What started as a mini catastrophe in my kitchen last weekend ended in a beautiful dinner at Pairings Bistro. As usual, I was trying to accomplish umpteen things at once – fold laundry, catch up on my cooking shows, wash dishes, check my Blackberry, gossip with a girlfriend, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, I was also trying to cook a simple chicken dish and left the stove on. The next thing I know, the pan is practically on fire and the house is filled with the stinkiest smoke you have ever smelled!
But what I also smelled was a golden opportunity! Here was my chance to convince my husband that a nice, romantic dinner at Pairings would far exceed pizza or Chinese takeout. Crossing my fingers (and my toes) I quickly dialed the restaurant, praying that they had an available table. Pairings Bistro is a small venue, so sometimes a reservation can be hard to come by at the last minute. My prayers were answered, and off we went.
As the name suggests, Pairings specializes in handpicking a wine to complement each course. Although I completely trust their judgment, our first stop was the little wine shop that is located in the back of the restaurant. It houses some very nice wines that I have come to love over the years. Immediately we found 4 different wines, 2 bottles for our dinner and 2 to take home. There is a corkage fee of $10 per bottle. By the way, the Murphy Goode Red Zinfandel, Liar’s Dice, was excellent. The Sofia Moscato, made by the Francis Ford Coppola winery, was dangerously pleasing if your palate tends toward a sweet wine. Our waitress admitted that she was nervous about opening a bottle in front of a customer and commented that “they don’t train us very well on using these corkscrews”. Luckily, I am a low-maintenance kind of gal, and her inexperience didn’t bother me. However, I would suggest that the servers become comfortable with that aspect of their job.
Anyway, onto the cuisine. On Sunday evenings, Pairings has a special Prix Fixe menu. Many of their dishes have a Belgian or Mediterranean influence and a Chesapeake Bay flair with a focus on locally grown/created items (Hawks Hill Creamery cheese for instance) . On paper, it sounds like a strange combination, but it worked. We ordered the Prix Fixe Menu of The Season ($55, or $79 with wine pairings) which consisted of Butternut Squash Soup, Crispy Scallops over sweet potato hash in a cider reduction, fresh quail stuffed with wild boar sausage and cherry cornbread stuffing, a cheese selection with honey pecan butter and fruit crepes with Brooms Bloom cinnamon honey ice cream. Yum, yum and YUM! The Butternut soup was smooth and creamy with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg and was served with a fresh piece of lightly toasted French bread. Three gorgeous scallops came next, perched atop a bed of cubed sweet potatoes that had been sautéed in bacon. It had never occurred to me to cook bacon with sweet potatoes, but this was a winning combination. You can’t really go wrong with bacon, right? Quail was a new gastronomic experience for me and it mostly tasted like chicken. The wild boar sausage and cherry cornbread sounds like an odd couple, but trust me, it was my favorite part of this entrée. The cheese plate was served with more of the same French bread and Carr’s crackers. Too much bread, not enough cheese. By the time the crepes were served, we were already full, but they were still delicious.
We also created our own Prix Fixe meal for $39 which was a bargain. A salad of baby greens, golden beets, red grapes, walnuts and chevre was served first – a stunning blast of color on a pristinely white dish. Next in the food parade was barbeque shrimp on habanero cheese grits, tasty but not as spicy as I had hoped or expected. Coriander duck breast with creamy risotto was the main event. My first experience with duck was when my husband recently cooked it for Valentine’s Day. With any luck he isn’t reading this because I enjoyed this one more – 6 sliced medallions cooked to medium doneness with a coriander crust married quite well with the risotto. And for an amateur, I thought that MY zinfandel wine pairing was superb with this dish.
Pairings is the sort of place that makes you feel a little like a celebrity – an intimate setting and three delightful servers scurrying around to ensure that we enjoyed every morsel. On our way out I noticed that there were several outdoor tables with propane heaters and customers were actually sitting there on a chilly March night. They must love Pairings as much as I do!
Pairings Bistro
2105 Laurel Bush Road
Bel Air, MD 21015
(410) 569-5006
Thx for your critique, been wanting to try Pairings, but $10.00 corking fee–sounds excessive?
No, not at all excessive for this type of service. We didn’t really plan ahead and had our server open multiple bottles, therefore incurring multiple corkage fees. We could have saved a few bucks and just opened 1 bottle. But what fun would that be??
Yes, i read your article and there duck is good. But can’t touch my cajun style duck. That’s rite i said it!!!!! Thank that was your yankee palate speaking.
Ha ha George! Both duck entrees were fabulous! Thank you!
@WINE LOVER
Corkage fees in 2-3 star restaurants are between $10-$20 and in 4-5 star restaurants as much as $75.
I understand a corkage fee for wine brought in from the outside. But for wine purchased from the restaurant’s own shop? That is excessive.
@Steve D
How so?
If they sell at a bona fide retail price for off premise consumption and if you want to have it served on premise in the restaurant it is perfectly acceptable to pay a $10 corkage fee.
