Thursday, September 11, 2008

Wine Down, Lake Mary - Closed

Tuesday I tried this restaurant in the shopping center near the Marriott -46A (where Urban Flats was). It's an interesting (and by interesting I mean pretentious) concept in wine bars. They make therir own wine from purchased grapes. No other wines are offered. While it is becoming less surprising to have a seperation from grower and vintner, it seems like every egoist that couldn't cook thinks that he can extract magic from a grape. You'll have to let me know how this part of the experience executes. For every Sine Quo Non there are ten ham fisted failures. I'll stick to the food.

I had the lobster tacos for $12.99 (the most expensive lunch offering). The lobster was tender (shockingly so for something that was likely frozen and Australian). They gave you about a tail and a half of a pound and a quater lobster. It was fried in a tempura batter (not greasy). Jicama, red peppers and some kind of white sauce were included in the taco (2 soft shelled wheat tortillas). It came with a avocado aioli that was tasty but a bit extraneous because it was already "sauced". It also came with a field green salad (for some reason undressed) that was exactly the same as the appetizer salad that preceeded and came with it. I was pleased over all with the offering. The place is long and narrow and decorated with French advertisement posters and wine bottle wall paper. There is a glassed off (but door less) back room. The bar is on the left. The place was filled with mostly women of the Real Estate looking variety. There were two people on the wait staff (on the verge of being under staffed). The table ware was clean. The staff was friendly but not professionally bred. The room was clean.

I would only suggest some more signage. It must have been there for weeks and I only noticed it because Spice was closed down and empty. I also hate plus $2 sodas. It's 2 cents of syrup. And good luck with wine monopoly thing. It worked for Steve Jobs.

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