SARAH AND MONICA’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE
By Charlotte Alston Legg
You can live in a town a year or a lifetime but still have to search to find its essence. Not Ridgefield, though. Our town is special, you get that almost immediately. The art and architecture, the music, the picture-book downtown. Yet the true essence of a great community is its ability to surprise you. Live here a year or a lifetime, whatever you do, don’t miss one of Ridgefield’s most unforgettable experiences. SARAH AND MONICA’S BIRTHDAY WINE TASTING DINNER!
Every year mid-January, Sarah Bouissou and Monica Brown throw themselves a birthday bash at Bernard’s, and we’re all invited! The celebration is the ultimate tribute to one of our community’s most fruitful partnerships. Sarah is Bernard’s – well, Bernard is Bernard’s, but if there ever was a muse, Sarah is his. Monica, our Demeter, Goddess of wine and the harvest and owner of Cellar XV, is her collaborator in wine tastings, wine dinners, fundraisers and cultural events. Together, Sarah and Monica have committed both time and talent to raise nearly $15,000 for local non-profits. And it all started in a dance around food and wine; and a shared birthday.
A good meal and perfect glass of wine is vocation and avocation for Sarah and Monica, and the guiding spirit for the open invitation to join them for their birthday dinner (prix fixe dinner with wines, $95 per person). Last Friday the 22nd at 7:00 sharp, Bernard’s was ablaze with motion. Met at the door by the lovely Maitresse d’ (Pauline Bouissou), guests meandered through a gauntlet of waiters holding trays aloft, offering a jumped-from-the-water crudo (like a seviche’, doused in olive oil and citrus), small bites of figs and proscuitto, dumplings of italian gigante beans in pancetta and tall flutes of rosy bubbly (Villa di Corlo Lambrusco di Sorbara, “the next Prosecco”, pronounces Monica). Bubblier still was the hug from the hosts, who with gesticulative orchestration introduced “who” to “whom”. Scattered tables of friends new and old told stories of past events (New Year’s Eve at Bernard’s, and tastings at Cellar XV), and of new ventures (Monica’s No. 109 Cheese Market, and Sarah’s Winebar which was buzzing its own tune just up the stairs from where we sat). Bernard Bouissou and Todd Brown gave their spousal accounts of the collision of Sarah and Monica almost a decade ago, describing the circles that grew smaller and smaller around them until finally, they gave in. And the rest, lucky for us, is history.
“One can say anything best over a meal.” – George Eliot
And the stories they do tell…
What makes a wine dinner hosted by Sarah and Monica so – entertaining – is the narrative that accompanies each taste and swallow. Monica’s eloquent descriptions accompanied by half-lidded sighs were interrupted by Sarah’s hoots of laughter when a taste brought back a memory. Monica is all nuance, around a cheese and wine from the Marche or Piedmont; Sarah waxes silly about eating foie gras in the Florida Keys. The running commentary weaves in and out, with catcalls from the gallery and Letterman-like riffs from a guitar/keys duo.
“A great restaurant is a fantasy — a kind of living fantasy in which diners are the most important members of the cast.” – Warner LeRoy
Inspired by Italian country fare, Bernard prepared a 5-course adventure, matched by inspired glasses of wine, each more unique than the last, by Tyler Savage of Cellar XV. The evening was also a celebration of a new cookbook by dynamic chefs, wine experts and food writers Melissa Pelligrino and Matthew Scialabba, The Italian Farmer’s Table (which you can purchase by clicking the Amazon link on Talk of Our Town’s home page). Synergies and affiliations criss-crossing like branches of a tree. Such was the essence of the evening, and that of our community.
Click here for the extravagant menu – and indulge me my reverie:
Imagine a skate wing, the lightest, sweetest white fish, swimming in a small sea of lentils with a hint of ham and parsley;
A sauteed foie gras in a romantic encounter with spinach, apples and blueberries, matched with a soft (but dry) Castello di Spressa Tocai Collio 2006 ($22) - such an unusual white wine.
Then, dinner. Served over polenta and surrounded by vegetables and a few perfect gnocchi, a chop of wild boar. Bernard infused the meat with an ever so subtle effusion of porcini mushroom which, together with a deep red wine (Selvagrossa Trimplin Marche 2006, $30), could only be called “delicious as dirt”.
Cheese followed from No. 109, a spectacular selection of three; the Sottocenere from the Veneto studded with truffles and infused with cinnamon and cloves was poetry, especially combined with the more tannic wine selection, the red Poggio alle Querce Il Guado Bolgheri 2006 ($25).
Finally, a quartet of stripey tortes baked by Didier Berlioz, layers of crunch and cream that begged for more of that sparkling Lambrusco that started our evening…
“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.” – Jerome K. Jerome
Ridgefield’s essence is its community. What connects us is a deep and ingrained sense of surprise. Creativity and collaboration keep our town alive, dynamic and relevant, and the many branches of the tree are as vibrant as the roots they spring from. Right in and among the branches are two dynamic women, swinging hard and jumping far, celebrating a birthday!
We are all invited, so don’t miss a wine event at Bernard’s! Upcoming dates are:
[...] Bouissou and Monica Brown at Bernard’s Restaurant, an event you read about right here on Talk of our Town. At the party, my wife, Melissa Pelligrino and I were pleased to present our new cookbook, The [...]