Four Reds and a Whine

Four Wines
I have done something I swore I would never do. I bought wine based on its clever label and its cute name. I always thought this was a bad idea. My thinking was that anyone who needed a clever name or cute label probably had terrible wine. What you should look for, I told myself, was an unpretentious label. Kind of like shopping for a bank as Steve Martin pointed out (You don’t put money in Fred’s Bank; you put it in United Fidelity and Guarantee blah blah blah – because it sounds better, more secure.) Likewise a wine should have a name like Chateau Clos Du Pretencion because that sounds old and established.
I was wrong. Well, no I wasn’t wrong. At the time I made that decision, not to buy wine based on cute label or clever name, I think it was a sound decision because all the wine at the time that I can think of that fit that category was pretty bad. (I can’t recall any of them right now – of course.)
Then cracks began to appear in my thinking. First, came Bully Hill, if you don’t know the story it’s pretty good. The Taylors of Taylor wine lost their rights to their name in connection with the wine business. Coca-cola had bought it and sued them. The Taylors were no longer allowed to use the name Taylor – kind of like Ray Kroc driving the MacDonald Brothers out of business. Any rate the Taylors created Bully Hill winery with goat caricatures (as in “They got my name but not my goat.”)
Their wine is pretty good.
So now people like the Gallos are trying to gain respect by making premier wines. What do they do to sell it? They try to get snobby by winning contests and having glam photos of their wines taken; having a fourth or fifth generation Gallo walk around the fields and talk to you like one of the Coors do in the Rocky Mountains.
So now the stodgy looking labels are producing some pretty pissy wines.
A few weeks ago I went in to Village Grocery and picked up a bottle of Tempra Tantrum. The label is all red with a picture of a bull on it in small white letters it says, “See Red.” The label also says it’s a 2003 Tempranillo/Shiraz from Valencia Spain.
Okay, I’ll try it.
Cost around $11, I don’t remember but all these wines are in the 10-14 dollar range.
This is an outstanding wine. It is what a red should be. Good, hearty, no after taste, fills the palette (that means you taste it all through your mouth.
We were up in north in Nags Head and Kitty Hawk the other week and I heard of this place at Mile Post 6 called Chip’s. He has a wine and beer store and he offers wine classes. Unpretentiousness is his hall mark. He’s a real nice guy. Any rate I saw some more cute labels; too cute to pass up: Wrongo Dongo, Rabid Red (with the second R turned backwards like Toys R Us), and Twin Beaks (from Australia featuring a drawing of two ostriches’ necks and faces.)
All were good solid wines, though not quite as good as Tempra Tantrum. Wrongo Dongo 2004 is described as a Jumilla Red, whatever that is, and the most memorable thing about it was that it actually had sediment in the bottom of it. Red wine bottles are made with a “shoulder” as they call it to catch the sediment that may be at the very bottom of the bottle. Most wines today are so made that you never get any sediment – a sign to my wine snob side that says that the wine has been so blended and whirled and pasteurized that whatever character it may have had has been lost. Not Wrongo Dongo! It had a good almost full bodied taste that had a little bit of tang to it.
Rabid Red described on the label as a California 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon 35%, Petite Sirah 28%, Syrah 18%, Tempranillo 17% Grenache 1%, Zinfandel 1% is a good solid red too. As was Twin Beaks, it is described as a 2004 Australian Merlot from South Eastern Australia and the back of the label says the birds on the front are Emus not Ostriches; I stand corrected. - Rick Kinnaird

Restaurant Rumors

We decided to go out for lunch today. I was craving the Italian sub at Sandbar & Grille's new Pizzeria. Unfortunately, Sandbar was closed (even though their posted hours said they should have been open). We ended up at Angelo's in Buxton. The woman there told us several rumors ...

Rumor #1 - Pigman is gone. They've removed the signs from the Buxton location and the one in Kill Devil Hills is also for sale. The woman said the owners had been running the place for years and had just gotten tired of it. Very sad news indeed.

Rumor #2 - Austin Creek Grill in Hatteras Landing (right beside the ferry to Ocracoke) is gone. No word on what happened, but supposedly another Dirty Dick's crabhouse is going in there. This was our "special occasion" restaurant, so we're pretty bummed. Austin Creek also catered our wedding.

Rumor #3 - The Fish House restaurant in Buxton is not planning to reopen in 2007. All winter their sign has said "Thank You." Silly us, we thought it meant "thank you for a great 2006 season," not "thank you for the memories."

Rumor #4 - The Fish Tales restaurant right on the Frisco/Hatteras border is not planning to reopen in 2007 either. What is going on?

Finally, and this is NOT a rumor, the Pickled Steamer in Avon is up for sale. The owner is hoping to sell to someone who will keep the Steamer concept, but who knows how things will turn out. This is one of our favorite places on Hatteras Island. We're anxiously awaiting for it to reopen for the season so we can get the scoop. - Shelby Kinnaird

Ianjay Cafe Worth a Stop

We made a nice discovery last week - a cute little place in Kitty Hawk (MP 4.5) called Ianjay Cafe. I had seen a write-up about it in a local paper and we'd been wanting to give it a try. One guy runs the place and does all of the cooking. The day we were there, a very nice woman took our order and told us all about the food.

Whenever we go somewhere new, we usually ask the person waiting on us what we should have. The woman recommended the daily special (which I had), the Cali-style Burritos and the Cuban hot pressed sandwich (which Rick had). The daily special was a spicy chicken dish with gingered rice on the side. It was delicious and, for about $8, I also had enough to take home for lunch the next day. Rick's sandwich - roasted pork, boiled ham, provolone, pickles and spicy mustard - also cost about $8 and was very, very good. Other items on the menu include soups, salads, interesting side dishes like chili lime slaw and pickled onions, Asian-flavored pasta, rice dishes, empanadas, Baja-style tacos, quesadillas, casados and other hot pressed sandwiches. My only complaint was that the only iced tea Ianjay served was lightly sweetened. I'm an unsweet kind of girl.

Ianjay advertises themselves as "From East to West, the Caribbean to Asia, and all points between. Come taste the worldly flavors of IANJAY!" They are open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. for dinner. They also deliver between MP 1 and MP 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Even though Ianjay isn't on Hatteras Island, we recommend giving them a try on your way into or out of town. Visit them at www.thecoastalexplorer.com/ianjaycafe or phone them at 252-480-3100. - Shelby Kinnaird