The Art of Pairing: Wine, Food, and Flavor with The Tasting House

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Summary

Join us for a flavorful conversation with Julian and Mary of The Tasting House, where passion meets palate. They dive into their paths through the culinary and wine worlds, sharing stories, insights, and a few delicious secrets. From timeless pairings to adventurous flavor mashups, Julian and Mary reveal the art and science behind unforgettable food and wine experiences. Discover how they craft their menu with intention, why flavor balance matters, and how curiosity in the kitchen can lead to magic on the plate—and in the glass. 

Takeaways

• Julian started his culinary journey at 14 by washing dishes.
• Mary transitioned from film to the wine industry after being inspired by the Netflix show A Chef's Table.
• Pairing food and wine is about knowing your ingredients and experimenting.
• The Tasting House offers a global menu with creative pairings.
• Experimentation is key in discovering successful pairings.

Check out the Tasting House online for more about their Wine List, Tastings Menus and to make a reservation.

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:00.98)
All right, Julian and Mary, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Julian & Mary (00:05.998)
Hi, thanks for having us. Happy to be here.

Laurie Forster (00:06.73)
Awesome. tell everyone, Julian, first of all, where in the world are you? So they know where the Tasting House is. And then maybe you can tell us a little bit about how you got into becoming a chef. And then I want to hear from Mary.

Julian & Mary (00:24.108)
Yeah, definitely. So right now we're in Los Gatos, California. So in the south of the peninsula. I'm originally from New York. So pretty, pretty big jump. Both Mary and I are both from New York. She's from upstate. I'm from, you know, the city. So that's kind of where we met. Originally, I wanted to be a chef when I was 14. And so I kind of started very young. I knocked on the back door of a restaurant around the corner from my apartment and asked if I could wash dishes for free. And that's kind of where it began.

I started off in fine dining, so that's never stopped. So I worked at a couple of restaurants in New York and moved south during COVID and we're here in California now.

Laurie Forster (01:01.514)
That's awesome. And then Mary Martin, tell us a little bit about how you came to be in the wine business. A fellow wine woman. I love that.

Julian & Mary (01:10.612)
I know, I know. It's always nice to see a woman in the industry. It's refreshing. But it's becoming more of a thing. So I actually started with actually a very big female crew of wine and food lovers. It was in New York. I started out in a restaurant called Ageren. It was a Danish restaurant. And that was basically the start of my career. I worked in film before then.

Laurie Forster (01:17.46)
Yes.

Julian & Mary (01:40.61)
got burnt out, was stuck in New York and I was watching, what is that Netflix series? Chef's Table. Chef's Table, I was watching Chef's Table and I saw an episode with Jordi Roca and another one with. That's such a episode. And another one with Dominique Crenn and I remember just being like, I want to do that. I want to do that. And so I did.

I think the next week I literally got a job in a Michelin star restaurant and I haven't really stopped since.

Laurie Forster (02:09.363)
That's awesome.

Laurie Forster (02:16.125)
That's great. That's awesome. And the other thing I want people to know is that you two are engaged to be married. So that's kind of exciting too. Did you meet working at restaurants or how did you guys connect?

Julian & Mary (02:28.91)
Uh, yeah, okay. Uh, Thanksgiving party. was drinking buddies with his general manager. And so the first time I met him, I was, um, invited to a Thanksgiving party. At Luther now. Yeah. At your restaurant. And I dragged through the Metro, um, two frozen turkeys across New York City just to bring it. And I brought it to your doorstep. And that's the first time.

I met him. It was over. It was love at first sight.

Laurie Forster (03:00.359)
love it. a match made in heaven. That's awesome. Well, I'm so excited to have you here. And Julian, obviously you're representing the food side of the equation and Mary, you're representing the wine side of the equation. And I shared with you before we got on that I'm also married to a chef. So I can tell you guys are just as passionate as I am that wine is part of the recipe of your meal. And at your restaurant,

wine really takes center stage in factoring into the menu as well. A couple months ago, we had Karen McNeil on here to introduce the share and pair Sundays. And so I thought this would tie in so wonderfully since it's gonna still keep happening every Sunday till May 23rd that you guys could introduce us to some of your favorite pairings and why you think these pairings go so well together.

And so maybe Mary, I'll start with you. In general, do you have any kind of overriding rules or tips for people if they are trying to put pairings together for their friends and family for a Share and Pair Sunday?

