[wine] S. French Whites, New World Italians at Sapor

Greetings, Muffuletta was wonderful. Very relaxing in the back room. Sapor, 6:30 p.m. on Thursday $5 per person in lieu of corkage. Style du jour is Southern French White Grapes from anywhere and New World Italians. Recall that we got into some hot water when someone inadvertantly brought something that they claim was on their list. I belive it was a Zin from Seghesio and/or Ch. Souvreign.... Never mind that it was a different vintage and blah-blah-blah... Anyway, part of their wine list is on their web site. If you happen to bring something that's on the list (easier than you might think. Ask Russ about a split of something obscure he'd bought at a winery that was on their shelf as well.... ) We'll just save it for another week. We're never short of wine. http://www.saporcafe.com/ 428 N. Washington, Mpls 612 375 1971 Yes/Guess: Warren/Ruth Betsy Bob Nicolai Jim More guesses.... Lori Russ Roger LeClair Annette S Dave Other things: Sapor is very close to Sam's Wine Shop (closes at 8:00 M-Th). Terry Thiese Tasting is tonight. Henn-Lake tasting is ??? Big S Pre Sale Tasting is Terry Theise - Wine Tasting (99391) Terry Theise is one of the world leading authority on Germany, Austria, and Champagne and America's foremost importer of wines from these areas. We will be showing wines form Germany and Austria, and featuring selections from Leitz, Donnhoff, Brundlemayer as well as some of Germany's newest and hottest producers. Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 at 6:30pm Millennium Hotel - Horizons Ball Room 1313 Nicollet Mall in Downtown Minneapolis. Surdyk's Everyday Low Price: $35.00 When: Wednesday, June 15, 2005, 6:30 - Wednesday, June 15, 2005, 8:30 Pre-Sale Charity Spotlight Tasting (99549) S U R D Y K S Charity Pre-Sale Spotlight Tasting Event proceeds will benefit the American Heart Association The first 100 attendees to the Spotlight Tasting get a chance to win a one carat diamond valued at $7000 from Shop NBC Fine Jewerly Outlet. Buy your tickets today, and be the first to arrive! Wednesday, June 22nd 5:00pm - 6:00pm Mill City Museum 704 South Second Street - Minneapolis During this time, some of highest quality and best value wines of the Summer Sale will be featured, as well as some .special purchase. wines available during this tasting only!! Admission to the Spotlight Tasting includes admission for the entire event. Join us to sample the best of the best in this exclusive tasting taking place before the main event. Again, not all of these wines are normally available at Surdyk.s, so to purchase them you must attend this premier event! $60.00 (tax deductible) Price includes both events (Main Charity Tasting and Spotlight) SURDYK'S BENEFIT TASTING A wine tasting benefiting the American Heart Association will take place June 22 at 7 p.m. at Mill City Museum, 704 S. 2nd St. in Minneapolis. Tickets are $40 at the door or $32 in advance by calling 612-379-3232 or stopping by Surdyk's, 303 E Hennepin Av. in Minneapolis. Note: All classes/events are non-refundable. We make no exceptions to this policy; much like purchasing a ticket to a cultural or sporting event. We encourage you to send someone in your place if you are unable to attend a class/event. Those classes/events with insufficient enrollment will be canceled prior to their starting date. Therefore, early enrollment is desirable. If Surdyk.s cancels a class/event, registered attendees will be notified by phone and they can then elect to take another class/event (of the same value) from the current schedule or be fully refunded. We reserve the right to cancel or modify classes/events and menus. If we cancel a class/event due to inclement weather, we will notify you as soon as that decision is made and fully refund your registration; but if we hold a class/event, there will be no refunds due to the weather. June 15, 2005 The Anti-Michelin: Caution and Anonymity Not Required By FRANK J. PRIAL PARIS THE French have a thing for abbreviations. "Boul' Mich" is the Boulevard St. Michel; "sympa" is sympathetic, "McDo" is - well, you know what that is. And then there is Pudlo. "Check it out in Pudlo," someone will say here. Or, "Do you have the new Pudlo?" Or, "Pudlo says it is really great." For many Parisians, especially the younger, active types who nightly crowd into the city's brasseries and bistros, Le Pudlo is the restaurant guide. Pudlo is an abbreviation, too; it's short for Pudlowski, Gilles Pudlowski to be precise. Mr. Pudlowski, 54, is the author of Le Pudlo Paris. In fact, he's the author of a family of food and travel guides. There is Le Pudlo France and there are Pudlos for Corsica, Alsace and Luxembourg. At times, it seems that there are as many Gilles Pudlowskis as there are Pudlo books. He is the full-time food and restaurant critic for Le Point magazine. He is also Le Point's travel editor. He writes weekly food columns for two newspapers, the R�publicain Lorrain in Metz, and the Derni�res Nouvelles d'Alsace in Strasbourg. He contributes regularly to Saveurs and other French food magazines and he appears weekly on French television. He has published dozens of books, most of them food and travel guides, including one in German: "Paris f�r Feinschmecker" ("A Gourmet's Paris"). There are also two memoirs, a novel and, just last year, what might be best described as a cautionary tale: "How to be a Food Critic and Keep Your Figure." The sacrosanct Guide Michelin has nothing to worry about, at least not from Mr. Pudlowski. Michelin's familiar red book sold about 