After months spent transforming the former Cafe de Paris building downtown, owners of The Wine Valley in Hurricane officially opened their new Charleston restaurant, The Block, this week.
I, for one, can’t wait to check it out.
If it’s anything like the couple’s fantastic little wine bar in Teays Valley, Charleston will eat this place up. Only time will tell, but I predict The Block will quickly jump to one of the top five spots on the city’s restaurant scene.
Bulgarian-born Desislav Baklarov and his Russian wife, Galina, opened The Wine Valley in a small storefront in Liberty Square some three years ago, where it quickly gained praise as one of the area’s finest wining and dining experiences. I’ve heard so many good reviews, but never thought to make the trip down until the couple’s Charleston endeavor was announced.
Now that we’ll have one here, I visited the Hurricane location last week to give you a sneak peek at what’s in store. (I’ll review The Block itself in a month or so, once they’ve had a chance to work out any grand opening bugs.) That visit provided one of the most enjoyable, relaxing and impressive meals I’ve had in some time.
And true to its name, the wine list is second-to-none in this area. Although its elegant decor is much nicer, the Hurricane location is barely the size of a Subway. Yet there are a whopping 270 top-notch wines offered (more than 50 by the glass or in flights) along with a couple dozen craft beers.
As I searched the list thinking, well, they’re not going to have a South African Stellenbosch or a French Chenin Blanc or several other hard-to-find varietals, I discovered I was wrong every time. They had them all!
Mom, Dad and I each chose a flight of wines to sip and savor in a bistro setting enhanced by large racks of wine, soft lighting, smooth jazz and elegant decor — all creating a quiet, soothing oasis.
The menu isn’t huge, but offers a nice selection of cheeses, flatbreads, salads, tapas, entrees and desserts — anywhere from four to nine of each. I promise you’ll find something you love.
We bypassed tapas plates of olives, nuts, dates, hummus and bruschetta, starting instead with a cheese board that allowed us to choose four samples from a selection of 10 or so gourmet cheeses from around the world. Served with crackers and grapes, it’s a great way to kick off your night. Our picks were Manchego from Spain, super smoky maple Gouda, an earthy bleu and a sharp, aged mixed-milk cheese from Sardinia.
We complemented them with the delicious Paizano flatbread topped with pesto, artichokes, roasted red peppers, purple onions, portabella mushrooms, golden raisins, Manchego and Parmigiano-Reggiano, and then drizzled with fresh truffle oil when it comes out of the oven.
We could’ve ended the meal there and been completely satisfied, but there were too many tempting things to try.
I quickly spied a nice Chilean Sea Bass, which became an easy choice once our waitress confirmed it was her favorite, too. A large, perfectly cooked filet of this mild, buttery white fish came perched atop Israeli couscous (the plump kind), agave nectar-glazed petit carrots and fried leeks. Out of this world.
We loved their signature Creole-style crab cakes made with 100 percent blue crab and next-to-no filler. They came atop an arugula salad with a zippy lemon dill aioli and a seasoned artichoke salad. We also dug the tender filet mignon accompanied by whipped parsnips and a mouth-puckering (in a good way) kale salad.
As good as these dishes were, dessert options kept taunting us, so we enjoyed part of each entree and boxed the rest to take home.
Capping off our evening was a slice of milky-moist Tres Leches cake, a pistachio chocolate parfait and a selection of Cocopotamus Chocolate Truffles. Don’t laugh at the name. These are the ones served at the Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys!
From a separate truffle menu, we tried the Godfather (Italian espresso, almonds, dark chocolate and rum) and two coconut choices, the Oopsy Daisy with salted caramel and the Hang Loose with dark chocolate.
You can enjoy your sweets with a nice dessert wine, cappuccino or espresso (big kudos there) but, sadly, not a cup of regular coffee. This was The Wine Valley’s only “miss” of the evening, for sure.
Service was pretty good, even though our waitress acknowledged she was relatively new. What impressed me most was if we asked her a question she didn’t know, she quickly grabbed a more experienced server to come over and describe a dish in bite-by-bite detail.
Menu prices may elicit a little sticker shock for some guests, but are completely reasonable for the quality delivered. Most glasses of wine run $7 to $9, with food ranging from $5 to $30, with many items under $15 to $20.
The Wine Valley is a real Putnam gem. And brace yourself, Charleston. The Block may be The Bomb.
IF YOU GO: The Wine Valley in Liberty Square in Teays Valley opens at 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It closes at 9:30 p.m. on Monday, 10 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Call 304-760-0123 or visit www.thewinevalleywv.com for more details.
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Thanks for all of the great comments many of you shared after last week’s lambasting of Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Las Vegas restaurant, which got most things wrong during my recent visit there.
I publicly asked him for an apology — which some of you even Tweeted his way — but, alas, ol’ Gordon didn’t call.
I’m sure he has more important people to yell at.
Steven Keith writes a weekly food column for the Daily Mail. He can be reached at 304-348-1721 or by email at dailymailfoodguy@aol.com. You can also follow him on Facebook and Pinterest as “DailyMail FoodGuy,” on Twitter as “DMFoodGuy” or read his blog at http://blogs.charlestondailymail.com/foodguy.