Cellar Gascon Wine Bar and Restaurant

Cellar Gasgon is part of a group of three restaurants.

This one is corridor style with seating along the windows and a bar on the other long side. Toilets are downstairs.

I am not a fan of bar stools, but I preferred them to the window banquettes which sloped forward, were too short for my legs, and they looked shiny and I kept sliding off. Long legged male diners either perched on the edge or used their long legs to brace and anchor themselves. 

Tables were so close together I was in danger of sweeping the four to six glasses per setting onto the floor as I passed. It happened when I tried to go in, then when I tried to get out to the toilet. When I came back I did not want to stress myself and everybody else again.   I transferred to the bar stool type chair.

We parked our coats, bags and rucksacks on the narrow window ledge behind.  A few seats of the same design as the bar stools but low enough for you to put your feet on the ground are at the far end and by the entrance door. I must remember to request one of these tables, although I think these tables are for four.

The set menu was four courses and four glasses of wine for about £40 per person. Many central London restaurants offer set lunches of two or three courses with a glass of wine for about £20. But £40 for dinner, four courses, including wine, is good value. This is especially good value for a speciality gourmet restaurant in central London.

Small pieces of brown bread were elegantly served on small squares of slate. The butter was served in the centre of another straight sided piece of slate. A change from curves, though I prefer cured crockery, I suppose square and oblong is easier to stack on a straight sided shelf.

I've looked into buying slate for home. I've check in supermarkets such as Waitrose. It's not cheap. 

The slate pieces are dark, so you can't see if they are clean, but also rough if you want to run your fingers over to check. The small ones look mean, but the large ones are heavy to carry. Slate is fine, amusing as a change and a treat - in a restaurant.

The starter was squid. I'm allergic to shellfish. I am OK with eel. We debated whether squid was a risk. I decided against it. There was no alternative menu, no choice. I ate around the squid.

The second course was the high point of the four dishes. Foie gras. Like many people, I have been influenced by the campaign against it. I think I've had it before and not been impressed that it was worth either the extra expense or the possible suffering of the animal, or bird. However, I do like chicken liver and this was grilled on the outside, like a soft chicken liver, with the most delightful extra flavours in the sauce. 

The sauce was so nice that I broke off bits of brown bread to scrape the last tasty morsels off the plate. British diners don't wipe their plates with bread. But the French do. Gascon is an area of France. (The Gascons or Basques are also in Spain. Not in the capital city. More rural, practical.) I sneaked a peek. Nobody was watching me disapprovingly. In fact, everybody else was doing the same.

The main course was lamb casserole with beans and barley. Lamb a bit gristly and fatty, but all in all very good.

Here's dessert, pineapple with ice cream and a few specks of crumble. 

After four glasses of wine and delicious food I had forgotten my initial problems with the seats and seating close to others. Tables so near others enable you to chat more easily to couples either side. Would we go back? Definitely.

www.cellargascon.com

More pictures and story tomorrow.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Cellar Gascon Wine Bar and Restaurant

www.cellargascon.com

See next post for ore pictures and story about the squid, foie gras, casserole and pineapple.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

French words of the day

basque - corset, usually laced up making the waist small and the bosom large
bon mot - good word
cabaret - like vaudeville but more satirical and upmarket
vaudeville -from the French v a u x de Vire - from a town where songs were composed, a cabaret or songs and various entertainments

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speaker

The name Basque - where's it from?

The Romans had a vas or vase, and the people who lived in an iron ore area made vases. (Vas as in vasectomy is the male version of the word vase.) From this word we get the word Basque for the group of people in the area, and the first name Gasgon.

This information comes from somebody who was reading The Wines of Rioja written by John Radford published by Mitchell Beazley wine library.

Reading and Translating a Spanish Wine Bottle Labels

Here is the wine bottle and the labels back and front which I shall translate. Isn't Google translate wonderful. You don't even need to tell it which language any more. It just translates automatically from its bank of dictionaries into English. Here goes with the label translation.

Marques means marquis, as I guessed.

According to Google translate Heredos del - heredos del is Spanish for inheritors of. I thought of translating it as descended from. But inheritors of includes people who have bought the company or work for them or with them. Del is Spanish for of, like de in French. Os is a Spanish plural, just like English adding s for a plural. 

Denominacion de origen - place of origin. Denomaination=naming or of the name.

Elciego I guessed was a place name.

1. Elciego is a town and municipality located at the southern end of the province of Álava, in the Basque Country, northern Spain. Wikipedia
   
   Bodegas fundadas en - Bodega (literally cellar - now wine cellar or winery) founded in
   
   bodegas - wine cellars
   
   The label on the back tells you that the company was founded in 1860 and they believe they are the oldest bodega in the Rioja region. I have not checked when anybody else makes a rival claim.
   
   The label also informs you that the wine has a fruity bouquet (meaning aroma) and a lingering oaky flavour. Oaky flavour comes from oak barrels. (The oak from France or elsewhere such as in the USA may have a different flavour.) The French oak with strong flavour is needed to match the strength of flavour of a rich red wine.
   
   

   

   This is the Marques de Riscal hotel designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, mentioned in my earlier post.
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   Photos of the town of Elciego (Eltziego in Basque) by Nicola from Wikipedia

   
   

   

   
   

   Picture from Wikipedia of the town of Elciego, photo by Nicola and Imamon or unknown

   
   

   RIOJA IN LONDON

   If you want to taste Rioja in London, note in your diary that September is the month when the trade shows are held in London for the importers. Sometimes the trade show is daytime in working hours in a hotel conference room. A public show may be held in the evening. A charge might be made. Customers who buy regularly from a wine shop or wine organisation might be sent a free ticket to one or both of these shows. Look out for dates of shows, blogs about shows and the new wines.

   
   

   If you see Gran Reserva on a bottle, this means that the bottle has been reserved, not sold but saved for more years. It is worth doing this only with the best wine. Most of this will come from Rioja in the north, which they will tell you has the best wines. The rule for red Rioja is that a Gran Reserva must be stores for two years in the barrel, then another three bottles. The winemakers owner must wait for five years and invest in costly barrels and equipment and manpower, so this is only done in regions with the best wine.

   
   

   Unfortunately this length of time  2 in barrel then 3 in bottle, is the rule made by the Rioja Region 'guardians' (my word, not theirs) to preserve the quality and consistency and reputation of wines sold under their region's name. So another region might store wines for different lengths of time. However, all most members of the public need to do is look for Gran Reserva on the label.