The Factory

Tuesday. June 15, 2010

The Factory in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach is starting to host a BYOB wine dinner once a month. This months theme was Pinot Noir. Everyone sits at a communal table and everyone is supposed to share their wines. As with any other venue where there is "sharing" you have those that bring good wines and those that bring inexpensive wines. Of course a lot of these people consider their wines good. It was a fun evening and I was very surprised at how well the dinner paired with the wine. When I first heard the menu I had thoughts about it.

Tonight the Laker playoff game was on so the small place was noisy but it seemed to add to the atmosphere. A young couple are the owners and it seemed like a younger persons hangout. Their wine list was on a backboard and was surprising reasonable. Some other restaurants could take note of this.

A brought a 2006 Huber, Sta Rita Hills Pinot. It was the first bottle made a "dead solider". I didn't take notes which I should have so I do not remember most of the wines at our end of the table but there was a Merry Edwards and a few bottles from Orgeon. I quick look at the rest of the table didn't show too many really good wines.

We started off with a scallop of a slice of roasted corn (cob) with a tomato Pinot sauce. This dish surprised me as I wasn't looking at scallop and pinot as a good pairing.

A salad of shaved asparagus and Parmesan over a corn cake, Again went well with the wine.

Beef Stew with a cheese crisp. The stew was made with pinot and the vegetables had been gotten at the local farmers market.

Dessert was a Napoleon with stewed Bing cherries and gently cooked Rainier cherries and a pinot sauce.

For $25 this was a bargain. The food was good. And the atmosphere was a lot of fun. Next month is Spain so I will try to take better notes.