Julian & Mary (04:11.406)
I mean, yeah, I feel like it's almost unfair for us to talk about food and wine pairing because that's all we do. Like even on our off days, that's what we do. So I feel like the best recipe for success is knowing your food and then understanding what complements it or contrasts it. So knowing like the basic rules of pairing.

Either like, do you want a complementary pairing? Do you want a contrasting pairing? And I feel like that for me always helps, has a really good guideline. But then also, what's the story? And what's the story I want to tell? And each one is totally different. I mean, when we pair with food and wine at the restaurant, we'll try a dish first, and then we will try maybe, we already have in our heads different wines that we're thinking from different parts of the world.

And we just try it until it fits, until the shoe fits. So, yeah.

Laurie Forster (05:11.175)
I love that. I think that was one of the biggest light bulb moments for me when I, I'm a career changer. So I used to be in software and I would take clients out for expensive bottles of wine. But you know, I wanted to learn more. And in doing that, I thought, okay, I'll figure out what the pairings are. I'll memorize them. And then I'll just be done with that whole pairing thing. Cause it can seem very intimidating, right? But I love what you said about knowing your food because my husband makes a killer chicken marsala.

But his chicken marsala is maybe not exactly like someone else's as far as how he prefers the sauce to be. So you kind of have to know that. And it isn't a chart that you memorize. It's an experiment, right? Like you said, you have the idea of what you think is gonna work, but then you try it with several things and then you just feel it, I guess, right? That's kind of my thought.

Julian & Mary (06:02.582)
Yeah. No, no, I feel like you're right. Like, definitely there comes a point where sometimes rules don't apply. Sometimes you think you think that these two things should go together and then it doesn't happen. And it just falls flat. And you're like, well, I don't know. Now we have to start from ground zero or maybe do the opposite of what of what we thought would work. So it's really it does come down to instinct at the very end. But I think always start with always start with like the basic

Laurie Forster (06:15.326)
Mm-hmm.

Julian & Mary (06:31.246)
contrast or compare or enhance or enhance. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (06:33.641)
That's awesome. Enhance, I love that. If you do it right, I feel like that is the end result, that the two are better than they were alone, right? Is there anything specific at the Tasting House, Julian, that you do with your cooking to make all your dishes or any dishes more wine-friendly?

Julian & Mary (06:54.156)
Yeah, absolutely. initially you have to take into factor that, you know, wine, it comes from the ground, right? And it's very much a natural thing. So as a chef, we have to make sure that we're cooking a little bit more natural in the style. like sometimes you have to not showcase big spicy elements and stuff like that, even though that is a good pairing for stuff like Riesling and whatnot. And there's a time and place for that. But

For the other cases, it gives us the opportunity to really just showcase the ingredients. So when we go to the farmers market every Saturday, we have 27 different farmers we work with. We use a lot of practices of showcasing the ingredient. And ingredient heavy and four dishes usually pair the best with wine because they happen to be from the same place. So it makes it little bit easier for us when we make dishes that are a little bit more ingredient driven.

Laurie Forster (07:40.553)
Nice.

Laurie Forster (07:47.56)
Love that. And that is a pairing rule that, you know, I was taught along the way is that the wines from the region often go really well with the cuisine from that region because the cooking kind of adjusts to fit the wines as well. And so, you know, sometimes that's, that's a way you can kind of get ideas of what to pair. If it's a Spanish dish, maybe you start thinking some Spanish wines, et cetera.

But all of this talk about food and wine is making me thirsty and hungry. So let's just talk about some pairings and give folks some ideas of what they can do at home for share and pair inspired by your awesome menu there at the Tasting House. So what do you have for me first? Where are going?

Julian & Mary (08:17.007)
Yeah

Julian & Mary (08:31.406)
I guess let's start with like the most classic pairing which is champagne and fried chicken.

Laurie Forster (08:39.657)
I that. And I live here in Maryland. on the East Coast and we have this chain of stores called Royal Farms. I don't know if you ever heard of it, but they're renowned for their fried chicken all over Maryland. And I think they might be in Pennsylvania as well. So I didn't have time to cook. So this is my fried chicken, but do you, how would you make it, Julian And is there any secrets and tips on you think the best fried chicken?

