Final Dinner at Delius

Saturday, June 30, 2018

After 22 years Delius Restaurant abruptly decided to close operations.  I have had a lot of good food and wine over the past 18 years.  Originally it was a dinner for 36 people in Prix Fixe room. But with a waiting list of over 100 Dave decided on Friday to open up the main dining area for those on the wait list. I arrived at 6:30 for the 7:00 dinner and the parking area was packed as was the bar and main dining area. Those dining in the Prix Fixe Room had a special menu, the other diners ordered off the regular menu if the item was still available. The back bar was starting to look very barren.

Louise cooked tonight. She has been handling the catering for the past few years. At the end of dinner when she came out was an emotional experience for all of us. Louise had a very hard time keeping her composure. It was a tear jerker. But she did say they planned on doing popup dinners at the catering kitchen several times a year. She will cook and we will bring wine.

All the dishes we had in the Prix Fixe room were classic Delius dishes. Louse even made Shallot bread for us.

Started out with the Double Baked Goat Cheese Souffle with melted leeks, corn and pancetta. Perfect as always aired with a 2015 Jermann, Venezia Giulia, Pinot Grigio. I am not a fan of this grape but I say this wine was different and I liked it. Perfect pairing.

Second course was the famous Mushroom Walnut soup. I did think this soup was not quite as creamy as in the past but the heavy mushroom flavor was there. A 2016 Patz and Hall, Sonoma Coast, Chardonnay was the wine. A bit oaky for my taste but it was a good compliment to the creamy soup.

Third course was Crispy Skin Duck Breast.  Delius has always had a real knack with cooking duck.  This was on a bed of sweet potato-carrot-ginger puree and topped with rhubarb gastrique. A perfect pairing. 2015 EnRoute, Russian River, Pinot Noir. A nice bigger style Pinot with bold fruits, Very well balanced wine.

Main course is Louise's classic Beef Wellington with parsnip puree and red wine mushroom sauce. My beef was cooked perfectly. Nice and red. But I did think it needed a bit of salt. The favorite wine of the night is a 2011 Schweiger Vineyards, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon. This was a really nice wine.

Dessert is the Russian Cream with mixed berry coulis and assorted shortbread cookies.  This recipe  came from the original owners of Delius. Two Swedish sisters back in the 60's and 70's had the restaurant and it was one sitting for dinner at 7:30. They locked the doors at 7:30 and if you were late to bad. At that time it was a 6 month waiting time to get into the restaurant.

My big criticism of the way this dinner was handled is the way the reservations were taken.  They posted the notice on e-mail to everyone and it sold out in 30 minutes. I think the investors should have been given first shot at it. They are the ones that put up the money for the new place 11 years ago. One of the investors was sitting at our table, he had been on the wait list and when someone dropped off they called him. He said he thought he was way down on the list but glad they bumped him up because of the investment he made. I hope so also.  I just feel that people who were not real regular customers should be the last to get into the "last supper" And there were some of those that night. No one should have been able to reserve more than 2 spots. But this was at the last minute and I am sure certain thoughts did not cross peoples mind.

So a very bittersweet evening. They are opening a new restaurant in downtown Long Beach on the Promenade but it is a way different concept than what has been in the past. I will go in when they have their soft opening to check it out but I am not much of a "downtown" person.