Inaugural Zeppoleme Wine Dinner a Wicked Good Time – Port Chester, NY

Things don’t get much better in life than having good friends, good food, and good wine all together in one perfect spot.  And that’s exactly how it went down yesterday, 1/30, at Zeppoleme in Port Chester, NY.  This was, perhaps, one of the most fun events that we’ve been to in a long time, so we were very happy and proud to be a part of it.  Let’s take you through each course.  Oh, and if you were one of the bums who missed this event, Zeppoleme plans to have more, so don’t worry!

The Hearty Tuscan Tomato Soup was excellent, thawing us out nicely.  It was tangy, a tad bit sweet, and had nice chunks of veggies.  Marc and Robert of Zeppoleme paired this with a nicely balanced “Truth or Consequences” Riesling which was so easy going down.

Helping make this soup stand out were a couplet of savory zeppole.  We happened to get the Mixed Vegetable Zeppole which were airy, fluffy, and tasted great with a little soup and the sauce on the side.

We then had a nice arugula salad that had cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and a parmesan lemon dressing.  It was refreshing and the nice shreds of parm on the salad brought it up to another level.  So, we knew we were in trouble when we started to feel full at this point.  Lol.  This dish was paired with the “Gazerra Pinot Grigio from Sicily which was another good choice, playing well off the spiciness of the arugula and the fattiness of the parm.

Then came along the killer panini trio:  slow braised short rib with broccoli rabe and provolone, the spicy eggplant with pepperoncini peppers, and goat cheese, and the BLT with house made aioli.  What can we say?  The short rib was as delicate, earthy, and delicious as always, while the spicy eggplant was awesome with goat-cheesy-goodness.  And, yes, that BLT had some great smoky flavor.  The panini were paired with a bold “Pacific Standard” Red Zin from Lodi.

Everybody was pretty much in major pain at this point from feasting, but the dessert zeppole came out:  Classic zeppole, Oreo zeppole, and Modern zeppole with ricotta folded into the batter all paired with the rich and luxurious buttercream dipping sauce.  While everybody devoured the zeppole, people sipped on some Stumptown Coffee.

We were so happy with how the first wine dinner at Zeppoleme turned out.  We’d like to thank Marc, Robert, Deborah, and the entire staff at Zeppoleme for really doing an amazing job setting up, decorating, running, and organizing this event.  And, we’d like to thank all our friends and readers who came out to try one of our favorite spots with us.  

We really have the best friends and best readers EVER!

Ciao!