Del Raye Bar and Grille
1 Bridge St., Northampton
Phone: 413-586-2664
Hours: Sun.-Thu. 5-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5-11 p.m. Bar open late on weekends.
Prices: To $30.95 for dinner menu; wine dinners $40-$70 per person.
Local Harvest is one of 12 wine dinners being held through the year at Del Raye Bar and Grille. Last week, chef Jose Jimenez and the restaurant’s sommelier Stephen St. Francis Decky pulled off a locavore trifecta with food and wine procured within 150 miles of the Northampton restaurant. Exceptions include a ringer from Long Island (smoked duck breast) and a California Zinfandel, and of course coffee and olive oil.
The Valley may be paradise to some, but it is far from the ocean. Jimenez brought in Dover sole from Casco Bay and sea scallops caught on the Cape. Greens picked in the Berkshires, forged mushrooms from Colrain, well-bred chickens from Wendell and South Hadley root vegetables found their way onto this menu. Each course is heaven for folks attempting to save the planet by eating locally.
If saving the planet involves the free-range chicken and local wild mushroom “cigar” appetizer, sign me up. This welcome starter of the feast was a mixture of mushrooms and chicken rolled, Hatfield-style, in pastry and deep-fried. It is healthy, politically correct and delicious.
The wine served with the appetizer course was a Sakonnet Vidal Blanc 2006 from Little Compton, Rhode Island. The grapes for this wine selection are grown in a “microclimate” and soil conditions that are on par with those of the Loire Valley. It was described in the menu as “round and soft, with a pleasantly dry finish,” which was true. The fact that it was fairly innocuous made for a nice pairing with the other appetizers, sweet dumpling squash soup and herb olive oil-poached George’s Bank sea scallop.
An outstanding presentation of greens came next in the form of the Farmer’s Market Salad. Dressed in Berkshire blue cheese and hazel nuts, it made a nice palate cleanser although the Corey Creek Domaine CC Rosé was very, very sweet.
St. Francis Decky worked the room, explaining the wines he selected for each course to each party in the restaurant. The Zinfandel was introduced by its producer, Bill Dendor of Ware. A self-described pioneer in New England wines, Dendor described his collaboration on this zin called “Wisdom” as an old vine blend from Mendocino.
Wisdom has a nice full body to complement the fish, duck and pork entrées. Parsley-crusted Casco Bay Dover sole, cherrywood-smoked Long Island duck breast and Berkshire pork tenderloin medallions “B.L.T.” were great, although the delicate sole was somewhat knocked about by wine-braised fingerling potato and smoked bacon. Always a favorite when the fat is nice and crusty as it was here, the Long Island duck breast was nice and smoky, yet fleshy pink.
Dessert was a kabocha squash cake with pecan streusel and maple ice cream accompanied by Rhode Island Chancellor Port 2002. After four glasses of wine (minus the rosé), this course is a hazy memory. I recall a moist orange wedge enveloped in very rich ice cream and Decky’s description of how either the port or his upcoming exhibit of original art really stands up to the New England winter.
