So I will be the first to admit I'm not the most knowledgeable person about wine. I do however love it and am very excited that two new wine bars have opened in Buffalo in the past several weeks. The Wine Thief on Elmwood and Bryant opened sometime around mid September, Just Vino on Main and Virginia opened on Saturday.

Wine Thief:

I really like this place a lot, sure there are some things I don't like but all in all it's a great place to have a glass of wine. I love the interior of the place, the woodwork of the bar is beautiful and I think the wine room being showcased behind a huge pane of glass is very sexy. They also have a high tech looking wine tap system that pumps nitrogen into open bottles of wine thereby keeping them fresher longer. Whether nitrogen changes the taste of the wine or increases my car tires life I have no idea. But it is pretty cool looking and allows them to sell more expensive bottles by the glass. They have several wines on the list and although I didn't count it seems like one quarter of them are available by the glass. They also have a decent but limited beer selection for those in the group who would prefer malted hops to fermented grapes. The food menu is probably my biggest disappointment with the place. It's really pretty boring. I was surprised that they didn't have a cheese plate even listed on there or at least I didn't notice it. That's probably the number one thing I would want at a place like this. The one thing I did try that's on their "Summer Menu" is the duck tacos. Not bad but not really outstanding either. The wine menu has plenty of wines that I have never tried so I can't be the biggest critic about what they have. It's what they don't have which surprised me. They only had two Rieslings on the entire list, surely it's a much more popular wine than that! Also if you are looking for dessert wine you have definitely stumbled into the wrong place. There wasn't even a category for it. That is almost shocking to me since we are only a 45-minute drive away from ice wine country. I'm sure that they are in the preliminary stages of figuring out exactly what people want, which shouldn't be difficult considering how busy they were both times I was there. I hope to see additions to the list in the coming future.

Just Vino:

Although the location of this new wine bar seems like a peculiar choice, I'm more than happy to welcome them to my neighborhood. As with the Wine Thief the interior looks great. They certainly didn't cheap out in building costs. They have a nice looking copper bar and some equally appealing woodwork. I love that there is no TV in the entire space. It's nice to not have muted sports everywhere I go. They are considerably smaller than the Wine Thief but they have a large selection of wine. One page each front and back for whites and reds. There are some really delicious wines on this list and some that I can't wait to try. The food menu is limited to small platters of cheeses, pate and chocolates. I think the menu is appropriate for what they are trying to sell. The kitchen is actually in the dining room and is about a 2'x2' space. So I don't see them ever adding a whole lot more to their offerings. They like The Wine Thief are also lacking in the dessert wine category, with only one on the list. Talking with the owner its sounds as though he may consider adding some in the future. They do offer four different wine flights and will change them on a rotating basis. Also they have very small beer list, I think around 6 or 7 kinds. Nothing too specialized here but then again I would rather have wine at a place like this. Being that I am so close I'm rooting for this place to succeed.

I think both places are great for different reasons. Wine Thief seems like a place people go to be seen and Just Vino is more of an intimate setting. I would love to see more Finger Lakes and Niagara Region wines. They seem to be regions that are highly neglected by both operations. The huge bonus to the patron is that Just Vino is open 7 days a week. Wine Thief is closed on Sunday and Monday. I'm not sure how receptive Buffalo will be to either place, but in my opinion I think they are a welcome addition.

P.S. both websites are pretty horrible

So I have been in Buffalo over a year now and I thought I had my head pretty well wrapped around the regional specialties. I mean who around here doesn't know about Wings, Beef on Weck and crummy pizza? Last week though a couple of my coworkers were having a heated debate about who makes the best Stinger. Apparently a Stinger is steak and chicken fingers chopped together on a sub with onions, lettuce and tomato. I assume there are endless variations of this but this seems to be the standard. I can't believe I had never even heard of this until now. So last Saturday after work and several beers I stumbled to Jim's Steakout to see if they even made such a thing. It wasn't on the menu but if you ask the right people they will definitely make it for you. Haute cuisine it's not but it may possibly be the ultimate drunk food.

Geeky? maybe. But still totally freakin cool!

Lamb Stew
Since autumn officially started at 11:44am today I figured it was time to break out the fall recipes. This recipe is pretty easy to make, I stole ideas from so many different recipes over the years of making this I think its now officially mine. So first off you need to buy a few things.

3 lbs lamb, with the bones or 2 lbs without.
1 large onion or two small ones
1 lb of carrots
2 lbs potatoes
garlic
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Rosemary
Fresh Parsley
Bay leaves
Guinness
Beef stock
Flour
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Alright first thing:
Crack open a Guinness and start drinking.


Thinly slice the onions. Thinner is better for the texture of the stew.



Peel the carrots, chop them up



Peel and chop the potatoes.



!Warning! Cooking may result in injury (e:paul,45754)



Peel and roughly chop 3 cloves of garlic.



Ok, here is the hardest part. Take the meat and cut it off of the bone. It's kind of a pain in the ass really. The bones really make the stew taste a lot better. But if you are pressed for time or really just don't like to touch meat just them skip this part and buy less meat and cut it into bite size cubes.





Take some flour and season it with salt and pepper. Coat all of the lamb meat and bones with this.



Heat some oil in a large dutch oven or stock pot till its screaming hot.
Take 1/4 of the floured lamb parts and add it to the pot. If you put it all in at once it will turn grey. Once the first batch is done remove it, keep doing this till its all cooked. You might have to add more oil.



Now add the onions, you may have to reduce the heat. You don't want to hear that sizzle sound for very long. Just for the first minute or so. Cook these for 4 or five minutes.



While you are hanging out getting drunk chop some thyme, rosemary and parsley.



Once the onions have given off some juice add the garlic, potatoes, carrots, rosemary, thyme, the lamb and a few tablespoons of flour. Stir it all around till its smooth. Cook for a couple of minutes to get rid of that flour taste and to heat everything up.
Once it starts getting hot add 3/4 cup of beef stock and 3/4 cup of Guinness to the pot.
Stir in a handful of parsley.



Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer and cover it. Stir it every no and again. Once the potatoes are soft enough to eat its done. Pull out the bones and the bay leaves and serve it with bread and Guinness if you have any left by the time you are done. Happy eating.

Its currently still cooking. I will update with a final picture in a bit.