driven to distraction

So the evening after Thanksgiving we headed off for dinner to Michael's on East, hereinafter MoE,  (LOL- I know I know - thirty plus years of law die hard LOL.) We had intended to bring wine as we usually do but since we had company and were chatting away as we left the house, we left the wine behind! OH NO!  We were distracted, and as we checked in at MoE I said to Phil "Aaaacccck! we forgot the wine!" and laughed because when Phil and his brother are talking (as they were as we left the house) it isn't the least bit surprising that it was left behind... oh well...

Let me say that I don't believe they could have chosen a better place in the Sarasota Bradenton area to have to "resort" to the wine list because MoE has an extensive and carefully curated wine list with many excellent choices.  However, they do not have wines from much older vintages (LOL our specialty LOL) Here is what we left at home... they both turned out to be Jadot wines but of course from very different vintages and our backup red (when you drink old you have to have back up wines- LOL) was a 1996 Corton Renardes from Arlaud (which has been drinking really really well the last few times we had it.)

and here is what we ended up with from the wine list - a Gru-Ve - and an 09 red burgundy...

and then we went on to have a fabulous meal... and I can only say that this is "per usual" as the chef at MoE is excellent and every dish we had last night was up to the highest standard...

we started with -  tempura shrimp for Phil and Lobster Bisque for Larry and I had the seasonal salad-

then our mains were - pompano for Larry and veal chop for Phil and I had the scallops (which came with chunks of lobster and the most amazingly tasty gnocchi  in brown butter lobster broth- seriously YUM!)

the scallops were perfectly prepared, medium rare, and the flavor of this dish was so excellent that Phil vowed to order it himself the next time.... he often has "order envy" LOL.

we had an excellent discussion of wine choices with our wonderful server Justin- so if you get over to MoE ask for him, because he is very knowledgeable about wine in general as well as being an excellent and attentive (but not too much so) server.  Larry said that he liked this place better than a number of others where we have taken him when he visits. A winning evening in every way! (except of course for leaving the wine at home- LOL)