Seven Stars Hotel

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Seven Star HotelPhoto thanks to Scenic Adelaide.

 date of visit: Tuesday 16 August 2011

Often a meal out, especially to a pub, simply involves turning up, ordering a chicken schnitzel parmigiana, eating said schnittie and then going home. There’s not a lot that’s taxing on either side of the hospitality fence. However, I recently volunteered to organise a dinner out for about 20 people with some difficult BYO requirements (everyone would be bringing a bottle and we really needed a set price per head, to make paying easy). Generally, I love organising stuff (that’s why I volunteered) and I find it really interesting seeing how different businesses deal with slightly left of centre requests.

So, I began by ringing around a couple of venues to see what could be done. The first venue, I was told flatly that they don’t ‘do’ BYO. A subsequent venue, even after I’d explained what I was after, wanted to limit BYO to 6 bottles (for 20 people, can you be serious?!) and then grudgingly decided that perhaps they could handle additional bottles … but by this point, they’d lost the customer.

And then I rang the Seven Stars. The last time I went here I would have been in uni and probably on a pub crawl of some sort. But I’ve seen the pub’s name pop up on twitter in a positive context and it rates highly on Urban Spoon so I figured it was a good next step. The first person I spoke to wasn’t sure if they would be able to accommodate my requests but, without any prompting, went off to fetch her manager. He was really helpful and said that it wouldn’t be a problem to accommodate us and he could put together a few menus, with costs, that we could choose from.

Best of all, he was happy to email me this information! When the email arrived, he’d booked us into the hotel’s Courtyard Room and provided four different menu options for us (all inclusive of the BYO charge). I opted for a choice of two entrées from the hotel’s function menu and then a cut down selection from the à la carte menu.

Because the booking experience had been so painless, I encouraged everyone in the group to turn up and have a couple of drinks before dinner. The whole evening ran smoothly – we had spittoons provided, the food was good* (well, I was happy and the people immediately around me were happy – including one person who’d ordered a steak which was cooked to order), and the hotel even provided us with extra glasses. When it came to paying, they were happy to accommodate us paying individually, to save us the hassle of trying to sort out change.

The whole experience made me realise how important service is. The fact that the food was good was just icing on the cake. Most people did turn up early and have a couple of drinks, someone in our group bought a couple of bottles of bubbly mid-way through the meal and plenty of people were ordering coffees when I left. On a quiet (and very wild and wintery) Tuesday night I imagine most pubs in Adelaide would have been quite pleased to have our group spending some money.

And I, for one, will be more than happy to return to the Seven Stars. Thumbs up for a team that obviously knows what it’s doing!

*For the record, I had herb marinated lamb skewers to start, which were nicely juicy and not remotely overcooked as is always the risk with function food, followed by beer battered fish and chips, which were definitely a cut above a standard pub fish and chip dinner.

The Seven Stars on Urbanspoon

Good Food and Wine Show

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Friday week ago I was out in the sun enjoying some nibbles and chatting to Amanda from Lambs’ Ears and Honey, as a guest at the launch of the Adelaide incarnation of the Good Food and Wine Show.

The afternoon began in Rundle Mall, under the canopy at Gawler Place, where we sampled tasty tidbits from South Australian producers such as Beerenberg, Cocolat, Barossa Fine Foods and Carême. I was particularly taken with the Carême chicken pithivier because it’s never occurred to me to make a savoury one. Actually, it’s never occurred to me to make one because my mum makes an awesome traditional one, with a frangipane filling … anyway, that’s an idea to keep stashed away for future reference.

After a bit of banter in the open air, we headed to the Hotel Richmond for drinks and dessert and the launch proper (that’s the speeches!). Alastair McLeod (of Brett’s Wharf in Brisbane, and of Ready, Steady, Cook fame) did the honours and there was a run through of the major sponsors as well as the celebrity chefs who will be present – the star billing this year going to Ainsley Harriott*.

The Good Food & Wine Show also features wine and cheese classes if you fancy something away from the celebrity chefs.

This year’s show runs from 7-9 October at the Showground. Tickets are $20 (that doesn’t include entry ot the Reidel Decanter Bar, which is $55 but does include show entry). I do have 5 vouchers for $5 off entry which I’m happy to post out to the first 5 commenters who have managed to read this far!

* Even if you’re not a fan of his on-screen persona, Harriott’s recipes tend to be very reliable. They’re usually quick, easy and tasty. I’m a fan!

Madeira Madness

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Blandy's 1964 Malmsey by Alister Robertson

Yesterday I attended my first Sommeliers Australia event, Madeira Madness.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but was hoping for a fairly structured, tutored tasting – and that is exactly what I got.

Between 20 and 30 people congregated upstairs at Est Pizzeria on East Terrace for a session led by James Godfrey and Phil Reedman MW.    James is a Senior Winemaker at Treasury Wine Estates with plenty of experience making fortifieds in Australia and Phil runs his own consulting company.  Phil had just returned from the UK where he had sourced some of our tasting samples.

We began with an overview of Madeira – both the island and the wine – and started on the tasting quite promptly.  The four ‘noble’* Madeiran grape varieties are Sercial, Verdelho, Boal (or Bual) and Malmsey.  This is also the order of increasing sweetness.  So don’t think about what your grandma used to have stashed in the cupboard:  a Sercial Madeira is almost bone dry!

The tasting started with four (one of each of the above grapes) non vintage Madeiras from Henriques & Henriques.  My favourite was the Sercial – absolutely ideal aperitif material.  Not overly complex – think raisins, caramel, sweet and hot spices, and finishing with some definite nut characteristics (for me, that was hazelnut).  The really standout thing in this wine was some really really high acidity.  It really cleared the palate and allowed the individual flavours to shine.

We then tasted some older wines – the oldest being a 1964 Blandy’s Malmsey and the youngest being a 1988 D’Oliveira Colheita Terrantez.  These wines were all considerably more complex than the first four – so there was a lot of discussion and a lot of note taking!  My personal favourite was the 1981 D’Oliveira Colheita Verdelho which had a real coffee, caramel and fruit cake nose but tasted quite different.  The searing acidity was still there but it had an almost salty taste to it, while finishing richly.  The closest I could come to was salted caramel, but when James mentioned crushed pineapple that, for me, hit the nail on the head!

I was struck by how much citrus I spotted in the wines – my notes are peppered with fresh lemon, fresh lime, and lots of references to preserved lemon.

It was a great couple of hours – not only did we taste some amazing wines (and I doubt I’ll ever be in a room with 9 Madeiras again!) but having Phil and James there was very instructional.  There can’t be too many people in Australia with such a solid knowledge of Madeira and fortifieds and it was fab to have them pointing out things that were both typical and atypical.  Definitely an afternoon for wine geeks!

Thanks to Ali for the photo – follow him on twitter!

 

*In wine speak, ‘noble’ varieties are those grape varieties which produce wines of quality – typically we’re talking about greater complexity and length, and often things like potential for ageing.  This frequently translates into a slightly higher priced product!