Julian & Mary (09:07.724)
Yeah, honestly, so I think that a Korean fried chicken is the best chicken. And that's unpopular to some, but very popular to most. so they use the use of potato starch. So we marinate the chicken for about 24 hours in a bunch of Korean spices and aromatics. Things like ginger, lemongrass, or galangal. So you can kind of get the rough idea about where those intensity and those aromatics are coming from.

But then we coat it in the potato starch, makes it extremely crispy, gives it the texture that we try to achieve. And then we dip that in a little bit of gochujang. So Mary and I, I think we had to actually this weekend, which is kind of funny. Yeah, we bought a bottle of champagne and ate Korean fried chicken this weekend. It was the best thing in the world. So we were definitely inspired by that. And so we decided to create this Korean fried chicken on the menu.

Laurie Forster (09:46.089)
Awesome.

Julian & Mary (09:59.234)
The pairing almost felt very natural because you can't have a wine focused restaurant without fried chicken and champagne.

Laurie Forster (10:05.863)
Right. Well, great. So I brought my my royal farms, but instead of a true champagne, I brought the Gruet which is a method traditional. So the champagne method of production, but made in New Mexico. And I find it such a great value when you want a champagne, but you don't want to spend for a champagne. So this is just a great Tuesday, you know, sparkling wine in my mind.

And I don't know if you're a fan, Mary, but that's the one I brought to the table.

Julian & Mary (10:37.632)
New Mexico wines are actually really getting popular, which I'm excited about. And still, still wines from Champagne, which is very interesting. Yeah, which I was like, where is this coming from? This is totally new. So that's kind of exciting. And Method traditional Champagne styles from England are becoming more and

Laurie Forster (10:48.039)
Yes.

Julian & Mary (11:06.542)
So I'm kind of, I'm excited about this trending for sure.

Laurie Forster (11:07.017)
Ooh.

Laurie Forster (11:11.497)
Absolutely. Well, I'm going to try this and since I can't talk while I'm eating, Mary, fill me in on why you think this pairing goes so well and then I'm going to give you my reaction.

Julian & Mary (11:23.232)
Alright, let's do it. Okay, so you're taking your first sip. I feel like I'm just gonna narrate it for you. Okay, so you're going to have acid and you're going to have that salty crunch. And that's really what you want. I feel like I'm definitely not reinventing the wheel here by pairing champagne and fried chicken, but it always hits. Now,

Laurie Forster (11:36.425)
Mmm.

Laurie Forster (11:44.573)
Mm-hmm.

Julian & Mary (11:45.664)
The acidity with most champagne, you're going to be hitting at like maybe 11, 12%. So you're always going to have that beautiful brightness, right? Sometimes it gets a little bit bigger. In our case for a Korean fried chicken, since it does have a little bit more of like a sweet hot component we use to Paul Barra. So it's going to have a little bit more body. It's a champagne rosé from mostly Pinot Noir. So that beautiful body works. But if you have like your traditional

Laurie Forster (11:55.367)
Mm-hmm.

Julian & Mary (12:15.474)
just classic fried chicken, a brut, just a classic brute, really beautiful. So you're, doing it right.

Laurie Forster (12:19.954)
Yes.

Laurie Forster (12:23.849)
Exactly. And that's what I have there, the Gruet Brut because they do have various styles. And I found it for around $18, which is awesome. I love how, you know, because fried chicken is crunchy, but also has that fat, know, fattiness to the to the crust. I love how the bubbles just kind of cleanse your palate. So it feels clean again. So that now when I go back to the chicken and

I like to call it a wine sandwich when I do my classes because you always start by tasting the wine alone. Then you have the food, then you go back to the wine. So wine, food, wine. Second sip, which I just had here, the wine is maybe a little softer on the acidity front because there's salt in the chicken, but both are gonna be delicious now on the next bite and the next time you go around. So A plus on this one. Love it.

Julian & Mary (13:18.117)
Well that's 100 % you, but yeah, no, a class of contrasting pairing, for sure.

Laurie Forster (13:23.847)
I love that. Yeah. And is there anything, what if you were to go like somewhere totally different with this fried chicken? Is there something else that you would, that is not champagne, but might surprise us that you think would be great with this?

