A Perfect Dining Experience!
While attending Sue's class reunion, in Pennsylvania, we had the extreme good fortune of staying at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa in Farmington, PA. This facility is an amazing example of excellence in hospitality and Sue will explain more about this destination next month.
While there are fifteen dining options available to all guests, Lautrec is the fine dining choice that you must experience at least once.
Lautrec, is one of just 30 restaurants worldwide to earn Forbes Five Stars and AAA Five Diamonds for 10 years in a row, at that! Lautrec Executive Chef Kristin Butterworth is the only woman to helm such an acclaimed restaurant. These are just a few of the many well deserve accolades held by Lautrec.
The ambiance is perfection. As you walk through the wrought iron gates to the dining room you will be comforted with cherry wood walls and ceiling, along with well spaced dining tables and art work that makes you feel that you may have just entered a private European club. There is only one service per night, so you will never be rushed because they want to turn the table.
Our menu was personalized with our names printed at the top. This was not a mimeographed sheet of paper, but a multi-colored hard printed menu. That was my first clue that this would be a memorable dinner.
Some unique items included a flight of various caviar, and while the left Coast no longer serves it, Lautrec offers a roasted fois gras with a truffle brioche, berry preserves, honey and sea salt. This place has class!
Lautrec's wine cellar has more than 21,000 bottles with a selection of more than 1800 different wines, ranging from $40.00 per bottle to over $14,000.00 each if you would like a 1947 fine Bordeaux.
The service is very attentive, but certainly not pretentious. Terry, our server, felt more like a good friend that had invited us to his home for dinner. He seemed to enjoy describing the menu items and offering a suggestion or explanation if we had a question. He made sure that there was no rush, but he also saw to it that all items arrived at the table when expected.
It has been said that we eat with our eyes as well as our mouths and I was totally impressed with the presentation of everything that came to our table.
Our evening began with an amuse bouche of pea soup with buttermilk cream and begonia petals. The bread platter included pumpernickel and sourdough rolls along with truffle scones. French sweet cream butter with Henri Toulouse Lautrec's logo in ash, Cypress salt, Sicilian olive oil and local honey was a perfect accompaniment.
Sue started with the Peeky Toe Crab, spring pea- preserved lemon- radish- caviar- buttermilk creme fraiche- pea tendrils & blooms. My starter was Grilled Gem Lettuce with a cured farm egg- pickled red onion- garlic crumb- white anchovy- parmesan dressing and aioli. Terry explained that the egg yolk was pickled for a week and the dry-aged in a cheese cloth bag for a month in the wine cellar. It is then grated like cheese. WOW!
I then had a tempura fried squash blossom stuffed with ricotta and rabbit sausage - charred green garlic aioli with powdered tomato and chive blossoms. Sue had the local Footprint Farms Asparagus with an herb crepe- goat rodeo chevre- pickled peppers- morels and sherry cream.
For an entree, I chose a wood oven roasted rib-eye of black angus wygu beef which was cooked sous vide and then finished in the wood fired oven. It was served with crispy wild onion & potato tart- morel mushrooms- favas- sous vide egg yolk and a ramp chimichurri. An engraved steak knife was a nice touch although I could have cut the steak with a fork. Sue's main dish was a Footprints Farm chicken and dumplings. The dumplings were purple potato gnocchi and tender roasted chicken breast served with roasted petite carrot- charred onion- celery and a black truffle velouté.
Micha, the Cellar Master, served me a glass of Maipe Malbec and sue chose a Cantina Tramin Pinot Grigio.
An interemezzo was a small raspberry sorbet cone served in a sugar bucket and a miniature bottle of watermelon/mint soda with a red and white paper straw.
I then had a Lemon Possett, lemon infused local cream- blueberry granita- frozen blueberries- white chocolate pearls and matcha. Sue had a S’more, a graham cracker cake- smoked chocolate- toasted lavender marshmallow- local light & amber honey. This came to the table under a silver cover, which when lifted, released a bit of hickory smoke for that campfire experience! Once again, perfection.
At this point we thought we were finished until the pastry/candy cart came to the table. There were a number of gorgeous selections and Sue had her mandatory raspberry macron. I had white chocolate bark with espresso and hazelnut flavorings. If you want a flashback to childhood, there is even a box of candy cigarettes and bubblegum cigars.
While we were not able to try Lautrec's Sunday Brunch, because we were having breakfast at rockwell's, one of the other restaurants at the resort, we did view the more than 100 items available and it was more than impressive!
Dining at Lautrec is definitely a world class experience. My only other experience that came close to this was three decades ago while having dinner with Quincy Jones at Roger Verge's Moulin de Mougins on the French riviera. This was one of the best meals I have ever enjoyed!
