Inside Our September Benefit Dinner

A full dining room at Enology Wine Bar and Bistro during the September benefit dinner, guests at wooden tables with the lit wine library behind them

There is a particular sound a room makes about forty minutes into a good dinner. Not loud, exactly. Just every table talking at once, and nobody checking a phone.

That was September at Enology.

We gave the whole room over to a single seating: a chef-inspired coursed menu with curated wine pairings, in a benefit for the Suffolk County Dental Society. Here is how the evening actually went.

It opened with an amuse-bouche of whipped ricotta, on sourdough with fig jam, chili oil and peanuts. A small thing that tells you what kind of night it is going to be: soft, sharp, sweet and hot all at once, and gone in two bites.

Then the Waldorf salad, rebuilt properly. Sliced apples, celery, pickled grapes, walnuts and crumbled blue cheese. The pickled grapes are the detail worth stealing for your own kitchen.

A long row of Waldorf salads plated with apple, pickled grapes, walnuts and blue cheese waiting on the kitchen pass at Enology — The Waldorf, plated for the whole room at once. A coursed dinner does not go out one plate at a time.

Next came a choice: charred octopus with salsa criolla and grapefruit confiture, or lamb flatbread with tzatziki ricotta, pickled red onions and cucumbers. Two very different answers to the same question, which is part of the fun of watching a room order.

Then the main, and another choice: hanger steak with bistro sauce, radicchio and smashed crispy potatoes, or salmon fillet with bistro sauce and smashed crispy potatoes.

Plates of hanger steak with bistro sauce, radicchio and smashed crispy potatoes lined along the kitchen pass at Enology — Hanger steak, bistro sauce, radicchio, smashed crispy potatoes. Lined up and sent together so every glass on the table was still right when it landed.

And it closed with a chocolate budino, which is the correct way to end an evening that started with chili oil.

The Six Wines

Mas Fi Cava, to start
Paco & Lola Albariño
Bodega Garzon Tannat
Napa Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon
Joseph Drouhin Bourgogne Pinot Noir
G.D. Vajra Moscato d’Asti

Spain to Uruguay to Napa to Burgundy to Piedmont, across five courses. Read that list on its own and it looks like a tour. Drink it in sequence beside those plates and it reads as an argument, each pour setting up the one after it.

Guided, Not Just Poured

Dr. Guenter Jonke and Dr. Jimmy Kilimitzoglou walked the room through the evening. Both are active members of the Suffolk County Dental Society and both are past presidents of it, which is a nice symmetry for a benefit: the people raising the money are the people who have given the organization years of their time.

A host in a navy blazer holding a bottle and speaking to the seated dining room at Enology Wine Bar and Bistro — Bottle in hand, mid-story. This is the part of the evening you cannot get from a menu.

They told stories. Where a bottle came from, why the producer does it that way, what happened on the plate that made it the right wine to stand next to. That is the difference between a dinner where wine arrives and a dinner where wine is introduced, and it is the whole reason people book these evenings rather than simply going out to eat.

“A bottle gets a lot more interesting once you know where it came from and why somebody made it that way. That is the whole reason we stop and talk about each one instead of just pouring it.”
Dr. Jimmy Kilimitzoglou

Four guests around a wooden table at Enology, mid conversation with red and white wine poured — Forty minutes in.

The Way It Ended

“This is what the society does best. Good food, good wine, and a room full of people who are glad to be at the same table.”
Dr. Jimmy Kilimitzoglou

It was an intimate evening, and it finished the way the good ones do: nobody in a hurry to find their coat, and more than one person asking when the next wine dinner is.

That is a fair question, and one we intend to answer soon. Until then, here is everything already on the calendar.

What Is Coming Up

The Raw & The Refined, Friday October 2, 5 to 10 p.m. One night only: an entire menu built without heat, because that is the food a wine list can really talk to. Nick Picarella plays unplugged from 6 to 8. Regular service, regular reservations.

A Saturday Afternoon with Bordeaux, Saturday October 17, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Left Bank, Right Bank, and the art of the blend. $69 per guest, or $89 with a cheese plate.

A Saturday Afternoon with Germany and Austria, Saturday November 14, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Not just Riesling. Six wines and the reason each one earned its place. $69 per guest, or $89 with a cheese plate.

Live music every Thursday, 6 to 8 p.m. No cover, no ticket, just a good room and someone playing in it while you eat.

September 24 Emy McB
October 1 Greg Antonelli
October 8 Mark Hubbard
October 15 Austin Merullo
October 22 Nick Picarella
October 29 Emy McB
November 5 Greg Antonelli
November 12 Emy McB
November 19 Austin Merullo
December 3 Greg Antonelli
December 10 Mark Hubbard
December 17 Nick Picarella

Book a table, or see everything we are hosting.

Back to all stories →

One Seating, Six Wines, and a Room That Did Not Want to Leave

The Menu, Course by Course

The Six Wines

Guided, Not Just Poured

The Way It Ended

What Is Coming Up

From the Page to the Glass