Julian & Mary (13:40.078)
with a fried chicken. mean, I think Chablis, it's like a cousin, is always nice with fried chicken as well, just because if you don't want the bubbles, or know a lot of people who just don't even like like bubbles and they don't want it. High acid white wine is beautiful with a fried chicken. Yeah, and

Laurie Forster (13:55.325)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie Forster (14:00.455)
I love that. Chablis is delicious. The real stuff, not the stuff my mom drank when I was a kid that came in a jug or any of that stuff. All right, so. I shouldn't name the names, but there used to be a wine in the the 70s and 80s that they called Chablis, but it was a California and nothing that that, you know, looks like what Chablis is from France. So, OK, luckily, they don't do that anymore.

Julian & Mary (14:05.71)
Yeah

we talked about...

Laurie Forster (14:29.481)
All right, so let's talk about where we go from here. We did this contrasting pairing, the bubbles, the acidity of the champagne and the sparkling wine, counteracting the, you know, the fat and the crunchy, the saltiness of the fried chicken, some of the spice in your Korean version. But what if people are just looking for other ideas for share and pair? This one's easy because you could make the fried chicken or you can go get

get it because you can come into your place, I'm sure, and get some fried chicken entrees to go and even have that at home if you wanted. But what else would you suggest for people?

Julian & Mary (15:09.528)
I think that there we should go into a little bit more complex pairings because that's the usually the hard thing. So when you're creating a dish at home and you're being a little bit more like eccentric of what you're putting on the plate and it's like that's when my parents just get a little bit more difficult. And I find one of the more interesting things to Paris things that are resinous So resinous pairings right like Juniper and spruce and these things and it brings up the questions like what do you pair with that? I think Mary has a really good answer for it but.

Laurie Forster (15:28.649)
Hmm.

Julian & Mary (15:37.742)
In the meantime, what we use on the menu is called a forger salad. So the forger salad is very much inspired by the Santa Cruz Mountains, what you can be able to forge for all year round. So things like hazelnuts and fennel, mustard, radish, like all these things you basically find on a hike. And it's 100 % what you would find. And we put that onto the plate and we serve that with a vinaigrette made from elderberry that's cooked down with juniper.

Laurie Forster (16:02.217)
Hmm.

Julian & Mary (16:04.334)
which is all inspired by the Juniper Trail over in the East Bay, which you can find fresh Juniper all over. And then we also use the elderberries, grows pretty much everywhere. A lot of people have elderberry trees here. And then we use red wine vinegar to cook that down. Obviously a little nod to the wine country that we have here in the Santa Cruz growing Pinot Noir and stuff like that. So we cook that all down, puree it, and then we make a spruce oil.

Laurie Forster (16:30.002)
Yum.

Julian & Mary (16:32.994)
And then we emulsify the spruce oil in with that and finish it with some wildflower honey coming from the Santa Cruz mountains. So again, very much Santa Cruz mountain themed. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (16:42.121)
Wow, I need to get in there and have this. It sounds so unique and delicious.

Julian & Mary (16:47.104)
It's one of my favorite dishes. We call it a forest vinaigrette because it really does taste like you're eating a forest, which is really neat. But it's definitely something that you can do at home as well. mean, you can it in the same dinner party that you're having this chicken. I mean, you can have a salad, some hazelnuts. You have some wild forest berries in there. You have some blueberries. You have some strawberries, like what's in season.

Laurie Forster (16:54.59)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (17:13.385)
Nice.

Julian & Mary (17:14.06)
that's really important. So you can do that at home as well, easily. We paired this with a 2023 Thibaud Boudignon, It's a rosé of Cab Franc and Grolleau So this is what we would call a complementary pairing in this case. So we have a few items, and you can do this at home, you can do this anywhere, but you have a few items that you know are in the

Laurie Forster (17:26.195)
Mmm.

Julian & Mary (17:41.992)
dish that you can match with your wine. And that's what we did for this. So for the dark berry fruit, we have the dark berry fruit from that cab franc. We have it from the Grolleau. So it's going to be, it's already going to have that darkness, even though it is a rosé. You don't have too much tannin because again, it's a salad. So for salads, you usually want to stick with like a white or a rosé or a bubble. feel like a bubble is always cheating because it's the easiest pairing.

always do that. But for this, really wanted that we didn't know what to do with this resinous quality. We tried other roses because we thought, okay, the tannin levels matching, that's great. But what are we going to do with these new elements? What are we going to do with like these mustard greens in this resinous quality? know, Sauvignon Blancs has some of those like phenolic characteristics that may work and phenolics is like that green profile that you get in wines.

