October 11, 2013 Love Apple, Taos, N.M.

October 11, 2013 Love Apple, Taos, N.M.

We made reservations at the Love Apple for dinner at 8:15 p.m.

We left Albuquerque around 2:30 and after a stop in Santa Fe's Magistrate Court and Restore It, we arrived at the Kachina Lodge in Taos at around 6:15.  We rested for a few minutes and then walked to the Taos Ale House located just south of the Kachina Lodge, that Luke had gone to last weekend and recommended.  We split a pint of Taos pilsner, which was the best pilsner I have drunk in years; very refreshing and light.  

Then at around 8:00 we drove north on Camino del Pueblo to Love Apple. 

Love Apple ($$$)
803 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte
Taos, NM 87571
(575) 751-0050 (Phone)

Love Apple is an old adobe church that has been converted into a restaurant.  It emphasizes locally grown organic produce and meats.  You enter through the dry storage and walk past the kitchen to get to the dining room.  Our table for four was located beside a window.  All the windows and nichos are filled with bottles of wine and lit candles.

The wine list is pretty extensive.  Our waitress was quite knowledgeable about the wines.  She first brought us a taste of the 2012 Domaine Amido Tavel rosé.  It was a little syrupy and had a strong taste of syrah although the menu said it had only 10% syrah.  When Ricardo and Cynthia arrived we started looking at the menu.  It was Ricardo and Cynthia’s first time to eat at Love Apple.  Cynthia quickly decided upon a chicken breast for her entrée and Ricardo took my suggestion to try the pink trout cook in corn husks.  Suzette ordered the Antelope special and I ordered the boar tenderloin special.   

Cynthia and Ricardo each ordered seasonal salads that were lovely, with a wedge of grilled local goat chevre on the top of lots of different organic lettuces and greens garnished with local pecans and slices of fresh apple.  The salad was drizzled with great local honey, and dressed with lemon and olive oil vinaigrette.  It was one of the best parts of the meal.  As it turns out most of the fresh produce is unavailable due to an early frost.   So the entrees emphasized grains and beans.  My boar tenderloin was sliced and served on a plate of bolita beans (similar to pintos)

, Suzette’ antelope was served with a gratin napoleon of potatoes layered with gruyere cheese and a lovely green parsley-lemon gremolata, Cynthia’s chicken was served on a bed of quinoa.  Ricardo’s trout was the best dish and had the best side, a pink trout wrapped in corn husks with lime compound butter and topped with chipotle crema and served with a quinoa-pinon fritter garnished with a cilantro-lime relish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought my boar was just so-so and the cooked bolita beans boring, but everyone else like their entrees.

We decided to order a bottle of white and a bottle of red.  We quickly decided upon a 2011 Reverdy, Sancerre, which I had bought a Kokoman and found to be a lovely bottle of wine; crisp fruity with slight minerality; although a little pricey at $47.00 we all felt it was worth the extra cost.  

 I saw a bottle of red I had not had before; a 2011 Frédéric and Daniel Brunier, 80% Grenache, Vin de Pays du Vaucluse, France for $36.00 and asked our waitress about it.  She was very helpful and said that the vintners were famous Chateauneuf du Pape growers and well thought of.

Here is some information on them from Wine Spectator.

Daniel Brunier, 46, is vigneron and owner of Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe and La Roquète in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, along with his brother, Frédéric. He also co-owns Domaine Les Pallières in Gigondas with U.S.-based wine importer Kermit Lynch.

Vieux Télégraphe was established in 1898 by Hypolithe Brunier on the highest terrace of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, called Plateau de la Crau. Today, the domaine extends over 170 acres and is one of Châteauneuf-du-Pape's leading wineries year in and year out.

 I thought their Vaucluse wine lacked the intense character that one finds in abundance in Vieux Télégraphe, but it was well made and very smooth and washed down the beans admirably and much less money than Vieux Télégraphe, so on balance a good choice and a great introduction to a new wine I had never tasted before.

I was interested in trying dessert and the others went along with my idea, so I ordered a chocolate pot au crème and an apple crisp.  The apple crisp was made with fresh apples and caramel and whipped cream.  The chocolate pot au crème was a little more predictable (it clearly used French or Belgium dark chocolate), but Cynthia thought that hers was better and I thought it was not as good as my French baked chocolate pudding, so kind of a hit and a miss on dessert.   The others only ate one bite of each and I realized that I was reaching for something to make the meal memorable after missing on my ordering, but I liked both desserts and found them flavorful and the apple crisp first rate.   We all loved the heart lemon flavored shaped cookies served on each dessert.

Love Apple accepts only cash and checks and so we paid in cash and messed up the tip calculation and counting of the money but our waitress was waiting by the door to correct our error and we finally worked out the money part.  We got home around 10:15 after a delightful meal.

Bon Appétit