King William Wine Co. affords top-level service, environment even when meals often falls brief

Bread service at King William Wine Co. comes with pâté trios and mustard trilogies. Credit score: Ron Bechtol

For those who pull up King William Wine Co.’s web site, you would be excused for considering it’s all in regards to the vino.

The spot’s wine membership, wine lockers and memberships all get headline standing earlier than any point out of meals — aside from its bubbly and bacony brunch. Look fastidiously within the decrease left nook of the positioning, although, and also you’ll discover a “View menu” button. What comes up is a bare-bones affair, principally meant for on-line orders.

Which is each somewhat deceptive, but kinda true on the similar time. The deceptive half is that the menu does certainly have a measure of ambition, gilded although it could be by luxurious caviar service.

The kinda true half is that the wine deserves its emphasised focus.

Jill Arreguin, who co-owns King William Wine Co. with husband Juan, is in command of the wine program, and her ardour and information are made manifest on a wine listing that’s broad and deep sufficient to embody each the zippy and minerally Etna Bianco that accompanied one night’s dinner and the luxurious, white Burgundy served by the glass one other evening on the good-looking, underlit bar.

Let’s introduce the delicacies part with the dish that accompanied that final wine: a “velvety, sherry-kissed” lobster bisque. Although an attentive waiter added drops of sherry, the feel was extra grainy than velvety. Then there was that unusual slice of untoasted baguette, apparently meant solely as a raft for some sizzled, “candy morsels from the ocean.” A easy, small knob of poached lobster would have higher bolstered the traditional taste of lobster shell embodied within the bisque.

On this amicable coupling, the Burgundy got here out on high.

You’ll be able to order just about something from the menu on the bar, but when intent on branching out into such niceties as bread service, pâté trios and mustard trilogies, a seat within the intimate eating room is so as. Not solely is there extra room to unfold out, it affords the most effective spot to understand the enterprise’ darkly moody, chandelier-chic environment.

I’d warning, although, that the country nation loaf is nothing particular given its $9 cost, and the accompanying butter was each too chilly and its flavoring with orange and dill was odd. I’m undecided what the mustards are supposed to be served with, however the number of walnut, tarragon and stone-ground varieties is considerate and enjoyable regardless, and the presentation’s gorgeous.

The trio of pâtés — not of the sturdy, sliced sort — is equally enticing. The Alaskan salmon model is shiny with lemon and dill, the mushroom merely woodsy, however the seductive foie gras actually is “silky” as described and solely elevated by a drizzle of balsamic accented with heat spice.

Major dishes are priced from $28 to $64 and run the gamut from sage ravioli in brown butter and Basque suckling pig to beef osso buco and butter-poached lobster tail — not groundbreaking, however all good-sounding.

Solely out of the 2 I sampled delivered on that promise.

Spoiler: it wasn’t the baked acorn squash full of sage sausage, pecan and dried cranberry. Someway, the squash itself was bland, and the stuffing wanted one thing — even bread crumbs — to carry all of it collectively.

However the coq au vin, a hearty Burgundian dish, might have over-delivered.

To start with, it was a beneficiant half hen — simply sufficient to share. The meat was moist and fell effortlessly from the bone. The inimitable Julia Youngster’s rendition with its bacon, mushrooms and crimson wine could also be much more winter-worthy, however the white wine used right here, together with a tumble of fried Parisian potatoes, made the dish particularly pleasant with the menu’s three prompt wine pairings.

To be trustworthy, all of the sommelier-selected wines have been a tad expensive, therefore our pivot to the volcanic Etna white at a really cheap $48. However the confidently financed mustn’t hesitate to simply accept suggestions.

Mine for dessert is the almost-ethereal Saffron Espuma of Crema Catalana. That is actually a crème brûlée by some other identify, its torched crust sugary and brittle, its inside silky — that phrase once more — and frivolously hinting of saffron. It ended the night on a excessive however refined word.

Which brings up the next: regardless of feeling that the meals — ready in a “flameless” kitchen on induction burners — didn’t encourage on some counts, I left King William Wine feeling that I had been well-treated by an distinctive workers, that the fastidiously curated house is acceptable to what the homeowners try to attain, and that I might fortunately return for a modest glass of wine or cocktail on the bar.

Or maybe even for the order-ahead and unabashedly extravagant entire suckling pig. Worth not talked about.