Now, to have a green profile, a rosé wine is not common, but we found it in this one and we thought this would work the best. Because Cab Franc does have that green bell pepper quality. And when it was vinified with this light press, it was amazing. It totally worked. It was the most, it was actually one of the most exciting pairings that we've done recently. It was very, very different.

Laurie Forster (19:05.267)
That's awesome. And I love how you're taking bridge flavors, I guess is the way I would describe it. know, flavors from the dish that bridge over to qualities in the wine. And then also that vinaigrette does require some good acid, which I'm assuming this rosé has a decent amount of acid as well to kind of stand up to that vinaigrette. Yeah, love that.

Julian & Mary (19:30.542)
100%. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (19:33.034)
Great job. All right. Well, we had some fried chicken. We had this delicious salad that sounds so unique. But you're right. I guess, you you could put this together or something similar, even here on the East Coast, you know, going to a farmer's market and, you know, looking around what you have access to. And then if we wanted to go one step further, where would you go?

Julian & Mary (19:59.896)
So for East Coast friends, think we should talk about a fish and chip, right? Because you can use fish and chips for pretty much anything. And I think one of the best recipes for fish and chips is Heston Blumenthal's, which is the three Michelin star chef over at the Fat Duck and Bray. And he does a really amazing fish and chips. Mary and I, when we went to London, we were super inspired by this fish and chips. we happened to have all this Dover Sole poor us leftover.

Laurie Forster (20:05.308)
Nice.

Julian & Mary (20:27.444)
And we decided to do a play on fish and chips for them. So we're making Heston's tempura batter, which is a recipe that's all over the internet. It's known to be one of the best recipes for tempura batter by far. It's rice flour, AP flour, vodka, equal parts to lager. And then it's basically just putting it into the ISI container. So nitrous oxide gets aerated into it, and you dip the fish into it and then fry it. So creates these really big aeration bubbles for frying.

And it starts to get extremely crispy because of that reason Obviously the vodka evaporating to makes it a little bit easier And then we serve that with triple cooked Guess fries or chips is what they call it so that we confit in duck fat first and then we Blanch them and then we fry them and they get extremely crispy and have this beautiful flavor of duck and we serve that with mushy peas made with fresh mint and currently in California peas are in peak season right now, so

Laurie Forster (21:00.83)
Yeah.

Julian & Mary (21:24.652)
We're very fortunate to have this month window to two week window where we have like the best peas that we can get all year round. And then we have this tartar sauce that we make using pickled ramps, obviously coming from the East Coast, Massachusetts, which are really, really amazing. So that's pretty much the dish, but it's delicious. And the pairing is my absolute favorite pairing on the menu currently.

Laurie Forster (21:43.197)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (21:48.869)
All right, what did you do with all that inspiration, Mary?

Julian & Mary (21:52.366)
I mean, I feel like I didn't do that much. I really took it back from you here. So it was actually connected with our visit to London. We went to Noble Rot as a wine lover. You're probably aware of this beautiful location, but they're known for their crazy by the glass list. And I remember visiting there and I was like, okay, well, I'm in Glend. What wine do they have? Because, you know,

Laurie Forster (21:58.936)
come on.

Julian & Mary (22:22.402)
How do you not try every wine from every country you visit? So of course, they're known for their sparkling wine. Now you were talking about maybe a sparkling wine that is not from Champagne, doesn't have that same price tag. This is going to be definitely more up and coming. We have the Gusbourne from Kent. That's what we use. We have the Blancs de Blancs. Ripping acid. Like if you love Champagne and you love the acidity,

from champagne, this is even more so, I would say. Yeah, so this is really special. I think what we really loved about this specific champagne is it is a blanc de blanc, it is Chardonnay-focused, and it's also, I mean, it's at a 51 latitude. So it's like the highest area, cold, cold area to be growing wine. What are they doing? But...

Laurie Forster (22:54.705)
I do.

Laurie Forster (23:15.529)
Mmm.

