Monday, June 30, 7:00 p.m.
Members $95, guests $120

You may not have tasted Ivy Stark’s cooking at Dos Caminos—she was appointed executive chef just this past March—but you’ve probably tasted her food elsewhere in town. Stark has worked key posts at Match Uptown (sous-chef and executive chef), at New York Times three-star Sign of the Dove (sous-chef), and at the short-lived but critically acclaimed three-star Cena (executive sous-chef) under Normand Laprise. She even spent time as beverage director and sommelier at Brasserie 8.

Around the country, Stark cooked at Border Grill in L.A. under the acclaimed team of Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, working her way through every station in the kitchen. She renewed her association with the Two Hot Tamales some years later as chef de cuisine at their much-lauded Ciudad, also in L.A. Immediately before Stark signed on at the stylish Dos Caminos, she was executive chef at Zócalo, where the food, according to Bob Lape of Crain’s New York Business, was “complex and interesting.” So while Stark is a recent addition to Steve Hanson’s B.R. Guest team at Dos Caminos, this is one chef with plenty of experience under her sombrero.

As for Dos Caminos, it aims at being “the sweetest, most festive and welcoming fiesta you have ever discovered,” an intention it more than lives up to. Lape described the restaurant as “big, festive, modern, and brimming with good food, drink and welcome.” Add 150 varieties of Tequila, and, hey, we’re sold on the place.

Hang on. We won’t be serving much Tequila at the Beard House on this evening. But that’s because we’ve booked something even better. Stark will be joined Concha Vecino, a native of Spain whom Caza Gastronomia Cinegética has described as “an enology magician.” Vecino is winemaker at Bodegas Nekeas, a vineyard/winery in Añorbe, a tiny village in the Valdizarbe valley of Navarra. Not quite 15 years ago, eight families there embarked on a project to reclaim the region’s winemaking traditions by planting Garnacha and Tempranillo grapes. Three years later, they hired Vecino, and in 1994 they sold their first vintage. Today, the winery produces 1.5 million bottles a year of magnificent Chardonnay, Merlot, Tempranillo-Cabernet, and Tempranillo-Merlot and exports its wines all over Europe, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, and Hong Kong. The wines, which are sold under the Vega Sindoa label in the U.S.A., have received raves from Wine Spectator and from Robert M. Parker, Jr. in Wine Advocate.