It then took him to Paris and Burgundy in France and, perhaps most significantly, Tunbridge Wells in Kent, south-east England, in This last town may be a surprising inclusion but Parr is keen not to underplay quite how influential his stay there once was. It was an experience that changed my life', he said. Parr spent the next three years training as a chef, but no sooner had he finished his studies at the Culinary Institute of America than he switched sides.
In a move that is perhaps more common in the US than elsewhere, he began on the lowest rung of the waiter's ladder at Rubicon, the San Francisco restaurant that is sadly now closed but was once renowned for its wine list then compiled by sommelier Larry Stone, whom Parr regards as his mentor.
Nine years ago Parr began to dream of running his own wine bar and started to write the business plan for it. The subsequent dot. RN74 was the name of the major road that leads out of the area — although it has now been changed to D Parr eventually became wine director for chef Michael Mina, whose 15 restaurants now stretch from San Francisco to Washington DC, but as Parr's concept developed, he realised that to survive financially it would have to be a restaurant with a wine bar attached to generate the food sales necessary to survive, particularly at lunchtime.
Then as he waited in Paris's Gare du Lyon for a train to Burgundy, the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place. This is what now runs the whole length of one wall and at the far end is a shorter board with about 10 wines on it where we list our bin ends, those we only have a little stock of', Parr explained with an obvious sense of pride at seeing his long-cherished dream finally come to fruition.
Instead, dinner and happy hour have been better than expected. Mina was speaking from San Francisco, where he lives, preparing to fly to Seattle, where RN74 is celebrating its first year in business this month. But even before he opened RN74 last June, he visited the city often en route to seeing his parents, who live in Yakima, and friends on both side of the Cascades.
He is expecting 32 of his former Ellensburg High School classmates to visit the restaurant this weekend. And Carver handles the day-to-day chores across their 70 acres, yet it is her fetching artwork on the labels. Her clean and detailed pencil drawings are inspired by scenes and inhabitants around the farm.
The back label is where the brand name appears, a now-funny legacy from the disagreement husband and wife had over what to call their winery. And the combination of her artwork and the paper stock forces Big Table Farm to hand-label all 4, cases each year. Their winsome Chardonnay, which represents about 10 percent of their total production, carries some pedigree. Its finesse balances beautifully with the fresh herbs and crab. The Chardonnay features a community of bee boxes.
Big Table Farm, N. This story was originally published December 19, AM. Customer Service All Customer Service. Contact Us. Subscriber Services. Wine Info All Wine Info. Grape Varieties. How to Submit Wines. Wine of the Week. Wine Reviews Search. Submit Your Wine Event. Food All Food. Food Pairings. Columnists All Columnists.
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