De-Fleur a Maiden at Dinner

The other night we celebrated a special occasion in San Francisco at Chef Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys. Amazingly, even after many, many years in the Bay Area, we’d never been to this famous restaurant known as one of the most romantic in The City. It is one of those restaurants that stays consistently outstanding (Chef Keller has been at the helm since 1986) and continues to thrive while trendy places come and go. The food, service, and atmosphere were impeccable. I’m not going to pretend to be a food writer since I can’t do this meal justice, so I will just list our menu. I would not hesitate to recommend anything here:
Amuse bouche
Chilled Carrot & Coriander soup and Chilled Cucumber & Mint soup
First Course
Pan Seared Artisan Foie Gras with rhubarb, corn, and truffle sauce
Veal Sweetbread “Meuniere” with morel mushrooms, poached egg “purse”, toasted brioche, veal jus
Second Course
Chilled Dungeness Crab Salad with shavings of young vegetables, lobster infused vinaigrette, and lobster fondant with caviar
Wild Prawns with brioche crust (unfortunately didn’t get the full description of this one)
Third Course
Slow-Braised Snake River Farm Waygu Beef Cheeks with Pretzel Crust on spatzle, choucroute gratin and scented beer sauce
Oven Roasted Venison Chop with Truffled Baby Bok Choy accented with rich cocoa nib red wine reduction, Spanish chorizo, and cocoa tuile
Dessert
Chocolate Souffle
Grand Marnier Souffle
A four course menu is priced at $82 per person though there are additional surcharges on a few menu items. Corkage was $35 which is reasonable in The City at a restaurant of this caliber — especially since they treat the wine you bring the same as if you had ordered it off their list providing proper stemware, decanting, and giving fantastic wine service. Kudos to Marcus, the manager and sommelier that evening for making our dinner special both in food and wine.
Speaking of wine, I guess I should explain the rest of the title of this post…

• 2001 Harlan Estate The Maiden – USA, California, Napa Valley (7/14/2009)
  Wood smoke, sweet blackberries, molasses, cedar, toasty oak, river rock, and chargrilled meat. It was an outstanding wine after about an hour in the decanter and proved to be a great compliment to the meal. Not overpowering, it was a graceful heavyweight that stood up to the rich, big flavors of the French Alsatian meal at Chef Hubert Keller’s Fleur De Lys (San Francisco). The one negative: after about 2 hours in the decanter, I did notice the fruit starting to trail off and the tannins coming across as a bit dry and dusty. It makes me wonder if the time to drink and enjoy this wine is now, not later. (91 pts.)
  Posted from CellarTracker