Dishing Ojai: Regal’s Wine & Spirits
With so much talk of enlightenment lately, I thought I would enlighten the good readers of the Ojai Post about Ojai’s best kept secret: Regal’s is now doing wine dinners. I went to the Bell Wine Cellars Dinner last night, and for $50, food and wine enthusiasts were served five courses and seven tastes of wine. That’s not a typo. Five courses, seven tastes, fifty dollars! No one else in the valley has come close to this kind of offering for cheap yet discerning oenophiles. I happened to sit next to the Ojai Valley Inn’s new Food and Beverage Director, Kevin McDonough*, who was equally impressed. And sitting to my left was Anthony Bell himself, who came from South Africa 30 years ago to make wine in the Napa Valley.
Bell delighted us between courses with stories and passionate scientific descriptions of his winemaking adventures. He travels 30 weeks out of the year spreading the gospel of his grapes.
Chef Marcus Hollingsworth, former Executive Chef for the Pierpont, current food columnist for the Ojai Valley News and new guitarist for Azure Sol (click here to read a previous post about the band) created an incredible menu that paired exceptionally well with Bell’s wines. I’m still swooning over the citrus-glazed salmon course that received an unlikely but brilliant pairing with Bell’s Zinfandel.
I was worried proprietors (and all-around gracious hosts) Joby Yobe and Jorge Alem might lose their shirts over the low-cost dinner price, but with patrons carting off bottles of their favorites at the end of the night – Bill and I walked away with three bottles ourselves – they obviously knew what they were in for (their shirts might have a few wine stains, but they certainly won’t be lost). Look for more wine dinners and beer dinners soon (sign up for email notifications here).
I recently wrote in the VC Reporter about the changes Joby and Jorge have made at Regal’s. In particular, the fellas have created one helluva tasting room at the back of the store, where you can sip reds, whites or rosés and slurp suds from 12 gleaming taps. On Tuesday nights you can sample 10 wines for $5.00 (again, not a typo). If you get hungry, they’ve got cheese plates, pizzas and (after I begged them to put it on the menu) hot doughy pretzels with mustard. They promise to have a patio open this summer. If you need something to-go, Joby and Jorge can help you choose from any one of their 1000 bottles of wine or 600 bottles of beer (take one down, pass it around). Whether you’re a two-buck-Chucker or a Crystál wannabe, they’ve got just the bottle for you. You can’t go wrong with the delicious Bell 2006 Canterbury Vineyards Syrah for $19.99!
Regal's Wine & Spirits, 655 E. Ojai Avenue, 646-1700. Store hours: Daily 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tasting hours: Tuesday through Sunday 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. www.regalswine.com
More Dishing Ojai columns start here.
*By the way, Kevin McDonough told me if you want to try the Inn’s selection of handcrafted California brews, Jimmy’s Pub has a flight (tasting portions) of five for $8.00. Not bad.
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