On
Wednesday evening at six we attended a lovely concert at the library. It was a
clarinet quartet called Luminosa and they were fantastic. Four pieces that I
had never heard, which is not unusual, but Cindy had never heard them either so
it was a double treat. After the
concert, we ambled over to dinner in the downtown area.
We had a remarkably interesting evening at a little wine bar
called Finch’s. We had been there before
and were surprised that it was still open since so many of the other
restaurants we enjoyed in the past have closed. We had already walked over to
the place in the afternoon and talked a bit with the manager - as we read the
menu we told him we would be back for dinner.
After being seated and looking at the menu we thought we
would like a glass of bubbly but there didn’t seem to be any on the wine
list. We asked if the one wine we didn’t
know from Argentina was sparkling, and the very young waiter said he would find
out. The next thing we knew, two glasses of the bubbly were brought to the
table, despite the fact that we really didn’t order them. The manager then came over and said he would
sell the Limoux Blanc de Blanc (the first sparkling wine in France) by the
glass. I thought perhaps the first wines were on the house, since the Limoux is
a much better wine, but something told me that wasn’t the case. In any event
the Argentine wine was good and served very cold, so we enjoyed it as we read
the menu further.
We ordered an appetizer to share to get started and Cindy
wanted a glass of red wine so we looked at the weekly wine list and discovered
that it was from the previous week. We asked the manager if there was a new one
and were told that it was still at the printers. Hmmm – this was Wednesday, well into the
current week. The waiter then appeared with the first dish so Cindy asked for
the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo that was featured on the only wine list we had. The
waiter said that they were out of that but that they had a Merlot from
Washington State that was very similar. Very similar???? The grapes are completely different and are
grown seven thousand miles apart in climates that are very different. Maybe the similarity was that they both began
with the letter “M” – ? -- in any case,
we were shell shocked but realized that he was young and learning. Cindy then asked for the other Italian red, Nero
d’Avolo. Now the kid was getting
flustered and had to tell us he didn’t have any of the Italian wines on the
very limited list, neither red nor white.
At this point flashing red lights started blinking in my
brain. Something was very wrong here.
This wasn’t a diner, after all, this was a wine bar – but back came the
manager telling us that those wines were great sellers and gone but he had some
great California alternatives. Not to be
snobbish, but California wines are not to our liking and are usually far too
alcoholic for our tastes. We asked if he had any Old World reds and he thought
he might have a glass or two of a Rioja from Spain. He came back with a glass and said that was
the last of the Spanish wines.
The waiter came back and we ordered the duck salad, only to
be told they didn’t have any duck because there is a national shortage of duck!!! There is duck on menus all over town from the
high end French to the Thai to the Chinese takeout. I can assure you that there
is no national shortage of duck. We
ordered the Brussels sprouts with DUCK bacon. The food that they had was very
good and well prepared but we got the impression that they were getting rid of
inventory in preparation for closing down, like so many others in La
Jolla. We’ll check back before we leave
next week to see if it is still open for business.
The weather this week has been similar to the child’s rhyme,
There once was a girl
who had a little curl
right in the middle of
her forehead.
And when she was good,
she was very, very good,
but when she was bad
she was horrid.
Our first few days were hot, clear and wonderful, then came
the rains. At first they were just showers that would sneak up on us while we
were walking, forcing us to take shelter for the five minutes it would take for
the squall to pass and the sun to reappear. Then on Tuesday, the weather turned
horrid. We were in a restaurant with
some dear friends when all of a sudden there were brilliant flashes of
lightening, followed quickly by booming thunder, high winds and heavy rain like
you don’t see often in Southern California. This wasn’t a brief storm; it
lasted for hours and hours and the streets became rivers. We raced to our friends’ car and as soon as
we got in the hail started, sounding like a troupe of Flamenco dancers on the
roof. We went to bed with the sound of
heavy rain, wind and surf and the next morning, all was calm and bright and
sunny. We have now had three days of
great weather, which allowed us to see the green flash at sunset twice in three
days.
Best wishes, Cindy and Wm
