Hello RN74, Au Revoir to All That…
Ever since I had the chance to hang out in Burgundy last fall with uber-sommellier Raj Parr (top wine dog of the ever-expanding Michael Mina restaurant empire), and heard about his plans for “RN74“, I’ve been salivating. RN74 is the name of the national two-lane highway that runs through the heart of Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. It is now also the name of the most exciting restaurant/wine bar in San Francisco’s vibrant food & wine scene.
Just open less than two months, it’s already packed. It’s easy to see why. The food is excellent – a nice modern take on upscale bistro fare, with a fresh & local California flavor. The wine program is quite simply the most ambitious, comprehensive, dynamic, and thrilling Burgundy & Pinot-based selection I’ve ever seen on this side of the pond. (And it blows away virtually everything on the other side as well.) And it’s a creative, unique, and vibrant space. It’s a good thing RN74 is not in Portland, because I’d be there every day – and be fat and broke in short order.
The one feature that immediately gets all the press and is an absolute stroke of genius is RN74s “last bottle board” – if you’ve ever been in a French train station you’ll recognize it instantly. At a reported cost of about $100K, this board updates patrons on which wines in the cellar are down to the last bottle or two, and their availability and prices update on the board just like the train info at the Gare de Lyon. When the last bottle of anything gets sold, the tiles on the board flip one by one to reveal a new offering, and on it goes. Absolute genius.
Jordan Mackay – the talented SF-based wine & spirits writer (and author of the wonderful book Passion for Pinot) agreed to join me for lunch, and lunch we did, in a fine. leisurely, Burgundian fashion. Starting with an ’06 Colin-Morey St. Aubin (from the board – there must’ve been one more left, ’cause the board didn’t change), which we enjoyed with some sauteed trumpet mushrooms that were spot-on delicious. I went with the slow-roasted pork sandwich, Jordan did the soft-shell crab sandwich, and a bottle of ’06 Chambolle-Musigny from Jean-Marie Fourrier tied it all together. The sandwiches rocked. The wine was so good I nearly wanted to weep. Elegance, finesse, purity, transparency, weightlessness – not bad for a humble “village wine”.
What did bring me to tears was the “Collection” - the cellar list of hundreds and hundreds of amazing old burgs. Two of the greatest wines ever bottled, the ’47 and ’49 de Vogüé Musigny are both on the list (at several thousand bucks a pop, and rightly so) – just knowing that there’s a place on earth that has these two wines in the cellar and on the list somehow makes me feel like everything is right with the world. The selections are mind-blowing and endless. You could drink your way through this cellar for years, and be a very happy person every day.
And of course I had to give dessert a try. The intense and dense Valhrona chocolate mousse cake may soon require a 12-step program of its own. I had to order a second one just to make sure it was as good as I thought it was. It was.
Speaking of great French food and wine – I just finished the fascinating “Au Revoir to All That – Food, Wine and the End of France” by Slate wine-writer Michael Steinberger – a wonderful read documenting the fall of France from the top of the world’s gastronomic perch, and the cultural upheavel that is seeing the France we know and love mutate into something entirely different. Well-written, well-researched, and a must for all food & wine lovers and francophiles of every stripe.
