After a three-week stretch without a real day off, I needed a break; Ann wanted to go out and sit on the deck at Linden Vineyards and do nothing. It was a beautiful spring day best enjoyed outside and I did enjoy it even if it seemed I did not. I'm afraid I was more of a zombie than she bargained for: a sad reality of the restaurant business.
After a bit of much-needed winter cleanup in the yard Sunday morning, we got in the Jeep and headed south. I thought it might be nice to grab lunch before heading to Linden and I wanted to try Forlano's in The Plains. I've heard a bunch about this place: we buy from a lot of the same local purveyors.
Sadly, I don't have much good to say about the experience, so I'm just going to let the photos speak for me and move on to Linden.
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| Embarrassing. I'm Embarrassed for the Virginia Wine Industry. |
We left this bottle of Merlot-Cab Franc blend for our server. It was pretty terrible. And the glass of house sparkling wine that Ann ordered was either corked or just plain bad. In any case, it got left on the table. Are we wine snobs? Not so much that, but more that life is just too short to drink bad wine.
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| Italian Hoagie. My Italian Wife Begs to Differ. |
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| Steak Breakfast Burrito. Dry. No Steak. No Garnish. |
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| Ann Holding Court on Forlano's Front Porch |
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| At Last! Decent Wine! |
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| New Cheeses Since our Last Visit |
Neither of us was in the mood to taste at Linden, so we got a bottle of 2009 Hardscrabble Red and headed out to the deck under the wisteria vine. Jim came and chatted for a couple of minutes. We decided that we needed lunch, so we tried the three cheeses that are new to us, from top to bottom:
FireFly Farms' Black & Blue, a crumbly blue goat;
Everona Dairy's Earthquake, a sheep's milk cheese similar to a young Manchego in texture with an ash layer a little reminiscent of Morbier; and
Caromont Farm's Plank Road Round, a bloomed rind cow's milk cheese.
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