VERO BEACH — For more than a year, the dining column has written nary a word about a place not more than 30 steps from our office: Vinz Wine and Dine in the atrium of Pelican Plaza.
A pleasant place to grab a glass of wine after work? Absolutely.
A casual yet classy spot to nosh on cheese and crackers, or order a couple of small plates, while enjoying the stylings of the live musicians who now appear almost nightly? Sure.
But a place to go for dinner? Not exactly, we thought.
Then we noticed the menus posted nightly outside Vinz expanding, and the number of people who appeared to be doing more dining than wining growing.
This evolving view of Vinz finally crystalized for us last week when we spent a couple of hours enjoying what proprietress Zandra Simm says are going to be monthly five-course wine-pairing dinners.
At $65 a person, this excellent matching of food and drink turned out to be one of the better values around.
One of the things that was neat was that the 12 persons who signed up for this dinner were seated at two elegant tables for six – an arrangement that enabled us to spend a delightful evening chatting with island residents we had not previously met.
The first course brought to the table consisted of a smoked corn chowder paired with a Marco Negri moscato di asti.
This fresh, fragrant wine from the Asti region of Piedmont in northwest Italy tends to be a bit sweet for my taste, but it paired very well with the hearty corn chowder, which had a bit of heat.
A good start.
The chowder was followed by a fish and avocado ceviche with Bahamian conch fritters and plantain chips, paired with Paco & Lola albarino.
The fragrant and fruity albarino, which hailed from Galicia in Spain, was a good compliment for the ceviche, which included chunks of grouper.
The third course was a dish of angel hair pasta with caramelized onion, topped by a dollop of sour cream and a generous sprinkling of caviar.
When I tossed the pasta, the caviar added just the right amount of saltiness to this combination of tastes. This dish was paired with a glass of Joseph Mellot chinon, an excellent red wine from France’s Loire Valley.
The fourth course was a pan seared ahi tuna steak, cooked medium rare, over a lentil couscous salad and topped by a citrus salsa.
This course was paired with Gerard Bertrand minervois, a Rhone red blend of syrah and carignan.
This rich, powerful and minerally tasting wine was our favorite of the evening – though the chinon would run a close second.
The meal concluded a couple of hours after it began with a dense chocolate Cointreau tartlet. As the dessert did not have a pairing, we wound up the evening by savoring one final glass of the minervois.
All in all, the dishes were well prepared – the food on the whole good, not great – but the pairings of food and wine excellent, very nicely presented, and the evening a great deal of fun.
Zandra tells us there will be another of these special dinners before the month of February is out.
If you have not yet discovered Vinz, you might want to stop by for a glass of wine and ask her to put your names on the list for the next event.
You’ll dine well, and enjoy it.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.