First, an apology for reminding our New York customers that the Philadelphia area has something you don’t – boatloads of really good BYOB restaurants. With rare exception, I frequent these restaurants exclusively.

At most “licensed” restaurants, the wine rarely has anything to do with the food (a HUGE problem these days what with all the newly-minted “somellier wannabes” packing the wine lists with the “hippest” collections of “cult” wines, and “luxury brand” bottlings), and, the wines in restaurants rarely escape damage from the standard wine distribution model (transportation from the winery without the benefit of temperature-control). Sorry – off on a tangent there…

Last night, after a hard, busy week, Susan and I headed over to Fuji, in our little hometown of Haddonfield. The joint was rockin’, and we had a little wait before getting seated. One noisy table included an old buddy who was celebrating his birthday – we were seated next to him, and the evening was tremendously entertaining.

While Chef Matt Ito’s selection of sushi and sashimi was outstanding, the star of the meal, was the bottle of Ratzenberger’s Steeger St. Jost Großes Gewächs 2005. I had one bottle left from our Christmas “real” food extravaganza, and good as it was with the “heritage” turkey then, with the sweet, raw fish last night, the wine was ethereal.

Posted by David Moore