Wine Time

Wine Time Culinary Contemplation

by Trevor Burton

After being closed for dining, restaurants slowly opening again

It was that well-known philosopher, Joni Mitchell, who said it best, “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” Echoing Mitchell, I don’t think we really appreciated what a wonderful dining environment we had in our lake area until a nasty, scrawny, 120 nanometers in diameter virus took it all away.

My wife, Mary Ellen, and I moved to the lake area from northern New Jersey some 25 years ago—a decision that, like fine wine, seems to have improved as the years have gone by. Back in the day, fine dining, here, was sparse. And so, we would head down to that banking city to the south in order indulge ourselves. We had season tickets to the Charlotte Symphony— dinner and a concert was a great night out. It seems downright hilarious, now, that we were so pleased with ourselves. Driving down to Charlotte was such a breeze compared to the warfare of getting into and out of Manhattan for a concert at Lincoln Center; not to mention the huge cost involved.

But then, gradually, we found ourselves going into Charlotte less and less often. Finally, we attended just one concert in a whole season and decided not to do it anymore. There had become so many choices for dining in our own back yard. What we used to consider a breeze had transformed into a major undertaking when there were so many delicious options, locally.

Today, we have a large selection of wine bars with knowledgeable owners and proprietors; some wine bars have their own executive chefs. We have excellent choices of fine, Italian dining. We have, a favorite of mine, some wonderful contemporary Mexican cuisine. And more, very much more.

I have a couple of vignettes that show how lucky we are. Some years back, a friend, a high-level executive at a large bank, joined us for dinner at Epic Chophouse in Mooresville. The bar was set pretty high, he was used to dining in some of New York City’s best steakhouses. During our meal he kept looking out the window at downtown Mooresville and

Trevor Burton is counting down the moments until he can dine at some of his favorite wine bars and restaurants in person.

shaking his head. He was astounded that an establishment as good as those he was used to back in the Big Apple could be found in little-old Mooresville. Let me throw in that he was much taken with Epic’s onion soup, so am I. I wish we’d had more time together. I could have shown him that Manhattan doesn’t have a lock on fine Italian cuisine, either.

Also, I conduct several wine tasting and seminars at wine bars and dining establishments in our area. Each event is centered on a specific wine region or wine topic. Whether I’m focused on South American wines, wines from California’s Central Coast region or anywhere else, I’m always pleased to find an array of wines that are available for my topic. When it comes to wine, we simply have an amazing choice at our disposal. I even had a wine from southern Brazil at one event. Now, that’s something you don’t come across too often.

So, back to Joni Mitchell. She got it just right. I think we had all gotten used to the culinary excellence and availability around the lake. Maybe we even took it for granted. It took that nasty little virus to make us realize how good we have it. I’m definitely going to be, strenuously, making up for lost time. I highly recommend it as a course of action.