by the glass

[Jerry D Mead]

Thirty-plus years ago, Ken Burnap (Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard) had an Orange County, CA restaurant called The Hobbit with a then unique concept.

About 60 seats in an old Spanish style hacienda. Prix fixe menu...nine small courses (long before prix fixe was fashionable)...and you entered through the back door to the restaurant's cellar.

You were greeted with a glass of comp champagne and the first course was stand-up finger food in the wine cellar with maybe 200 selections. Each person was handed a calligraphy look menu and had 20-30 minutes in the cellar to select the wines to accompany the menu. There were one or more sommeliers to assist you.

As you made your selections, your name would be written on your bottle. Whites or sparklings were instantly placed in a giant vat of ice and water to chill...reds were opened if needed, and or decanted if necessary.

Someone rang a little chime and everyone went upstairs to their table. Your wines then appeared with appropriate stemware to accompany the courses you planned them for.

Most people would buy two wines...one white for the courses before intermission (after first five courses) and a red for the final four courses. The geeks of course came in parties of 4,6,8 or more and ordered multiple bottles.

Place started out opening only two nights a week and ended up being open 6 nights. For years it was booked weeks and months in advance. Wine prices were roughly twice wholesale and because Burnap was a wine lover himself included everything from offbeat wines to First Growth Bordeaux. I learned about many small California wineries I didn't even know existed at the time.

Forgive my reminiscing.

JDM