Julian & Mary (23:19.646)
it comes out very citrusy and very light compared to like your typical champagne. And I really liked that because the tempura batter in this dish was extremely light as well, almost delicate with fish and chips. And you don't want that to overpower that, you know? So that is why we chose it for this, I think, because it was really, they kind of matched intensity levels. But it was also beautifully refreshing. Also with those ramps, yeah. The acidity from those were...

Laurie Forster (23:42.472)
Yes.

Julian & Mary (23:49.154)
definitely complemented each other very well. 100%. He made a tartar sauce with the ramps, which is fantastic. But yeah, so definitely have this on the lookout for a better price point style champagne is going to be coming up. I would say with climate change, it's probably going to get bigger and bigger. So even though it is starting with the high acid now, it's probably going to round out a little bit more over the years. So definitely keep an eye out.

Laurie Forster (23:55.581)
That's awesome.

Laurie Forster (24:09.651)
Mm-hmm.

Julian & Mary (24:17.657)
because I think it's going to be like the new hot spot.

Laurie Forster (24:20.957)
Yeah, I'm definitely going to look on the lookout for that one. I've had the Trone before and really enjoyed that. And so I was like, wow, okay. It's maybe not something, you know, in our SOM training that they were talking a lot about, Bubblies from England, you know, back in the day. But it's a great direction and a great place to look for, again, like you said, value. I mean, they're not going to be inexpensive, but they're also maybe not going to be as expensive as champagne.

Julian & Mary (24:26.062)
Hmm.

Laurie Forster (24:50.793)
I love that as a place to go. is there anything, this is kind of a crazy question, but what are two, like a wine and a food that you absolutely should never do together? Do you have like the, you know, the deadly disaster pairing? What would that be for you, Mary?

Julian & Mary (25:11.97)
my gosh, I mean, it's sushi and red wine. was gonna say the same thing. can't do it. Sushimi, red wine. Don't do it. Don't do a Cabernet with sushi. Just save yourself.

Laurie Forster (25:16.841)
Ugh.

Laurie Forster (25:22.161)
Yes.

Laurie Forster (25:26.249)
and your families and your future children. But I do love telling people, you know, go out and experiment. And what's great about getting a terrible pairing, like what you just described, is that the, you know, the wine is going to not taste good anymore once you start eating the sushi and the sushi is not going to be as enjoyable either. And it just is a great reminder that food and wine are a team and they work together.

And so when it's off, you know, I would do some staff training in restaurants and I'm sure Mary, you do as well there at Tasting House. And I said, you know, you kind of have to understand what people are eating, what they're drinking, because mussels, spicy mussels are a big thing here at a lot of the restaurants, because we're near the Chesapeake Bay and everything's around seafood. And people would say that maybe they're having a Merlot or a cab, like you're describing and they're like,

wow, these mussels are overly spicy, but in fact, it wasn't the mussels, it was the pairing of the two together that was kind of accentuating the spiciness rather than maybe if they had something, you know, like a dry Riesling or a Riesling with maybe even a little bit of sweetness, it could have been more complimentary. But you learn, this is a way that you learn that the two really do affect each other and it's like a family.

Julian & Mary (26:54.134)
Yeah, know, 100%. 100%. Yeah, don't traumatize yourself too much if you don't have to. But it is good to definitely figure out what works and what doesn't. Blue cheese, Cabernet. Cabernet is very specific. You cannot pair a Cabernet with as much as you think you can. I think that's a good, a good, they really do, they really do.

Laurie Forster (27:00.105)
Save your family. Right.

Laurie Forster (27:11.742)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (27:17.799)
Right. But people try.

Julian & Mary (27:21.944)
But it's only like red meat focused dishes really that you want to do that with which is funny. Sometimes you can do chocolate. Yeah, we had that two days ago. That wasn't bad. can do chocolate. So mean, yeah, you're absolutely right. Try it out.

Laurie Forster (27:29.661)
Yeah, absolutely.

Laurie Forster (27:38.244)
Exactly. Experiment. Share and pair Sundays are the perfect days to do that. Julian, if folks are listening to this and they want to come to the restaurant, give me just an overview of the menu, if you will, the style. What can people expect? Is it super fancy in there? Is it casual? Somewhere in between? If people want to make a reservation, what are they going to expect when they join you at the Tasting House?

