One Down. Hundred Acres Later.

Last night: Barnes & Noble Tribeca. This morning I'm in post-event, post-mortem. "When my world was still innocent, I was drinking Manischewitz (mixed with seltzer) but by the time my father ran off after a neighbor’s wife, I was drinking the partially fizzy, Mateus." "Very nice. Now the whole world will now your father left," Ethel said. I told her, "Mom, the whole world DID know that he left. It was the 70's Everyone was getting divorced." But not everyone has their father's mistress to thank for opening up the wine world. But... Q&A? People didn't want to know what my history with acid was or my passion for plumbing. They did want to know if P***** has responded to the book. Is there anything in California I can drink? What do I think of the 1976 Paris tasting? What is my feeling about biodynamics and its future and finally, why do people have different standards for wine than food. Unlike the Portland reading when a guy asked me in a rather hostile way, what I thought of Beaux Freres, and I retorted, as in Robert P****'* brother in law---and I later found out he worked for the winery....there were no trick questions. Post reading I headed directly for the newly opened Hundred Acres at 38 MacDougal St. in New York City. The restaurant previously known as Provence has remade itself into a darkly sexy room. Owners Vicki Freeman and Mark Meyers are in their groove. The menu is pared down, there are those gently batter dipped asparagus that will be a signature hit, gorgeous little salads, mac and cheese that I did not because everyone else at the table was on some sort of diet regime, damn it! But what we did have was the perfect cap for the meal. $95 brought on the Champagne Fleury ros. That ros, with it's apple pie crust nose and fraises de bois center and dry finish was just the thing to help quench the endless tape of self-doubt and second guessing that went on until this morning. If you head to Hundred Acres and intend to make it your favorite neighborhood hangout, and want to know what else there is to drink, I stole the small list--and only know realize that I left behind one of the sheets so can't totally comment but, like the menu, not extensive but something delicious for everyone. What I love about it is that Richard Luftig had separated some wines into 'some residual sugar'---how nice to warn drinkers that the 2006 Beliviere L'effraie, ($64) as a touch of sweetness as does the Pinon Vouvray ($45)--and he segregated out five wines Alice could never drink into the Big!! Bold!! Category. I might be very happy to check out the Domaine de Cezin ros ($54)-- or the Lareau Savennieres ($55). Richard has a blessed love of chenin and it shows. Tomorrow night is Bottlerocket. More then.