Great meal at Varanese.

The missus and I embarked on an impromptu date night last evening and decided to go to Varanese, this being the first time for both of us (I confess with embarrassment), and definitely not the last.

Excellent in all respect. Beef and halibut, wine and port, dessert and coffee. Loved the curried lamb empanadas and shrimp ceviche. Staff and server were exemplary. Patio and understated jazz combo were just right. A magical night, and entirely unplanned. I'm quite happy we chose Varanese for this, and I didn;t even touch a beer, even though they had some good ones.

I post this because sometimes I forget to give thumbs up when merited, and come off sounding annoyed all the time because of the many evil windmills I enjoy jousting. I'll try to do a better job of shouting out the good stuff, like our meal last night. Cheers.

One of our favorite restaurants. Every single time we eat there, the Chef Varanese comes out and checks and makes sure we are enjoying our food and experience...he is so personal and this absolutely makes a fantastic night for us. There are several other restaurants around town that have this personal touch also, i.e., Volare... Asiatique...Winstons...Avalon...Caffe Classico...and a few others that always go above and beyond.

Roger, I am glad you enjoyed Varanese, I like it too. There are times when it gets a bad rap, but I have never been dissatisfied there. In addition, to the ports, and wines, they have one rare Pappy SCOTCH that tastes like butterscotch.. umm, um.

Not crazy about John's food show, but his food is good, and the staff is lovely. Server "Jim" stands out in particular as well as Manager David.

Not crazy about John's food show

It is considerably better now than before. It seems they have put some money into the production of the show. John still seems a little uncomfortable in front of the camera, but he is getting better. I couldn't make it through an episode in the beginning, but I am enjoying the shows now.

they have one rare Pappy SCOTCH that tastes like butterscotch..

?

That;s what I was told, someone sitting next to me at a dinner told me they were drinking Pappy Scotch.
I tasted it, and it was delish. Smooth and sweet.
I will find out exactly what it was and let you know.

Wait, I think I meant RYE. I don't bloody know. I have to wait for the person to remind me! LOL

[Robin Garr]

Wait, I think I meant RYE. I don't bloody know. I have to wait for the person to remind me! LOL

I think it's Pappy's Rye, Heather. He'd have to go to Scotland to make Scotch.

Wait, I think I meant RYE. I don't bloody know. I have to wait for the person to remind me! LOL

I think it's Pappy's Rye, Heather. He'd have to go to Scotland to make Scotch.

Yes, that makes more sense. The only thing I could think of was some joint product between Pappy and a Scottish distillery, but a little inter-webs research showed nothing like that.

Probably was this: http://www.oldripvanwinkle.com/newbs/vw ... endocument

The "Pappy" names are all bourbons. There is an Old Rip Van Winkle Rye (12 years old) and the Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye (13 years old). I'm guessing it was the latter - better product and about twice as expensive as the ORVW Rye.