Julian & Mary (28:06.19)
So we're definitely, we lean on the more fine dining side of restaurants. But we are also casual. There's a little bit of everything for everybody. Our a la carte menu is global in a lot of ways, because one, I'm from New York. It's a big melting pot over there. And then also wine is global. So we believe that the food and the wine should reflect each other in a lot of ways. And when we think about pairing, like you said earlier about having a Spanish dish with a Spanish wine, it's like, yeah, it's...

one the best pairings you can have because that's time and place for what that dish is from. So the food menu is very much like that. So we have a lot of global cuisine from all over. We have S'more Board from Denmark that we pair with beer on the tasting menu because that's the pairing. But then obviously there's a lot of wine-centric things as well as know, beef Wellington, Labordeaux and so on and so forth.

Laurie Forster (28:51.401)
Right.

Julian & Mary (28:57.762)
Yeah, there's classic pairings on there as well. But the tasting menu is quite fun as well. That's where we really get to kind of experiment and try some really fun different things. We have interesting things that are all creative and unique dishes that the team gets to try. And basically we have a panel of Somms trying the dish and coming up with all these different pairings and seeing what works. And sometimes there's yelling, sometimes there's screaming, sometimes there's hugs and kisses. Hey, hey, you know, just.

Laurie Forster (29:25.481)
Mary is shaking her head for those of you listening.

Julian & Mary (29:29.068)
Yeah, she's verbally shaking her head. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty much the menu. I think it's a very fun menu for sure. And we have Dover Sole on the menu too, which I absolutely love and the pairing for that is killer too. Longaví Chenin, from Chile. Really great price point actually. Chilean white wine. Which is fascinating because it's again a global cuisine thing. So it's not from France, but...

Laurie Forster (29:32.625)
I love it.

Laurie Forster (29:46.697)
Love it. Ooh. Lovely.

Julian & Mary (29:57.922)
they work together so unbelievably well. And that's the fun of wine-bearing. It's that, you know, you can have fun with it.

Laurie Forster (30:01.66)
Beautiful.

Laurie Forster (30:07.357)
Perfect. And Mary, just if you were to give a quick overview of the wine list, is it like 300 pages? What are we talking about here on the wine list?

Julian & Mary (30:13.806)
It's actually a scroll. I think we have 900 bottles and some change. We have a champagne bar. We have a champagne bar. It's sitting at about 115 champagnes. Like he said, most of our menu is dominated by a la carte. So we have 65 wines by the glass, give or take.

10 or 15 added onto that. So it's usually 65, So obviously I taste a lot of wine on my day to day. So, but we do have the Alacarte dominating, but then every night we have 12 tasting menu spots available. It's a 15 course menu. It's very long. Yeah, it's very long, but now we have two pairings. We're going live on the other one this week, which I'm actually really excited about. And I feel like

Laurie Forster (30:51.612)
Nick.

Julian & Mary (31:11.23)
Talking to you, feel like you would like it too. So we have more adventurous pairings, I would say, in the tasting menu. It's kind of similar to the food, right? So the a la carte, it's very classic pairings, very traditional wines. Some are a little bit more edgy, but with the tasting menu, we definitely let the Somms kind of geek out and have their moment, which I really love. And then we just added a full champagne pairing.

as well. So 15 courses with different Champagnes which is super exciting.

Laurie Forster (31:42.259)
Love that.

Wow.

That is well, you guys have definitely given us a lot of inspiration for Share and Pair Sundays. But more importantly, I'm going to have to start checking some flight prices because now I want to get in there for one of these tasting menus because it does sound totally up my alley. so if folks want to check out your website and make reservations, what's the best place for them to go?

Julian & Mary (32:12.12)
Tastinghouse.com. Every menu is on there and operational hours and events. We do so many wine events with winemakers, which are really fun. We did a New York dinner recently where we paired a bunch of really fun wines with New York City classics, which I thought was really fun. yeah, have Dana. Yeah, Dana. up. Napa Valley. I think emerging pop wine, which is going to be really exciting. Open table.

Laurie Forster (32:36.776)
Love it.

Laurie Forster (32:40.892)
Awesome.

Julian & Mary (32:42.092)
Also just make a reservation, open table.

Laurie Forster (32:44.349)
Love it. All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for coming on The Sipping Point. And I just want to say cheers.

Julian & Mary (32:51.598)
Cheers. Thanks for having us.

Laurie Forster (32:54.174)
Thank you. Awesome.