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Daniel’s Broiler: Vintage Lounge

21-Jun-2006
 
What do you do with a clubby cigar lounge when the state you’re in bans all smoking in restaurants, bars and lounges?  Well, if you are Daniel’s Broiler in Bellevue you turn it into a new upscale wine tasting lounge! Last week R and I had the opportunity to attend a guided wine tasting at the new Vintage Lounge.  Turned out there was a familiar face from my new wine tasting group attending, too! 
 
The room sits at the very back of the Daniel’s bar area. I actually had never realized there was a cigar bar there.  When you enter the room you still get that stale cigar room smell, unfortunately, but they’ve done a decent job of cleaning and once in the room you really don’t notice it.  I imagine the odor will linger as long as they leave the leather furniture in the room.  The room itself is very cozy and clubby – leather chairs, a fireplace, and library looking displays and cabinets. 
 
They had a special system put in place, a Cruvinet, that allows them to preserve and dispense wine.  This is what allows them to sell high-end wines by the glass.  According to their site:  

The 30 "Cruvinet Selections" are all wines that have been rated 90 points or higher by Wine Spectator, Robert Parker and Wine Enthusiast. The "Cruvinet Selections" are both domestic and imported and are diverse in style, varietal type, and vintage. These wines are appropriately served in Reidel stemware.

Now, trying these wines does come at a price but from looking at their current list it allows you access to some wines that are not commonly available, and certainly not by the glass.  I noticed they had DeLille Chaleur Estate on the menu (pdf) – a good point of reference for me since I’d just purchased a bottle at the winery.  At the winery the Chaleur Estate was $68 a bottle.  At Vintage Lounge a glass will run you $32 or so.  Not exactly a bargain, but again there may be times when you’d like access to something you normally wouldn’t be able to try.  And, not all the wines are this expensive; I just picked this as an example since I knew the winery bottle price by heart. 

On the other hand, while the lounge has its own appetizer menu they told me that the regular Daniel’s Happy Hour menu is also available in Vintage Lounge!  During Happy Hour all appetizers are half price – it’s one of the best deals in town, in my opinion. 

During the wine tasting we attended they served a combination of things we were familiar with and new things.  For instance they were passing, the crab legs and jumbo shrimp from the regular menu; and ahi on cucumber and flank steak stuffed with cream spinach, two items I hadn’t seen before. 

This may not end up being an everyday place but I can certainly see it being a fun place to stop by every now and then. 

 

Vintage Lounge
10500 N.E. 8th, 21st Floor (In the bank building)
Bellevue
425.462.4662
Open daily at 4:00p.m.
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from → Restaurants & Bars
2 Comments
  1. BH permalink
    21-Jun-2006 10:53 pm

    You are a machine!  There\’s something about how well you are plugged in…..hmmmmm…..
     
    I\’ve been to Daniel\’s a ton and I never knew of that room!  Go figure. 
     
    Very interesting.
     
    Cheers,
    BH

  2. Culinary permalink
    22-Jun-2006 7:54 am

    I hope you mean that in a good way! :-)  I\’d never realized it (the cigar bar) was there, either.  You just have to get on the right mailing lists to get all the other news!  Or once people know you are interested they tend to start telling you stuff. 
     
    ~ B

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