900,000 copies worldwide last year. Le Pudlo Paris sold some 14,000 copies and the massive Pudlo France about 28,000. (The books, published by Michel Lafon, are 18 euros, or about $21.75.) Not that Michelin does not have its share of problems, which are aiding Le Pudlo and a lot of other guides, for that matter, including defections from a few chefs who say they are tired of trying to maintain their stars. While the audiences for both the Michelin and the Pudlo inevitably overlap, each also appeals to different readers. Cautious Michelin may wait several years before recognizing a restaurant, even a good one, which can be reassuring for older travelers and timid tourists. The Pudlo books cater to readers who want to know the newest places as soon as possible. Moreover, neighborhood by neighborhood, Pudlo features the best butchers, bakers, cheese makers and tea rooms. Invaluable for Parisians, less so for Americans whiling away a week at the Ritz. Michelin distances itself from the places it critiques. Not the Pudlo. Mr. Pudlowski is the mirror image of the gimlet-eyed Michelin inspector working anonymously and alone. Outgoing, ebullient and garrulous - often like his reviews - he loves restaurants and chefs. And he scoffs at anonymity. "An idiotic idea," he said. "Restaurateurs know a critic when they see one. What counts is honesty, whether they know you or not. Being incognito guarantees neither the reviewer's competence or his judgment." And like virtually all European food critics except for Michelin, Mr. Pudlowski has no objection to accepting free meals. "Whether the restaurant pays or I pay makes no difference," he said. Where Michelin awards stars, Pudlo bestows plates - dinner plates. One plate represents a good table; two a great table and three, one of the best tables in Paris. A broken plate stands for a once-noteworthy place that no longer rates any recommendation. Some years ago, Mr. Pudlowski pulled a plate from Michel Rostang, a two-plate restaurant in the 17th Arrondissement. "Michel is a good friend," Mr. Pudlowski said, "but he had slipped; I had no choice. He couldn't believe what I had done." Mr. Rostang took the warning; he has a glowing review in the 2005 Pudlo, but still only one plate. Some years ago, when Le Duc, a well-known Left Bank seafood restaurant found itself saddled with the dreaded broken plate - l'assiette cass�e in French - the outraged owners saddled Mr. Pudlowski with a crate of 1,000 broken plates. In the 2005 Pudlo, Le Duc is back to one plate. "The place had its problems," the current review says, "but it has once again become one of the finest restaurants in Paris for seafood." With 2,300 addresses in the current Pudlo Paris and almost 9,000 in the Pudlo France, it's obvious that Mr. Pudlowski can do only a fraction of the reviewing. He does the writing - the text is literate and witty - but he relies, he says, on a staff of a dozen or more plus a network of friends, colleagues and acquaintances, including restaurateurs he has reviewed, to supply him with information. "I am like an orchestra conductor," he said. "My job is to keep everything in order. Lenin said the most important thing was to explain, explain, explain. For me it's verify, verify, verify. Addresses, telephone numbers, business hours, the chef's name. Paul Bocuse says food is only fifty percent of the restaurant experience; I have to concentrate on the rest." Gilles Pudlowski was born not far from Metz in eastern France, a region to which he remains closely attached, not least because both Metz and nearby Strasbourg are cities with vibrant Jewish communities. His Jewish roots and indeed his early life as a Jew in France are the subject of his first and deeply personal memoir, "Le Devoir de Francais" ("The Duty to be French"), which has never been translated into English. After studies in Paris in the 60's - he took part in the student riots in 1968 - he set out to be a literary critic. "I was working for Nouvelles Litt�raires," the review, he said, "when an editor suggested I do some things on gastronomy. I'm still at it." For five years he worked for Henri Gault and Christian Millau, who popularized "nouvelle cuisine" and founded the once-powerful Gault-Millau restaurant guides, then moved on to Le Point and his own ever expanding collection of guides. The personal cost has been high. He has a vacation home near Strasbourg, but in Paris he works out of a sunless bachelor apartment, drinking green tea, engulfed in books and paper and the shabby detritus of two failed marriages. He has three children: a married daughter in Los Angeles, a son studying in Australia and a teenage daughter living with her mother in Paris. "It was Millau who told me: 'In this business, some people know how to eat and some know how to write. Hardly anyone can do both, and there are a lot who can do neither. If you can do both, you're sure to succeed.' " He appears to have succeeded: the 2005 Pudlo Paris, the largest ever, is the 15th edition. "I still love the work," he said. "I am still excited when I try a new place." Somewhere buried in one of his books is a quotation that could serve as his life's goal. It was Serge Diaghilev's plea to Jean Cocteau, who was designing a ballet for him. "�tonne-moi, Jean," Diaghilev said. "Astonish me." Cheers, Jim ----- End forwarded message ----- -- ------------------------------ * * Dr. James Lee Ellingson, Adjunct Professor jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, tel: 651/645-0753 fax 651 XXX XXXX * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *