Category: Food & Drink

I see Sunday brunch as one those slothful, decadent meals reserved for hangovers or when someone else is paying. Especially cool are the restaurants that keep the sparkling wine flowing, which cures the hangover and magnifies the excess. Most of the time, you’re pushing back from the table 10 pounds heavier, with eggs, pancakes, and those fantastic butt-burgeoning breakfast meats all gurgling in your tummy.

But what most folks don’t know is that wine at lunchtime can not only soothe an aching head but improve the flavor of the food. You might call it the Breakfast of Champions or maybe the Hair of the Dog — breakfast and wine can and do go well together. But maybe not the wines you think.

Our test meal was elaborate, covering the major food groups — protein, fat, carbs, and sugar: scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese; Jimmy Dean original sausage and eggs; homemade pancakes slathered with syrup by Aunt Jemima; buttery croissants; mayo-laden, relish-free deviled eggs; gooey ham and cheddar-cheese omelets; and fantastic sweet-sour blueberry muffins. The wine lineup: dry California sparkling wine, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, dry Pinot Gris, sweet Italian Moscato d’Asti, French Vouvray, German Spatlese Riesling, an earthy California Pinot Noir, fruity California Merlot, and a dry California Zinfandel.

The common match with brunch grub is sparkling wine, but at this tasting, it fell flat on its face like a freshman at his first kegger. The wine alone tasted great, but the salmon tried to make friends and pretty much rejected it. Only the blueberry muffin, which turned out to be the cool kid that fits in with every other wine, tolerated its sparkling companion.

All the red wines were completely disgusting with breakfast as well. The savory, marbled sausage improved the rather bland, cheap Merlot, but that’s about all the reds accomplished. The muffin couldn’t even rise to the occasion. The dry whites, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris, found decent homes with the sausage and croissant, cutting through the acidity with the butter and fat. But I wouldn’t call them great breakfast wines.

The sweet spot was the sweet wines. Normally, sugars in food and the sugars in wine neutralize one another. As such, a dessert can transform a rich, sweet wine into a nearly dry and fruity experience. The pancakes and blueberry muffin found a home with the Moscato. Similarly, opposites can attract. Vouvray, a sweeter Chenin Blanc from France, transformed into a crisp creature with the smoky fat and salt in the pork products.

The overall winner came in the form of German Riesling, the king of all food wines. No matter what the dish — well, the deviled eggs just never found a mate anywhere — the Riesling pulled it out. With its low acidity, relatively low alcohol content, and high fruit factor, the king created a fan club much like the King himself.

Other options at brunchtime: Asti Spumante, extra dry (slightly sweeter than brut) sparkling wine, and any other German Riesling style. Don’t be afraid of the slightly sweet stuff … it loves brunch.

Recommended Wines

Schloss Vollrads 2003 Spatlese Riesling Rheingau (Germany) — Absolutely deliciously ripe with peaches, nectarines, red apples, and a minerally, slate flavor on the finish. Lightly sweet alone but pair it with food and that sugar melts into a rich, crisp wine. $19

Domaine Carneros by Taittinger 2001 Brut Cuvée (California) — Crisp lemon, fragrant honeydew melon, toasted pine nuts, and creamy vanilla come together in a sparkling wine worth your taste buds. Try it without eggs. $25

taylor.eason@weeklyplanet.com

Researchers at the USDA Agricultural Service and Mississippi State University have recently discovered that France’s red wine and the South’s muscadine grape share a common ingredient. It’s called resveratrol, which acts as a natural “heart guard.” Red wine shows high concentrations of resveratrol, but muscadines have an even higher concentration, especially in their skins.

Resveratrol consumption in France has been linked to its countrymen’s intake of red wine, which in turn creates what is now commonly known as the “French Paradox.” The paradox is that in France few people die of coronary heart disease, even though they indulge in a relatively high-fat diet.

The good news for us? We might just be one step away from a “Southern Paradox.” Two ounces of unfiltered muscadine juice have twice as much resveratrol as two ounces of red wine.

While older people from rural parts of the South might remember their mom’s muscadine jam, the sweet and musky flavor of muscadine wine, or the bitterness of a fresh muscadine’s skin, today they’d be lucky to find a grocery store that sells muscadines. We found them at the farmers’ market at the Agricenter.

Muscadines are wild grapes first discovered in 1524 by the explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River Valley. It was most likely named after the French muscat grape, which is similar in its sweet flavor and musky scent. The grape Verrazzano found, unlike the common dark-purple grape, is a greenish bronze and also known as a scuppernong, after a small town in North Carolina where it was first grown. Because it thrives in a warm and humid climate, the muscadine is largely grown in the South, with most of the grapes being used to make wine and juice.

Many different varieties of muscadines have been cultivated since Verrazzano’s discovery, but the fruit is still that firm, tough-skinned, seed-studded, marble-size grape that for many is only edible if processed in a certain way. A fresh muscadine has a more pronounced flavor than a garden-variety red, seedless grape found at the grocery store. It’s in season from mid-September until late-October and is hand-harvested since not all muscadines on one vine ripen at the same time.

The secret to enjoying the muscadine is in your approach. One way is to simply pop it in your mouth and chew. But if you don’t care for the grape’s tough skin and bitter seeds, you can try squeezing and spitting. First, you squeeze the grape’s pulp into your mouth. Then you separate the pulp and seeds, spitting out the seeds or swallowing them whole.

If that’s not for you, there are a number of other ways of removing the skin and straining the seeds for jam or jellies. Muscadines also make delicious fall pies and cobblers (using pulp and skin, no seeds). And there is always wine, juice, and research.

At the USDA Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville, Mississippi, geneticist Steve Stringer is working hard to cultivate a more consumer-friendly muscadine — maybe even one that is seedless.

“Our goal is to come up with cultivars that have softer skin, melting flesh, and less bitterness but still have that characteristic muscadine flavor,” Stringer says.

But a more appealing muscadine might mean a less disease-resistant plant and possibly lower resveratrol levels — the very quality that makes the skin so tough and the grape so good for your heart. It is the paradox to the “Southern Paradox.”

Knowing what “organic” means is like knowing the difference between an R-rated movie and a PG-13-rated movie. You have a sense that the R movie has something in it that PG-13 doesn’t and that maybe the kids shouldn’t see an R, but as for specifics … well, it’s gray — and constantly changing.

For example, did you know that a box of cereal can say “organic” on the label and have all kinds of synthetic materials in it? Did you know that, legally, there’s a difference between “organic” and “100% organic”?

Welcome to the wonderful world of government regulations, where good ideas and market forces wage war on the battleground of bureaucracy.

In 1990, the U.S. Congress passed the Organic Foods Protection Act, which required the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop national standards for use of the word “organic” on food labels. Those regulations finally took effect in 2002. As a general rule, all-natural (non-synthetic) substances are allowed in organic production, and all-synthetic substances are prohibited. There are exceptions, of course, on the National List of Allowed Synthetic and Prohibited Non-Synthetic Substances.

There are four categories for labeling: “100% Organic” means just that — everything in it is organic. “Organic” means at least 95 percent of it is organic. “Contains Organic Ingredients” means at least 70 percent of it is organic. And if less than 70 percent is organic, you can’t say “organic” on the front label, but you can list specific organic ingredients on the side.

When the USDA was defining “organic,” they came up with lots of great government language. Animals, for example, must be fed organic feed and “given access to the outdoors.” They don’t necessarily have to be outdoors, much less for a specific amount of time, and for now, their feed can include synthetic products that no common-sense definition would call “organic.”

That’s because the regulations have a five-year “sunset” provision on many of the exceptions on the National List. In essence, the USDA gave farmers five years to switch over to a purer version of “organic.” That five-year provision runs out this year, and the wrangling has begun in earnest.

A perfect example is methionine, a sulfur-based amino acid; a synthetic version of it, used in chicken feed, was added to the National List of exceptions in 2001 after organic chicken producers found out it was already in their feed. The “sunset” provision on synthetic methionine is about to run out, and while the farm industry says it hasn’t found a suitable non-synthetic replacement — or that the supply of such replacements is too low — activists say Big Ag is dragging its feet and that such delays are part of a larger effort to water down organic standards and make them easier, and cheaper, for Big Ag to follow.

Organic food sales are growing at 20 percent a year — it’s now over $15 billion annually — and if consumers are willing to pay more for that “USDA Organic” label, then people like Kraft, Tyson et al. want a piece of the organic action, so long as they don’t have to spend too much money or change too many of their processes. And with the USDA run by political appointees and operating at the mercy of Congress, things can get gray.

Another example is dairy cows. When you think of organic milk, you probably think of grass-fed cows grazing happily in a pasture, with no chemicals in their body. Well, as demand for “organic” dairy products grows, more and more cows raised as “organic” are, in fact, kept inside and fed organic grain so they can produce more “organic” milk.

Some, including the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which advises the National Organic Program (NOP), are now proposing that the organic standards be amended to say that a dairy cow raised as “organic” must actually spend a significant amount of time eating grass in a pasture. They say it will protect the integrity of “organic” food in consumers’ eyes and keep small organic farms in business.

But many farmers, of all sizes, say meeting the grazing requirement is either impossible, due to geography or space restrictions, or too expensive and time-consuming. Converting a pasture or a crop to organic standards officially takes three years.

In August, the NOP put off a decision on the matter, instead returning it to the NOSB for futher review.

Activists and many small organic farmers claimed it was another delay by the corporate-friendly Bush administration, which in the spring unilaterally — with no public input and without going through the usual rules-changing process — decided to expand allowable use of antibiotics on organic cows, synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and non-organic feed to “organic” cattle.

It also decided that national organic standards will not, after all, be developed for fish, nutritional supplements, pet food, fertilizers, cosmetics, and personal-care products, which means there will continue to be no laws regulating the use of the word “organic” on those labels.

Ronnie Cummins, founder and national director of the Organic Consumers Association, called the changes “an outrage for the 30 million consumers who pay a premium for organic products and expect that they can trust the organic claim.”

Perhaps the lesson to be drawn is, as always, to be aware and get involved.

Everyone needs a hobby,” Dick Shaw says.

Shaw’s hobby is beer — making beer, talking beer, and, of course, drinking beer. He is one of the 50 or so members of the Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Bluff City Brewers meets once a month to sample home brews and to learn about new beer products on the market.

“Originally, there were not a lot of premium beers in the Mid-South,” says Shaw, “but now there are more boutique beers and more complex and interesting styles of beer.”

Better beer has brought about quite a few beer enthusiasts who want to learn how to brew their own.

“There are 27 different styles of beer,” says Mike Lee, treasurer of the Bluff City Brewers. “There is a lot to learn that people are not aware of.”

Lee owns Mid-South Malts, which carries home-brew supplies and has a reference library. It also serves as the meeting place for the Bluff City Brewers.

The meetings give members a forum for discussion and for passing along tips on improving brewing procedures. Members also can purchase brewing supplies at Mid-South Malts.

“Typically, the start-up cost is around $100,” says Shaw, “but it really depends on what type of equipment you already have and what you are interested in.” He says that brewing beer from start to finish takes about a month.

Several of the members also have completed the Beer Judge Certification Program, which promotes the appreciation of beer as well as training in beer-tasting and evaluation.

The Bluff City Brewers host about seven other functions during the year to show off their beers and engage in some friendly competition. The main event is their annual home-brewers’ competition, which takes place in April. Anyone is welcome to enter the contest, and the entries are judged based on the guidelines provided by those who have completed the certification program.

Along with their own competitions and social events, many members participate in a variety of festivals and competitions both locally and around the globe. Home-brew clubs can be found all over the world.

The “brew” dates back some 6,000 years to the Sumerians who discovered the fermentation process when someone happened upon an abandoned bowl of bread. Eventually, this led to the creation of a drink that filled people with such a feeling of exhilaration and blissfulness that they considered it a gift from the gods.

Oktoberfest is a prime time for these clubs. The original event dates back to 1810 in Munich as a wedding celebration for the Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Citizens were invited to attend the festivities, which lasted five days and included parades, music, eating, drinking, and horse racing’s that served as the finale of the event.

The horse races are gone, but Oktoberfest remains. In Memphis, it’s at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on October 15th and 16th. The festival will feature authentic German food and an oomph band.

The Bluff City Brewers & Connoisseurs will also hold a home-brewers contest. Expect the competiton to be stiff. Last year, Phil Kane, president of the Bluff City Brewers, took home the prize for his amber.

Some may remember Helario Reyna — aka “Greek Harry” — from the Kwik-Chek on Madison, where he was well-known for his falafel and muffalettas as well as more imaginative sandwiches, such as the “Pecos Bill,” a club sandwich with habanero sauce and guacamole. Before Kwik-Chek, Reyna had a Greek deli in Overton Square called the Athena Café.

Two years ago, Reyna purchased Elliott’s, the downtown restaurant that has been around for 25 years and is known chiefly for its hamburgers. Reyna decided to stick with what works, keeping Elliott’s menu pretty much the same. (He also intended to preserve Elliott’s appearance, but many of the caricatures that once adorned the walls were damaged when the basement, where Reyna was storing the drawings, was flooded.)

“I wanted to keep the lunch the way it is, because that’s what people expect when they come here,” Reyna says. “And I didn’t want to go back to doing what I was doing. There’s just not enough time to make sandwiches like I used to because we have about 200 people through here every day at lunch, and they expect us to be fast. I mean, we’re faster than McDonald’s.”

But for someone who expressed his creativity through something as mundane as the Kwik-Chek deli counter, the menu was limiting. So a few months ago, Reyna expanded the restaurant’s hours to serve breakfast.

No ordinary breakfast, however, would suit Reyna, who says, “I’ve always been known for making weird things.” While he serves all the regular breakfast sandwiches for on-the-go professionals, for those looking for a heartier meal, Reyna’s also crafted some unusual items with unusual names.

For instance, there’s the “Manic Eggsessive,” a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, steak fritters, dirty rice, chedder cheese, and sausage gravy. The “Down N Out” is an omelet with chedder cheese, onions, fried potatoes, steak fritters, and sausage gravy. Either of these can be served in the “AI-1” (all-in-one) bowls, which are edible and shaped from a potato souffle.

“My creativity is in food,” Reyna says. “I never went to school to learn to cook. It’s just something you learn to do to make your life better. For others, it might be writing or pottery — there are various forms of art and art is everything. Everything you create, everything around you is a form of art. A ketchup packet or a simple glass you hold in your hand somebody had to create, so it’s art. Sometimes people lose sight of that.”

Each item on the menu speaks to Reyna’s personality and aspects of his life. He used to serve a frittata called “DrAma” that featured a blend of cheeses and fresh vegetables with rosemary. “I named it DrAma because there’s drama everywhere in life,” he says. Another frittata, “Green Acres Is the Place to Be” — spinach, mushrooms, dillweed, onions, and feta cheese — referred to his desire to return home to New Mexico. (Reyna’s frittatas are written of in the past tense because he no longer serves them. Not enough of his customers were familiar with frittatas. For the same reason, the “breakfast rice” he once served is now called “dirty rice.”)

What keeps Reyna in Memphis is his devotion to his 11-year-old daughter, Alex, who lives with her mother. Alex was the “Baby” of Reyna’s “Baby Bonsai” sandwich that he made when he was still at Kwik-Chek.

“She’s very important to me,” he says. “I try to get her involved over here and teach her things. She helps me with the menu boards and little things. I try to teach her about responsibility.”

Reyna is presently experimenting with a new breakfast pizza that he expects will take the place of the frittatas. The crust is a flattened biscuit smothered with sausage gravy instead of tomato sauce. One variety will have eggs, sausage, and provolone and cheddar cheese. Another will feature bacon, eggs, onion, bell pepper, hash browns, and cheddar and provolone cheese.

“It’s stifling to do the same thing day after day, but it’s hard to make too many changes,” Reyna says. “There’s hardly any parking downtown, so most of my customers work in offices down here, and they’ve come to expect certain things from Elliott’s. Breakfast is my way of changing things up.”

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For the Sawars, the restaurant business is a family affair. Mom, Dad, and sons are all involved in the Sawars’ four area La Hacienda restaurants, Soprano’s Italian Restaurant in Southaven, and the newest restaurant, Fino Villa, which opened in Collierville on September 23rd.

“What we did in Southaven, we did 10 times better in Collierville,” says Tony Sawar. “Over the year, we looked at the things that worked and everything that didn’t. We embraced all of the flaws and fixed them.”

Beginning October 23rd, Fino Villa will begin serving Sunday brunch that will include complimentary mimosas, a carving station, and an omelet station. Tony also plans to launch monthly cooking demonstrations.

Both Fino Villa and Soprano’s are traditional Italian restaurants with decors that mix modern (black leather and chrome) with Old World (hand-painted murals and canvases). They bring to mind Chicago eateries from the Al Capone era, which is no surprise because the Sawar family worked in the Chicago restaurant business before Tony and his brother Dino were born.

“My dad attended two presidents [Ford and Carter] in their private suites while he was the maitre d’ at the Hyatt in Chicago,” Tony says.

Since moving to the area, the family has opened seven restaurants in as many years. Mother Maria Guzman Sawar applies her Mexican heritage to making the La Hacienda restaurants a success, while the brothers focus on upscale dining at the Italian restaurants. When planning Fino Villa, Tony and Dino wanted to design a bar area where guests could relax after a meal and enjoy a cigar with a fine cognac, such as the Remy Martin Louis XIII (at $225 an ounce). The bar selection also includes fine wines and aged ports and whiskey.

“Anyone who has a discriminating palate will find something that suits them,” Tony says. “That also applies to our food. We try to be innovative in our high-quality cuisine. I wouldn’t want to serve anything that I wouldn’t eat, so we buy the best meats and bake our own bread from scratch every morning.”

Fino Villa’s general manager is Michele D’Oto, a native of Modena, Italy, and an experienced restaurateur. He evacuated from the Gulf Coast before Hurricane Katrina to stay with his brother-in-law in Collierville.

“I was the chef/owner of Pasta Italia [in D’Iberville, Mississippi, outside of Biloxi] until about four weeks ago, when the hurricane destroyed everything — the restaurant, our home, everything,” D’Oto says.

D’Oto got the job at Fino Villa the first time he visited the restaurant. “I was at the Baskin-Robbins getting ice cream when I saw Fino Villa, and I just walked right in.”

Fino Villa, 875 W. Poplar Avenue in Collierville (861-2626), is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Café de France will participate in the “Miracles Begin with Awareness” Show House, a home tour to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, being held on Friday and Saturday, October 7th and 8th, at 1219 Cherbourg in the Normandy Park area.

The restaurant will offer lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in a tented pavilion next to the house. Memphis singer Di Anne Price will perform.

Admission to the house is $15 per person, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the charity. A portion of the luncheon sales also will be donated.

For information, call 901-226-CURE.

Esfandiar Mirghahari, or S.C. as he is called, has opened Caspian, the first Persian restaurant in Memphis. Caspian offers foods from Mirghahari’s birthplace of Iran, which was the center of power for the Persian Empire dating back to the sixth century B.C. At 31, he’s too young to remember his country before it became officially known as the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, but Mirghahari still identifies with his Persian ancestors. This restaurant is a symbol of that heritage.

When his family moved to Memphis in 1991, the Persian community was small. But now, according to Mirghahari, there are about 2,500 people of Iranian descent living in Memphis. The idea for Caspian came to him when he was attending a gathering of Persian men with his father.

“We were talking about how there’s no place to get Persian food here,” he says. “It’s difficult to prepare Persian food at home, so most people would have to drive to Atlanta or St. Louis to go to a Persian restaurant.”

Mirghahari modeled Caspian after restaurants he had known growing up in California and New Jersey. He traveled home to Iran in April to bring back items to transform the space, a former printing shop on Brookhaven Circle. He bought crystal chandeliers to compliment the elegant dining room, and he decorated the walls with photos and prints from Iran.

“I got the name from a friend who owns a restaurant in California named Caspian,” he says. “I wanted something unique and even planned to name it Persepolis [after the ancient city which is featured on the cover of the menu]. But my friend suggested Caspian because anything else would be hard to pronounce.”

The menu features stews and skewered cuts of chicken and filets. Many items are served with basmati rice, which is prepared using cilantro, mint, dill, and other herbs. Though all of the items are traditional Persian dishes, Mirghahari did have to make some substitutions.

“With the exception of the lamb shank, I use beef instead of lamb,” he says. “In my country, they use lamb because beef is very hard to find. And here lamb is hard to come by, and a lot of people don’t like the taste because it’s so different.”

Persian food features ingredients from the ancient empire that once spread from Greece to Pakistan. It incorporates a number of fresh ingredients and herbs such as grape leaves, pomegranates, mint, basil, and saffron.

“It’s difficult to describe Persian food to someone who hasn’t tried it before,” Mirghahari says. “You have to try it to understand.”

The restaurant’s hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Caspian, 715 Brookhaven Circle (767-3134)

Bluefin will host a Spanish-wine dinner at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 29th. The six-course menu will feature tomato gazpacho with lobster avocado salsa, Spanish-inspired sushi, chorizo, ancho coffee-dusted beef tenderloin, and stuffed pork chops. The dishes will be paired with Spanish wines. The cost is $60 per person. Call 528-1010 for reservations.

Bluefin, 135 S. Main

Folk’s Folly Prime Steakhouse will host a dinner featuring the wines of Peju Province Winery, located in Napa Valley on Monday, October 3rd. Peju’s sales manager, Gary Vierra, will be on-hand to discuss the wines.

The dinner, prepared by Chef Javier Lopez, will include barbecue shrimp, rosemary biscuits, a mixed-green salad with fruit and sweet peppers served with a rosemary vinaigrette, a Tuscan-style Kansas City strip, roasted-garlic potato casserole, and a warm lemon rice custard. A Peju wine will accompany each dish.

Cost for the dinner is $75, and seating will be limited to 50. For reservations, call 762-8200.

Folk’s Folly, 551 S. Mendenhall

salexanderhill@aol.com

There’s a reason why today’s kids, while abandoning the time-honored traditions of kick-the-can and tag, still migrate toward treasure hunts. Really fun video games abound with uncovering secret treasure hiding beneath five layers of passwords, slaying evil gargoyles along the way. Finding treasure has an addictive feeling of accomplishment.

Wine importers get this high every day in the grown-up world. Importers, individuals with unrelenting passions for wine, scour the earth to find the next great wine treasure, meeting in dusty cellars to uncover hidden greatness. Each wine they import bears their name on the label, so that with only one glance, you can be assured of a deliciously addictive drink.

Most importers specialize in one country and cover the regions with eager expertise. Kermit Lynch, a California importer and retailer who spends half the year in the south of France, reportedly tastes every wine he puts his name on. Then he negotiates with the small producers to allow him to represent their pride and joy in the United States. I discovered one of my favorite Bordeaux whites, Chateau Graville Lacoste, by eyeing Lynch’s name on the label.

Enter Robert Kacher. Prolific and worshipped by wine snobs across the country, Kacher, obsessed with uncovering only the highest-quality French juice, finds these obscure little vineyards and creates a following with just 12 letters on the label. I have never tried a wine imported by Kacher that didn’t completely rock. Even when you haven’t heard of the region or the maker, and perhaps even the grape names, you can pop the cork of a Kacher-selected wine and be assured of a good time, usually at a good price.

Dan Philips, an enthusiast in his late 30s, traverses the expanses of Australia to import the best wines Down Under has to offer. In 1997, he formed a company called Grateful Palate, which now represents so many award-winning wines I can’t keep up — from Paringa to Trevor Jones to his own label, Marquis Philips. If you’re looking for the juiciest, meatiest shiraz from Australia, write Grateful Palate on your hand, in your PDA, or in your planner, since you’ve found a reliable path to nirvana.

If Austria or German wine calls your name, seek out Terry Thiese. Wine Advocate succinctly said of him: “In a country where selling high-quality German is akin to swimming against the current, [Thiese] has done a remarkable job, making true believers out of many skeptics.” He finds wines that have soul and only represents those that are craft-made, with the winemaker following production from grapes to bottle. He also imports champagne. Mmmm …

Jorge Ordoñez has been importing Spanish wines since 1987, before they were cool. He works tirelessly to educate winemakers about updating old techniques that will improve their quality and thus make Spanish wines more competitive. Consequently, Ordoñez finds almost absurd bargains from the corners of this vast wine-producing country.

Recommended Wines

Due to small production, these wines will be difficult to find, but look for importer names on any label.

Domaine La Hitare 2003 Les Tours Gasgogne (France)

Unique flavors and unique grapes, like ugni blanc and gros manseng, from a relatively unknown region in France. Tastes like overripe grapes and has a zingy, fizzy thing that finishes with a rush of lemon. Amazing price. Kacher selection. $7.50.

