January 27, 2008

Formality, high prices, not on menu at East Valley new wine bistros

East Valley Tribune - by Jess Harter

Michael Fine winces when he hears someone order a soda with their meal.

“Have you have seen what cola does to raw meat?” he asks. “That’s also what it does to your palate. It destroys the nuances of taste. Some people would say you’re burning away flavors.”

Instead, Fine (shown above) says there are only two beverages to drink with food — water or wine. It’s easy to see which is his preference and passion. “When you go any place in Europe, wine is always part of the meal,” he says. “Wine makes good food more palatable.” Few people would know better than Fine, a 49-year-old Scottsdale resident who founded and ran Sportsman’s Fine Wines & Spirits for 20 years before selling the three-store chain to Big chain Grocer last year. Regarded as one of the Valley’s foremost authorities on wine, Fine opened his own wine-themed restaurant, Fine’s Cellar, this month in Old Town Scottsdale.

It’s one of a small but growing number of East Valley restaurants that offer diners a gourmet menu and an extensive wine list, but in a casual environment and at more modest prices than traditional fine-dining establishments.

“You can’t just have a good location and good prices and expect people to come,” Fine says. “You have to offer them a good experience.” Twenty years ago, the Valley’s fine-dining scene was all but limited to swanky resort restaurants, where a meal for two, with wine, easily could run several hundred dollars.

Today, a seasonal four-course dinner at Fine’s Cellar is $35. Each course can be complemented by two-ounce wine “tastes” starting as low as $2.75. “I don’t want the wine to cost my customers more than the food,” Fine says. “Wine should be just another ingredient in the meal.”