The Butterfly Wine Place
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That's Dave McMillan, leaning across the bar at his Vin Papillon, doing what he does so well - talking about food. Dave's extremely opinionated, extremely knowledgable, and he's cooked with just about everyone. One of the great pleasures of a night at this warm, hip, cozy little wine bar is the sheer pleasure of his company.
Dave and his partners own the much-loved, much-talked about Joe Beef down the street. But here they concentrate on vegetables. The menu changes constantly; the other night it included this terrific celery root in a bagna cauda like sauce, the crisp vegetable shaved into thin pasta-like sheets, its edgy flavor tamed by the assertive sauce. If you're used to celery root that's been slathered with butter or pureed with cream, this presentation is enlightening.
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Sliced into a muffaletta sandwich, the celery root displayed an entirely different character. Crisp between the layers of soft bread, the flavor circled by a gentle mustard, it tasted like an entirely different vegetable.
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I loved these adorable little potato croquettes:
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and this cauliflower bordelaise.
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The place is dark and I was having way too good a time to bother lighting pictures. My apologies. And I was loving the wines. The sommelier,Vanya Filipovic concentrates on natural wines from all over the world. But for me there was at least one really nice discovery: the chardonnay of Norman Hardie in Ontario.
And now, of course, I'm dying to go eat at Joe Beef.....