Big ups to Carmen & Eric at wine country institution Nick’s Italian Cafe in McMinnville – they are really nailing it and putting out some of the best food in the valley.

We had a great meal there last night. “We” included Doug Tunnell from Brick House, Brian O’Donnell from Belle Pente, Jay Somers from J. Christopher, and Professor Chang-rae Lee from Princeton – he’s an author and creative writing teacher, in town for a week to write a piece on the Oregon wine industry for Food & Wine magazine.

He’s a fascinating and very bright guy, his passion for wine is genuine, and we had a nice “round table” discussion about the Oregon wine world over several wines and way too much great food. (Wines included ’06 and ’07 Pinots from all of us, some Chardonnays from BP and BH, and a killer Sauvignon Blanc from JC.)

But the food! Ahh, the food. Great, fresh, local, expertly prepared, every bite delicious. I started with a wonderful selection of house-made salumi, followed by an amuse-bouche of some marinated mackerel, then a vibrant and deeply flavorful minestrone, fresh pasta with potatoes and peas, and then the roasted pork loin and pork sausage. Oh yeah, and then the chocolate pound cake with orange cream. So much for eating simply and light. (It’s an occupational hazard, these delicious multi-course meals. Somebody’s got to do it!)

Once the only decent restaurant in wine country, long a winemakers hangout – Nick’s is now at the top level of dining in the Willamette Valley. If you haven’t been in a while, you haven’t been to Nick’s. Check it out when you can. In the meantime, I’m off to the running trails in Forest Park to try and mitigate the damage!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Scott's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.