I Totally Forgot.

I completely forgot to mention in my workup of the New Hampshire Highland Games that a very good gourmet shop is nestled on the main drag, just waiting for tourists to wander in.

Make no mistake, it may be in a town heavily dependent on tourists and ski bums, but the Abbey Cellars is a legitimate gourmet store catering to gourmets, and not just tourists. The prices are competitive and the selection is good. They have a wide selection of cheeses and have a small tasting area. They've got chocolate from around the world on offer, and a good selection of fine wines and beers.

I didn't know this, but apparently New Hampshire has a weird set of liquor laws. Everyone knows about the duty-free shops just over the border, but apparently that's the only way New Hampshire gets liquor into the state, via the state. All private businesses have to buy their booze through the state supplier, and if the state supplier doesn't have what you want, well, you're shit out of luck, buddy.

The owner of the store said he's always trying to convince the state buyers to expand into more exotic offerings, and he appears to have at least made progress. Their selection of wine was impressive for any state, and they had a decent selection of beers, as well.

If you plan on being in Lincoln for more than a few days, make a trip to The Abbey Cellars to pick up some much needed snacks. They're the best game in town.

http://www.abbeycellarsnh.com/

Hours
Tuesday through Saturday 11:00am to 8:00pm
Sunday & Monday 12:00pm to 6:00pm

The Wrath of Grapes.

There are a few things about restaurants lately that I truly hate. One of them is tiramisu. I freaking hate tiramisu. Not because I hate tiramisu, but because I hate tiramisu. It's as though every restaurant thinks that if they just have tiramisu on their God-forsaken menu that it will make it more "exotic." You are not being ethnic! You are not being inventive! Having a dessert with a funny name does not a gourmet restaurant make. Don't even pretend! Get rid of it and replace it with something real, like chocolate cake.

In the same boat as tiramisu at these crappy restaurants is Robert Mondavi's Opus One blended wine. Now, call me a snob, but I've never been all that impressed with blends. I like my cab to actually be a cab, likewise for pinots and merlots. I'm certainly not against the idea of blends, and Opus One is pretty damned good, so it's hard to be against good wine.

Still, Opus One is famous not because it's good wine. It's famous because it's famous. It was more a marketing exercise with a fancy logo, fancy name, and two fancy men associated with it. This marketing exercise has Opus One sold in restaurants that have no place at all in selling good wine. In fact, Opus One has now become a strong metric by which I measure a wine list. Namely, if Opus One is the most expensive wine on the list, it's in all likelihood a shitty list. This metric has yet to be proven wrong.

I've got a news flash for the restaurants that think by having Opus One, with it's fancy name, on your wine list that it will make your restaurant haute cuisine. It doesn't. It's out of place, out of price, and the only people buying it are self-important idiots who fancy themselves gourmets but actually have palates so dull you could fill the bottle with Welche's Grape Juice and there's a possibility they wouldn't notice.

Give it up. You just look ridiculous. If you want to truly impress with desserts, hire a pastry chef. If you want to truly impress with wine, hire a sommelier, or even just someone who knows SOMETHING about wine. You don't even have to hire them for long. Just long enough to give some structure to your offerings and take your restaurant from middling piece of stupidity to something greater.