Every day The Wine Chef is out and about in NYC discovering some really cool stuff, especially when it comes to food, wine and spirits. Take last night, for instance, I was in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn - I'll admit, I don't know my way around Brooklyn all that well and that's definitely an area for me to explore. I was at a wine dinner in a gorgeous brownstone that can be rented out for parties. The chef was Theo Friedman, a 24 year old Tufts College graduate who decided cooking (not banking or real estate) was his passion and started his own catering business. At the dinner was Joe Harden, a very interesting young man who not long ago was a professional basketball player with the Golden State Warriors and is now a Napa Valley winemaker for the Robert Mondavi Winery (pretty big-time for an under-30 year old!). We were a group of wine and food professionals, sitting at a beautifully appointed, long dining table. The food, the wine, the atmosphere and my colleagues were all amazing! By the end of this fun evening, myself and three women sitting together had decided we could be a reincarnation of the Spice Girls (I would be Posh!). Luckily the dinner ended before we had the chance to perform!

I woke up this morning and began thinking about this incredible evening and how I would love to write about it but also how backlogged I am with my writing (lots of future posts on my trips to Washington State and Bordeaux are in the works). Each article takes a lot of time and research, which I love to do, but I would also like to be posting more articles on The Wine Chef. So I've decided to include frequent, shorter posts entitled "Wine Chef Discovery!" - brief pieces about a great meal I had or a particular Armagnac that you must try or about a winemaker I met at a tasting whose wines surprised me. I'll tell you about neighborhood places to buy cheese or coffee or ice cream. I'll still do the longer posts about wine, recipes and restaurant reviews, but in-between these longer articles I'll give you a quick rundown with links to more information about interesting culinary discoveries.

Ok, so getting back to last night....

THE HISTORIC BROWNSTONE: It's called The Notorious BNB at 280 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn. It can be rented out for parties and you can even rent a room to stay overnight here. Check it out!

THE CHEF: Take a look at Theo Friedman's website for his catering company Theory Kitchen. He does really interesting "multi-course, intimate, experiential and experimental popup dinners".

THE WINEMAKER: Read about Joe Harden and what basketball and winemaking have in common.

THE WINES: Two wines I really enjoyed last night were the Robert Mondavi Maestro Red Blend Napa Valley 2014, a well-balanced, dark and juicy, mostly Cabernet blend and the Robert Mondavi Botrytis Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2002, a delicious sweet wine to have with dessert.

And that's it for now. Look forward to more Wine Chef Discoveries!