Cat Silirie - Recommendations - Find. Eat. Drink.
Wine Director, Cat Silirie, Barbara Lynch Group, Wine Director/Wine Buyer, Barbara Lynch Gruppo, Boston, MA, Massachusetts, No. 9 Park, Butcher Shop, B & G Oysters, Sportello, Menton, where to eat in Boston, San Francisco, New York, Spain, Where to drink, What to drink, Wine Favorites, Wine Pairing Recommendations
134 Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 (view map)
T: 617.661.0505 (make a reservation)
There is an amazing, amazing restaurant called Oleana. Ana Sortun, who is the chef / owner, grew up in Seattle, WA, but somehow fell in love with Turkish / Moroccan / Greek cuisine and spicing. She is amazing at, not necessarily doing a fusion, but combining spices. That is her passion: spices from the ancient Mediterranean. Her husband is a small farmer in Sudbury, MA, so it is an unbelievable place to eat vegetables, especially in the summer. He grows them all for the restaurant and then they are always unusually seasoned and spiced. It is so inventive, but so natural and good. You feel so good eating there. Her wine program is great. Her wine director, who is Hawaiian, Teresa Paopao, has been with her for years. It is gorgeous food. It is where we all want to go.
Cambridge
Mediterranean
TERROIR
I do get a huge kick out of Terroir in San Francisco. It is really all natural wine, part of the movement, run by two French characters, who definitely have a very french aspect to their service, it is very funny.
SoMa
Wine Store / Bar
TABERNA DE HARO
999 Beacon Street, Brookline, MA 02446 (view map)
T: 617.277.8272 (make a reservation)
Taberna De Haro is one of my favorites. It has very traditional cooking, really authentic Spanish cuisine. Deborah Hansen is the chef / owner and also the wine buyer. It has almost 250 all Spanish wines and Deborah also writes the descriptions for the wines. She does all the cooking, all the recipes, and the hosting. It is this little place in Brookline, just over the Boston line. It is just unbelievable quality.
She was in Madrid for 10 years. There is so much to discover on her wine list. She has divided the red wines into Traditional, Modern, and Post Modern and has a lot of opinions about what would make a Rioja Modern or Post Modern.
It is a real family style taberna (tavern) with perfect traditional food. She makes a paella made with squid ink, so it is all black - it is amazing with Priorat or Rioja. She also has great Spanish cheese and amazing oil.
Brookline
Spanish
WINE BOTTEGA
There is one in Boston I really do love, called the Wine Bottega, it is owned by Karie Platt. It is really small, it is in the North End, but shares a passion, an editorial, a point of view. It is mostly Italian, but they don’t limit themselves, there’s French, American, Austrian. It is one of those small, but super personal stores. Everyone that works there is so passionate. They do the buying together as a group. I really like her mentorship with her team. Because you can talk to anybody and they have all been at the tastings, tasted the wine. They do the hand-written card thing. It is the kind of super personal wine store that I like.
North End
Wine Store
I would never go to New York without visiting Terroir, and I hear there is a second one now. I just thought that was one of my favorite wine lists ever, the graphics he does with Steven Soloman, talk about an opinionated wine list. He would be a good textbook example of a wine list with a point of view.
East Village
Wine Bar
THE SLANTED DOOR
1 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94111 (view map)
T: 415.861.8032 (make a reservation)
I love the way the food and the wine there combine. And you are right at the heart of wine country and there is no California wine on the list, only Austria, Germany, Loire Valley, Champagne and it is unbelievable with those Vietnamese flavors.
Financial District
Vietnamese (Modern)
WIENINGER HEURIGER
Stammersdorfer Strasse 78, 1210 Vienna, Austria (view map)
T: +43/(0)1.292.4106
A family run, very traditional heuriger (tavern). Run family run by the Wieninger family for more than three generations. They have vineyards right in Vienna, there’s this amazing vineyard that’s a hill called the Neusberg that is still all planted to vines and the winery is underneath the restaurant and it is buffet style, but it is the best Wiener Schnitzel and traditional Austrian food, casks of Gruner Veltliner right on the bar, beautiful outdoor terrace, it is just a great place. And we don’t have anything like it in the US. All three generations were there one night when I was there, doing something different, running food, pouring wine. It is so fun. I love that place.
Vienna
Austrian
LES TROIS GARCONS
The decor is perfect, fun English camp. There is a lot of taxidermy wearing tiaras. It is very fun and the food is delicious and quite elegant. They have antique handbags all strung from the ceiling, it is really campy.
Shoreditch
French
THE LOUNGE LIZARD
It’s filled with sixties vintage furniture and it’s fun to drink champagne in.
Shoreditch
Lounge / Bar
SANTA MONICA FARMERS MARKET
www01.smgov.net/farmers_market
200 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, CA 90401 (view map)
T: 310.458.8712
Any farmers market in California - Santa Barbara and Santa Monica. It’s a dream. The Santa Monica market is just so much fun. It is right in a neighborhood where you can imagine how healthy life must seem with the ocean right there and everybody’s out buying all these amazing vegetables in January. It is one of my favorite parts of my California trips when I go in January or February and be there when the Santa Monica market is open.
Santa Monica
Farmers Market
Everyone loves La Boqueria in Barcelona, Spain which I dream about going to. I love sitting in the stalls themselves in the bars in the back, which are wonderful.
Raval
Food Market
BARBARA LYNCH GRUPPO - BOSTON, MA
WHO
Wine Director/Wine Buyer for Barbara Lynch Gruppo in Boston which includes restaurants: No. 9 Park, Butcher Shop, B&G Oysters, Sportello, Menton.
WHY
She creates wine lists with a point of view, believes strongly in educating her team, and can never say no to bubbles.
CAT SILIRIE - WINE DIRECTOR
August 4, 2010
RECOMMENDED BY
Alto Wine Director Levi Dalton
RECOMMENDATIONS
Cat Silirie’s recommendations on which wines to drink and where to eat, drink, and shop in Boston, New York, San Francisco, Vienna, and London.
Photograph by Justin Ide
