Phil Trani's Wine Dinner

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

6 of us gathered tonight to try out Phil Trani's  in Long Beach venture in hosting wine dinners.. Apparently he has had 2 others previous but Margie just got onto the mailing list. Wines were provided by Southern Wines & Spirits. I had not seen Dave, the rep for Southern in several years.

I will give the restaurant credit for not holding dinner up for the late attendees.

We started off with a 2011 Markham, Napa,  Sauvignon Blanc. It was a decent sau blanc. Paired well with the "Spring mix salad with shrimp". A salad is a salad. The dressing was good and the wine paired nicely with it.

Second course was a pan fried Catalina Sand Dabs with lemon, capers and butter. Again a decent dish but I feel the quality of the sand dabs at the Fish Camp are superior. Wine poured was a 2011 Lucky Country Chardonnay from Australia. A little oaky but did go well the the sauce on the fish.

Next came a Walnut crusted lamb chops and country potatoes. My chops we cooked medium well which for me is way over done. Good flavor and the walnut crust as good.  The potatoes were something else. If I had not read the menu I would not have known they were potatoes. Paired with a 2009 Chateau Timberlay Bordeaux Superior Rouge, Good pairing but the wine was "light".

Fourth course was a Flat Iron steak with a reduced cabernet sauce served over cous cous. The streak was cooked perfectly., Had good flavor. They poured a 2010 Canto Lapostolle red blend from Chile.
This to me was he best dish and wine tonight.

Dessert was a Red Velvet Cake and a German Chocolate Cake. A Fizz sparkling wine from Italy accompanied the dessert. Way to sweet for me. Cakes were good but I would have liked a little sauce of some kind drizzled on them .

They had a few prizes to give away. CJ & I both won a bottle of the Fizz along with a insulated wine bag to carry it in. I gave my wine to Margie since she seemed to really like it. But kept the bag. It will be handy for cold wines.

A decent dinner considering the price. Nothing to really fault them on. The food was good. If I had ordered the lamb chops off the regular menu at a dinner they would have been cooked to my taste. When you have large group in for a "wine dinner" there is a certain amount of give and take.

I would go back and try another dinner. Have been to Phil Trani's before and thought the food was good. This restaurant has a lot of sports memorabilia. Helmets, signed jerseys, drivers suits etc., Phil used to have a place in San Pedro which was the hang out for the Rams and other sports teams. Over he years he collected quite a bit of "stuff". Worth a lot of money nowdays.