Winemaker Dinner

Monday, September 9, 7:00 P.M.
Members $95, guests $120

When they opened The Tasting Room in a tiny storefront with barely a kitchen and no gas lines, husband-and-wife team Colin and Renée Alevras proved that necessity is the mother of (divine) invention. The cozy 25-seat dining room became an attraction, and the eatery was voted Best Date Restaurant by the readers of Time Out New York. It also became a romantic showroom for chef Colin Alevras's market-inspired menu, consisting of dishes designed for tasting, sharing, and sampling. Stephen A. Shaw in New York Metro called it "some of the most compelling food in town."

Alevras's cooking style, which he describes as "spontaneous American," is largely influenced by the eatery's diminutive size, which requires the resourceful chef to scour the city's markets to assemble the evening's menu, on which "everything, from the salads to the cheese plate, is intense and focused," according to Pete Wells in Food & Wine.

The chef's love affair with food and wine began at Peter Kump's Cooking School (now the Institute of Culinary Education), where, incidentally, he also met Renée. Hungry for further training, he set out to Paris, where he became a stagiaire at the Michelin three-starred Arpège. In Manhattan, he worked the line at restaurants such as Petrossian and Verbena, and was the opening chef de cuisine at O'Nieal's Grand Street. While gaining impeccable culinary experience, the ambitious chef explored his other passion, wine. He received his certificate from the Sommelier Society of America and served as cellar master and banquet sommelier at Daniel before fusing his food and wine expertise at The Tasting Room. That intense cross-training led Wine Spectator's Bruce Sanderson to write, "This restaurant delivers one of the best one-two combinations of food-and-wine among the new trend-setting eateries."

It goes without saying that The Tasting Room's wine list is expertly selected. Therefore, it should be no surprise that it features the wines of Napa Valley's Swanson Vineyards. Alexis Swanson Farrer, daughter of the vineyard's founder, W. Clarke Swanson, Jr., will be on hand to pour some of the vineyard's award-winning wines. Among them will be her namesake, Alexis, a unique blend of Cabernet and Syrah that James Laube of Wine Spectator called "a bright new star."