'Badass, aged red wines' at APL Hollywood, 2/21/19

WINE TALK
21

Nice work with the pics, bud! #portraitmode

22

That’s an insult to steve’s Sony a7r2 :sob:

23

Hell yes. I’ve been trying to eat healthier, so once I fell off the wagon, I went deep. There were some tasty carmelized morsels on that Flintstone bone. Also in fairness to our gluttony, there was some doggie-bagged meat off a few of the platters. Saul’s nanny musta had some good tacos this weekend.

I didn’t see the dinner photos on Steve’s instagram, but in general he has some nice food/wine shots on his Instagram.

I can’t recall what Saul said about the prep on the fries, but they were really good. Duck fat?

24

Amazing evening…thanks to Saul for putting it all together. I have never been a real fan of very aged beef so I went into the evening with a bit of trepidation. Man, was I WRONG! The steaks were absolutely fabulous …totally eye opening! As a group, the wines were fantastic as they showed beautifully. Personally, I felt very fortunate that so many older wines showed so well. The '77 Mayacamas, which was mine, was indeed, controversial. Some people felt it was slightly corked, others, maybe less sensitive, did not think so. Luckily, I redeemed myself with the '82 Ducru. FWIW, I took the remainder home and it did not seem corked the next day. My wife Diana, who is pretty TCA sensitive, had no problem finishing the bottle. [snort.gif]

Again, thanks to Saul for putting this evening together . Much appreciated. grouphug


Cheers!
Marshall [berserker.gif]

25

That makes a LOT more sense - amazing shots, Steve - googling that camera…any tips you have on using it would be welcome!

26

Re. the steaks and the lack of funk, I wonder what the trimming is like. I’d guess that a deeper trim makes for less funk, but am not sure one could trim less, or whether that even be a good thing. One interesting thing about the aging room was the amount of air movement going on with those fans.

27

See bottom item. Direct from their online menu.

SIDES
BROCCOLINI 12
Bagna Cauda, Parmesan

CRISPY BRUSSELS SPROUTS 12
Bacon, Apple, Pomegranate

BLISTERED SHISHITO PEPPERS 13
Fermented Chili, Pecans

BLOOMIN’ MAITAKE 16
Horseradish, Seaweed Spice

MASHED POTATOES 11
Cultured Butter

CRISPY POTATO 12
Grilled Bacon, Soubise

FUCK DAT FRIES 9
Malt Vinegar, Salt

28

Trim is as minimal as possible and really just to remove dried exterior, not to influence or restrain flavor profile. Aging rooms (or environmental chambers as APL calls it) are unique in the same way that cheese caves are unique. Chef took great pains to make sure the cultures and flavor profiles in the room were exactly where he wanted them. Where blue cheese is usually a flavor descriptor of dry age, we do not want that profile and instead want foie gras and mushroom.

29

Oh, hey! APL is at Hollywood & Vine … yeah, something else right around there tends to get me in the area on a consistent basis … [whistle.gif]

Prices on the website look reasonable, assuming the steaks aren’t 7 oz. scraps. I’ll have to check it out sometime. [cheers.gif]

30

Very cool dinner :sunglasses: now who was drinking the bad ass wines out of the Red Solo Cup :smile:

31

Fungus amungus…

32

Yeah, welcome to my world. I had to drive 3.25 hours to get to this gig, no joke. Worth it, though.

As for the steaks, they are sizes generously, let me ASSURE you of that! I plan to go again and get the dry aged ribeye <100 days, at $62.00. I believe that was our first steak and it was amazing.

33

The red solo cup was the “dump bucket”. It seemed like it got about 8 oz. of wine in it over a dozen bottles, so he wines we’re pretty good.

Interesting that Saul says they are able to target certain aging flavor profiles. I expect way more blue cheese notes, so whatever was done to select that out worked.

34

Oh, and speaking of ‘badass’, here is the Royal Lord among his loyal subjects:
4Uj0hkWZS5KU1BpbEzXmzg.jpg

35

He does look the part, doesn’t he?

Fantastic night and report, guys. Bravo.

Mike

36

Yeah. We had to rub his belly for good luck, too

37

Picture was obviously not taken with Fu’s camera!

38

You mean Steve’s camera! (the Sony)

39

Not seeing any of the pictures

40

Put your eyeglasses on [wow.gif]