Valentines Day At Otto

The rumor is true. I joined Twitter a few months back and, while at first I had no freaking idea what I was doing on there, I quickly realized just how awesome it is. I follow a bunch of chefs and restaurants and there are so many events of interest that I come across. It's kinda fun because a lot of them are limited space events and, because you find them "first" on Twitter, it sometimes feels like you're in on some great secret that nobody in the city knows about. I now see why businesses gravitate towards tweeting because it really is a genius network.

That said, I came across a tweet from Otto a month or so before Valentines Day about a wine tasting they were holding with only 60 spots available. I totally jumped on that and booked two spots since A) I love Otto and 2) I love wine tastings. I figured that would be a lovely Valentines Day evening. I actually think Valentines Day is pretty stupid and I always have, even when I was a teenager. Now, don't get me wrong, I love any "reason" to celebrate something with wine or good food, but I do not care at all about the romantic part of the day. In my opinion, a wine tasting is just the right mixture of what can be romantic but also just an enjoyable time overall.

When we got there, they showed us into the bar area where I thought they'd done such a nice job with all the tables:

It was also terrific that the two event organizers, Chris and Mackenzie, were so warm and gracious. Chris is actually Otto's wine director and he'd specifically picked the varietals we'd be tasting for the evening. He was so knowledgeable and passionate about the wines which really makes for a lovely tasting all around. These were his choices:

Let me just tell you how insanely good the Ceci Rose was. Holy crap, that's what you call dangerous. I could drink it all day and night! All of the selections were wonderful and I'm actually really glad I took a photo of the menu so I could remember the names of everything. To conclude everything, the prosecco and meyer lemon sorbet was outrageously good. They put a scoop of the sorbet in a large wine glass and topped it with prosecco and a candied clementine slice. You would never in your life think something that simple could be so refreshing and delicious. I now want to drink prosecco in only this fashion, heehee.

I had such a wonderful evening and even I got a little sappy about the romantic part of it all. I think this begins a new Valentines Day tradition as it's probably the best one I've had to date. :)