Chateau Grande Cassagne 2003 Costieres de Nimes (France)

Bursts at you with strawberry, plums, and spicy white pepper. Elegant, sophisticated juice, and it’s pink. Gasp! Kacher selection. $10.

Vega Sindoa 2002 Cabernet Tempranillo Navarra (Spain)

Chocolate, leather, dark cherry, and black pepper make you want to don an apron and use it for cooking. But don’t — savor it. Ordoñez selection. $14.

corkscrew@creativeloafing.com

Lori and Kenneth Whittington aren’t thinking about the past, only the present and their presence on the Memphis restaurant scene. The couple, who were part-owners of Buntyn Cafe on Park Avenue, have opened Whittington’s Café in Bartlett.

“We’re proud of the fact that we had the Buntyn,” says Lori. “It was a part of our lives, but we do things differently. We’re trying to make a name for ourselves. We want to be known for Whittington’s. We want people to say, ‘They have great food, great service, and they make you feel at home,’ not ‘They used to own Buntyn’s.'”

Although the Whittingtons are making a fresh start, Buntyn’s customers may recognize the same down-home cooking, staff, photos, and even the coffee counter from the old restaurant, which closed in February after losing its lease.

“Some people come in and see we have the same cooks, the same waitresses, but there are people from out here [in Bartlett] who’ve never heard of Buntyn,” Lori says. “With them, we’ll start a new legacy, but Buntyn will always be a part of us. Kenneth and I met there. Our children grew up there.”

Kenneth was the manager of Buntyn Cafe when Lori began working there in 1999. Lori knew the owner at the time, Mike Wiggins, who baptized her at the Fairview Baptist Church in Indianola, Mississippi, when she was 13 years old.

Buntyn Cafe was originally opened in 1927 on Southern Avenue by the Tull family. Then Wiggins’ parents, Betty and Milton, purchased the restaurant and ran it for many years. Kenneth joined the family when his sister Debbie married Mike Wiggins.

In 1999, Buntyn Cafe was forced to move from its location on Southern after the Memphis Country Club purchased the property. But the restaurant never regained its steady clientele after it relocated to Park Avenue, and the owners faced higher overhead costs. During the same period, three more Buntyn locations — in Collierville, Cordova, and Millington — opened and closed.

For the Whittingtons, the Park Avenue location was the beginning of their lives together. They married in 2001 and now have three children: Lanie, 5; Whitt, 4; and Braxton, 11 months.

“We’re not looking just 10 years down the road. We’re hoping to be here a long time,” Lori says. “Maybe one of our children will have a passion for the restaurant like we do. You have to have a passion for the restaurant business to succeed.”

Initially, the Whittingtons weren’t sure they even wanted to continue in the restaurant business after the Buntyn Cafe on Park Avenue closed, even though they had been looking at a location in the Chiles Shopping Center at Appling and Stage roads. The space had been home to Anna’s Steak House and later Dauphine’s. When Dauphine’s closed, the Whittingtons took it as a sign to jump back into business.

The couple opened Whittington’s Cafe in May. The restaurant seats about 100 people and has warm, green and red booths and an open, inviting atmosphere. The menu still reflects a home-style approach, which is easy with Whittington’s dedicated staff.

“Erma Daniels makes the pies. Diane Evans and Joe Jackson are awesome cooks, and Joe still makes the dressing,” Lori says. “A lot of people recognize [waitress] Barbara Grisham — she was with Buntyn for almost 30 years. We wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for them. They know how to make dressing; I don’t.”

Turkey and dressing still appears on the lunch menu Tuesday and Friday as it did at the Buntyn Cafe, though that restaurant’s famous yeast rolls do not. The Whittingtons, however, are putting more emphasis on fresh ingredients.

“We hand-patty our hamburger steaks, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers,” she says. “That’s one of the things that we wanted to be different,” Lori says. “We use real mashed potatoes and fresh vegetables.”

Lori recounts an exchange she had with one of the original owners of Buntyn, Mildred Tull: “[I told her], ‘We make our mashed potatoes from scratch now just like you used to,’ and Miss Mildred said, ‘Honey, our mashed potatoes were never real.'”