September 28, 2014 Seasons Restaurant

September 28, 2014  Seasons Restaurant

Bea Torgerson is visiting us for a few days. this morning while i was watching the Sunday morning news programs she went to MacDonalds and bought us fried potato cakes and sausage biscuits which we ate with some grapes she had bought yesterday.

  

In the evening Bea invited me and Laura and her son, Shawn, to dinner at Seasons. We started with a cheese board with three cheeses: a creamy sheep’s milk Italian Romano Rusta, a smooth semi-firm Spanish goat’s Milk flavored with merlot and an aged Spanish Manchego, which were all interesting and had lovely flavor.  The cheese board was garnished with fresh black berries, candied pistachios, a lovely apricot jam and slices of toast French baguette.  

We then ordered.  I split the house special; a 24 oz. Bone in Rib Eye steak with Laura.  It served at least 1 inch thick and served with smashed potatoes flavored with horseradish and haricot vert string beans blanched and tossed in butter and seasoned with ground pepper.

Bea ordered a salmon filet which was served with an interesting medley of Japanese buckwheat soba noodles, corn and spinach  

  Shawn ordered the other special; a grille pork tender.  The portions were so large that everyone ended up taking leftovers home in boxes.

Bea wanted to try one of Roger Roessler’s wines.  There were two on the menu; an R2 Black Pine pinot noir and a Rhapsody in Blu red Rhone blend.  Bea knew Roger when he lived in Albuquerque and so did I.  I interviewed him when I reviewed him for a restaurant review of his Ogelvie’s restaurant at the corner of Louisiana and Central in the 80’s in the Albuquerque Monthly.  

Here is the more recent info about how Roger’s interest in wine developed into the winery business known as R2:

R2 = R Squared   Our mission is to create wines for you that not only are great expressions of their place of origin but also simply taste great! We currently produce our Black Pine Pinot Noir, Rhapsody en Blu Rhone Red blend, Big Bend Chardonnay and Vin Blancs Rhone White Wine blend. In addition we produce wines of very limited quantity that we feel are distinctive enough to warrant offering them to our tasting room and wine club members to enjoy.   Roger Roessler, co-founder Having spent over 40 years in the restaurant business, Roger Roessler found himself with a natural and growing attraction to wines and winemaking. Over the years, his restaurants went through many changes, including an increased emphasis on fine wines. One of those restaurants was the Swiss Hotel, located on the plaza in Sonoma, and while working on that project in the 1990s, he found himself drawn to make a permanent home in the wine country. In the heart of wine country it wasn’t long before his idea of making wine became a reality. During the years from 2000 to 2011, crafting single vineyard and appellation blended Pinot Noir became a new passion. Also during that period, Roger began to think of a new vision and direction: create truly great value wines that expressed the characteristics of place as well as their varietal character. Now the Pinot Noir he loves so much has been joined by a handful of other wines.

Bon Appétit