I would think that they already make a profit on the in-house sale of wine. The corkage fee is just another add-on markup
We JUST passed Maryland Corkage bill out of my committee last week. Wonder how Pairings is doing it already? Just curious. This restaurant has been recommended to me many times. I really look forward to trying it out
geez. I misspelled my own last name!
I would think the Delegate would realize that what Pairings is doing is not the same type of corkage as that law covers.
The proposed law covers outside wine brought into the liquor licensed establishment.
In Pairings case, you are just buying a bottle from Pairings.
I would certainly hope the Delegate reads the law a bit better.
Been to Parings multiple times. Nice place and good food. Especially unique for Harford County where it is chain restaurant heaven. The wine deal is also great because, in my experience, their wines are priced competitively with other wine shops in the area. As an aside, I do wish the Maryland legislature would pay some attention to the laws (and this is not criticism of Delegate Stifer nee Stifler) surrounding the wholesale beverage and spirits industry in Maryland. I can’t buy a bottle of wine in Wegman’s or Costco in Maryland but I can in Virginia and Delaware. What’s up with that? Oh well, the people who think they are being ‘protected’ are actually now being hurt because I can easily go to Delaware and I save 9% sales tax to boot. Anyway, if you haven’t been to Pairings, try it. I believe the owner’s wife has some roots in Belgium where the moules frites are always great and the beer is probably the best in Europe. When Pairings is on their game there is no better restaurant in the area. Thanks, Jennifer for burning the chicken and doing a great review of the place.
Richard,
Really? I did read the bill which is why I was surprised. But seeing that I’ve never been to Pairings, I wasn’t sure how it worked there. Thanks for setting me straight. Can’t wait to go myself and find out in person!
Delegate,
I do hope you read the bill better than you read the article. The article clearly states how wine at Pairings works.
Once again the Harford County delegation continues to embarrass…….
Oh my goodness! You guys are amazing. You’ll use anything any of us says to bash us. Give me a freakin’ break. I still look forward to going to Pairings to SEE FOR MYSELF how good it is and how their “corkage” works.
Donna, your comment made sense to some of us. You know what the bill says, and you want to see what Pairings is doing. My interpretation is that the bill concerns bringing in off-premises purchased wine, and Pairings serves ONLY wines purchased in their store with a corkage fee, which you possibly would not know without going there. I think Wine Fan 101 may be indulging in his favorite sport a little too much before responding.
Thanks Phil Dirt. Your interpretation is spot on. And as for Wine Fan, you might be right there too!!! lol
So, let me get this right… you had wine so you paid $79 for dinner… Each? You say you created your own that was a bargain at $39? While I’m still confused as to what meal you actually had, my hat is off to you since some of us can’t drop a couple hundred bucks on dinner just because we’re tired of pizza. That must have been one tasty pigeon you had there.
Or by reading.
Amazed,
The subject here is food. And wine (not whine). And whether the food is good, or not. Here, take my hand, and let me lead you back to the Dagger postings section for Politics and School and Local that allow you to whine and rant and complain about government and society and the school system and politicians and all of that stuff. You must have gotten lost and ended up here in the Food section by mistake. Next time don’t wander off from your mom because I’m sure she is worried about you.
@Alex, so I express my dismay at the price of this meal and you decide that the only logical response indicated is condescending insults… typical behavior of someone who would NOT find the meal pricey. Did you find my immature opinion threatening? Does the fact that I couldn’t justify the cost of this meal yet I still voice my opinion here leave you feeling soiled? Sorry to have intruded in your personal, pompous, arrogant, elitist corner of the Dagger. I’ll go back and join the knuckle-draggers in my own area now.
Amazed,
Well, you described your opinion as immature when you wrote “my immature opinion”. I will bow to your obviously more accurate description. If you say your opinion was immature I will agree with you.
Mr. R, the cost of the meal is included because it is an integral part of the overall review. That’s how these sorts of things work. I merely expressed my opinion regarding the cost of the meal. You found yourself unable to resist spewing condescending, insulting, prattle towards me for having simply voiced my opinion. That says more about you than you may have intended.
Mim is that you?
I have been to Pairings once with my husband. This was several months ago, so I don’t remember exactly which meals we had but I know I got the one that had several courses, each paired with a different wine. The food was absolutely outstanding and the wine pairings were right-on. The tab was quite hefty and as a young couple, not something we can afford on a regular basis (the only reason we haven’t gone back!). My only complaints about Pairings would be that the restaurant is in an odd location (in a strip mall) and it’s also very small. I have lived in Abingdon for years and only just realized it was there. If it was a bigger, stand-alone location, they would make a killing. A place like this is gold in Harford County. I wish they would put something decent (not a chain!) in Box Hill Boulevard. We didn’t need another Panera, in my opinion. There’s one right down the road in Festival. Anyway, I’m off topic. Pairings is great and I highly recommend it!
I agree about Panera! I was very disappointed to see that being built right in my neck of the woods. Panera is the type of place that I visit a couple of times per year to pick up bagels for my co-workers. Anyway, I hope you and your hubby get back to Pairings soon. I’ve been for lunch and they have less expensive cuisine and I typically don’t drink at lunchtime, so the tab was pretty reasonable.