In the Heart of Pittsburgh
By Vice Chargé de Presse Ken McCrory
Situated on Grant Street, at the epicenter of Pittsburgh's political and business world, is one of the City's great restaurants, and its only Dirona Award Winner - The Carlton. It's only natural that The Carlton's genial Irish host, Maître de Table Restaurateur Kevin Joyce, is very involved with civic affairs. After all, on any day, a good number of city leaders will be eating lunch at The Carlton - and what true Irishman can avoid a discussion of the latest civic goings on.
The Carlton's newsletters often discuss matters of growth and development and, recently, the police crackdown on Pittsburgh's favorite sport - jay walking. Kevin is also very involved in community affairs and played a lead role in helping bring about Pittsburgh's new convention center. After Allegheny County's recent election of its first Chief Executive under its new form of government, Kevin even hosted a "Dinner with the Winner" to benefit the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
It's very easy to see why Chaîne dinners at The Carlton are among the quickest to fill up. It's been a while since our last dinner at the popular restaurant for a very sad reason, however. Kevin's partner and Executive Chef, Steven Saenz passed away at a much, much too early age. It's hard to do a Chaîne dinner with an experienced chef, but almost impossible without one.
The Carlton was fortunate to have a good young group of chefs who Steve had trained. Rather than hire a new executive chef, Kevin decided to give these talented youngsters a chance. This "Team Carlton" approach worked well and as the group matured, Kevin was ready to commit to a Chaîne dinner. The date chosen, June 4, was a beautiful late spring day and, being past Memorial Day, a first opportunity for wearing white dinner jackets again (at least for those whose coat hadn't experienced "closet shrink" over the winter).
The Carlton is known as a great wine restaurant and tonight's dinner was a grand example of a wine dinner extraordinaire. The wines were carefully selected for comparison (the majority of courses had two wines) and were beautifully matched with the cuisine. And why not? - Kevin is not only a member of L'Ordre Mondial, but his policy of pricing wine at cost plus $10 makes The Carlton one of the largest wine buyers in Western Pennsylvania. The restaurant's frequent and topnotch wine dinners do much to promote wine consumption and knowledge in our area.
The chefs of "Team Carlton" including Mark Swomley, Eric King, Dan Iammarino and Jeff Julin created seven fabulous courses around Kevin's wine selections. The first course, a crab and smoked salmon galette was a spectacular combination of tastes including Dungeness crab and smoked salmon layered with crispy gyoza potsticker and served with a raisin caper emulsion and fresh grapefruit and honey butter. This profusion of flavors was joined by two of the great California style Chardonnays from the Château St. Jean "Robert Young Vineyard" and Franciscan's Oakville Estate "Cuvee Sauvage".
The second course of seared scallops was layered with crab-daikon slaw and pickled red onion. It was served with Beringer's 1997 "Private Reserve" Chardonnay, a great effort by one of California's great vineyard. A parade of 90+ Chardonnays continued with Miner "Oakvale Ranch" Chardonnay and Shafer "Red Shoulder Ranch" Chardonnay both 1997 vintages. These two beauties accompanied a pan seared snapper in a crisp potato nest with roasted macadamia shellfish stuffing and tomatoes concasse. The snapper was served with a lobster-pea risotto with spicy cumin drizzle and red wine balsamic reduction.
The next course, a morel tart over a pastry shell with Tuscan lamb sausage, boursin cheese with red and yellow peppers, grilled radicchio and shallot demi-glace was served with the evening's first red wine, a Sanford Pinot Noir from 1997. The next course of duck confit which was slowly braised with foie gras, leek and curry noodles brought two wines for comparison, a Fife 1997 Zinfandel and Villa Mt. Eden's "Monte Rosso Vineyard" Grand Reserve from 1996. The next course of filet mignon layered with seasoned lobster and Portabello-shiitake-macadamia duxelle cried out to be joined by some wonderful California Cabernet Sauvignons. Kevin didn't disappoint us as he brought forth the great California 1994 vintage represented by Spottswoode and for comparison the 1995 vintage represented by Signorello. We closed the dinner with the same vineyard that opened it - Château St. Jean. The 1988 "Late Harvest" Reisling from the Belle Terre Vineyard accompanied a simple, and simply delicious, berry napoleon with raspberry purée.
As we lingered over coffee, Chevalier Dick Schweiger commented that he was surprised Kevin didn't serve two wines with the coffee course! We all came away with a deeper appreciation of the joy of comparing wines that were matched with wonderful creations from a team of talented chefs. This dinner was a perfect start to summer at a restaurant that's not only in the heart of the City's center, but in the center of the City's heart.
