, that I immediately emailed Joe Riley at Ace Beverage and put in an order for a few bottles!

After our last dish, we ordered coffee and talked with Kyra Bishop a while.  We were also treated to a shot of pumpkin water with cream (I called it a pumpkin pie shooter, sans alcohol) and a vanilla lollipop.  The lollipop “stick” was fashioned out of a dried vanilla bean with each end inside the lollipop.  The lollipops were presented as ornaments hanging off of branches of a tree.  The flavor was pure vanilla.  If you’re a vanilla fiend like I am you would go gaga over these lollipops.  And trust me, I did!

Chef Shields came out and talked to us for a while and at the end of our dinner we were treated with a trip to the kitchen to say hello to Chef Urie and the three sous chefs working that night.

Was the dinner one of the best I’ve had?  Yes.  Is it worth a trip to southwest Virginia?  Yes.  I enjoyed my meal immensely and was very humbled by the graciousness and kindness of everyone at Town House.