Well, Gilmore's was quite possibly the best restaurant experience I've had in the past year...maybe longer. (!)Amazing. Proper everything. I can't even really verbalize the actual perfection of the evening. Every aspect was delightful, acute excellence. The purest butter with the freshest bread, the most succulent and tender escargots, the richest foie gras (which, after the first taste, Ryan perhaps-not-so-jokingly inquired to the waiter about reordering for dessert!!!), hearty slow-braised lamb shank with bacon-braised kale and cannellini beans, medium-rare steak with green peppercorn sauce, and, upon a unanimously staff-recommendation- rounded out with the best rum raisin bread pudding...made of croissants soaked in a cinnamon-rum cream with raisins, baked and topped with Tahitian vanilla ice cream and caramel-rum sauce. We subsequently enjoyed quality cafe au lait.
Of course, we BYOB'd the highly anticipated Cab Franc from Amboise, the heart of the Loire Valley, to accompany the meal. I still cannot come up with a better match. It not only satisfied, it EXCEEDED my expectations on every level...with every course.
I think, too, that it was the perfect time to open this properly-aged 2005 Cuvee de Monce Touraine-Amboise.....rich and spicy, black fruits (not quite cooked, but over-ripe)....a-m-a-z-i-n-g with gamey dishes (like the lamb dish) and equally excellent with the foie gras appetizer, full-bodied. Not trying to be too bold or too big...just being real. THIS is why I adore French wines.
After a brief sojourn back to the chateau in Amboise, where I first tasted this precise Loire red, my first of many, I rejoined my handsome dining companion, and enjoyed every precious minute of that unforgettable, pleasurable evening- a French escape-from-reality, just 20 minutes from home.
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