Oenophilic Tendencies
Wine and candy
By Jeannine Sano

One of my all-time favorite pastry chefs, Boris Portnoy (named Best Pastry Chef in the 2006 “Northside Best of Food & Wine” issue), recently joined forces with one of my all-time favorite sommeliers, Paul Einbund (named among the Best Sommeliers in the same ”Best of” issue), to create the devilishly delicious menu at Candybar (1335 Fulton, 415-673-7078, www.candybarsf.com.) Portnoy knows how to balance the fine line between savory and sweet elements like a trapeze artist playing with gravity at Cirque du Soleil. His goat cheesecake decorated with sweet toybox carrots accompanied by a tuile of hempseed streusel retains all of that lovely sour-pungent-luxuriousness of goat cheese without losing any of the classic comfort of familiar cheesecake flavors. Envision Jacques Torres running amok in the Cheesecake Factory.

Then Einbund, never shy about procuring and offering a collection of enticing, hard-to-find wines, puts forth a concise, yet eclectic list including almost a dozen different madeiras, half a dozen sparkling wines (including the captivating Chartogne-Taillet and my personal favorite, Pierre Peters), and of course the requisite stickies – sauternes, tokaji, eiswein.
I must admit some skepticism here when Einbund first told me about the Candybar concept. For the most part, I am not much of a sweets person – I prefer eggs and bacon to pancakes and syrup and would rather snack on potato chips than chocolate cake. Plus, as much as I love wine, when it comes time for dessert, I am more likely to reach for a cup of dark roast coffee than a glass of vino. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Candybar is the restaurant I never knew I had been waiting for my entire dining-out existence.

In addition to the variety of unbelievable desserts, Candybar also offers a few select savory small plates. Who knew Portnoy was such an incredible savory chef? His mackerel escabeche with beets and popcorn would be right at home front and center on the menu of any Michelin-starred restaurant. My favorite Portnoy creation of all time, however, is still his vanilla brioche, which might be described as a combination of vanilla soufflé, French toast, and crème brulée. I have been obsessed with this haute variation on bread pudding ever since I first tasted it at the now-defunct Winterland restaurant. At Candybar, it tastes even better than I remember, with a side of spiced cherries topped by a quenelle of feta sorbet. The tricky part is the wine pairing. I will have to corner Einbund at Coi and see what he would recommend for that dishy dish. Another problem is that Einbund’s dessert wine selections are so good that they could stand alone as dessert, the ideal coda to Portnoy’s six-course dessert tasting menu (complete with an amuse gueule and mignardises).
Decadence rules! For more decadent offerings, check out the following wine events in July:

Silk’s, 222 Sansome St. (at Pine), 415-276-9787, www.mohg.com:
• Rubicon Estate Wine Dinner featuring Larry Stone pairing wines with dinner by Chef Joel Huff; Tuesday, July 1, 7-10:30 p.m.; $270/person

Nectar Wine Lounge, 3330 Steiner St. (at Chestnut), 415-345-1377, www.nectarwinelounge.com:
• Calera with Josh Jensen, Tuesday, July 1

Blackwell’s Wines & Spirits, 5620 Geary Blvd. (at 20th Ave.), 415-FUN-WINE, www.blackwellswines.com:
• Guess the Varietal blind tasting of four fun wines, Wednesday, July 2, 5-8 p.m.
• Sultry Syrahs/Shiraz, Saturday, July 5, 2-5 p.m.
• Guess the Varietal blind tasting of four fun wines, Wednesday, July 9, 5-8 p.m.

COPIA, 500 1st St., Napa, 888-512-6742, www.copia.org:
• Taste of COPIA Lunch: Zinfully Elegant Barbecue includes interactive cooking demo, garden talk, and lunch with wine, featuring grilling secrets and Zinfandels; Friday, July 4; Fri-Sat, July 11-12; & Friday, July 25, 1-2:15 p.m.; $50/person

• Bastille Day Celebration street fair in COPIA’s Edible Gardens, featuring sample French specialties, French wines and beverages, and music of Baguette Quartette; Sunday, July 13, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; $20/person (includes wineglass and five tasting tickets)

• Zinfandel Madness Walkaround Wine Tasting featuring Zinfandels from Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles, and Sierra Foothills plus food pairing; Saturday, July 26, 1-4 p.m.; $45/person

• Village Feast multicourse al fresco lunch with sparkling, rosé, white, and red wines; Sunday, July 27, 12:30-2:30 p.m.; $65/person

The Wine Club, 953 Harrison St. (at 5th), 415-512-9086, www.thewineclub.com:
• Syrah from Around the World, Saturday, July 12, 1-4 p.m.

Artists Alley, 863 Mission St. (at 5th), 415-507-9962, www.thepartyhotline.com:
• Art & Wine Tasting for Singles, Saturday, July 12, 7:30-9:30 p.m.; $30/person

Bambuddha Lounge, 601 Eddy (at Larkin), www.uncorkedevents.com:
• South American Superstars sampling of over 85 wines from Chile and Argentina, Wednesday, July 16, 6-9 p.m.; $45/person in advance, $50/person at the door

Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant, Ferry Building (Embarcadero at Market), 415-288-0470, www.fpwm.com:

• Peay Vineyards with Andy Peay, Wednesday, July 9, 4:30-7:30 p.m.
• Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed with Jeff Prather, Thursday, July 17, 6:30-8 p.m.; $50/person

• J.C. Cellars with Jeff Cohn, Wednesday, July 23, 4:30-7:30 p.m. Bacar, 448 Brannan St. (at 4th), 415-904-4100, www.bacarsf.com:

• Scholium Project Winemaker Dinner featuring Abe Schoener (formerly with Kongsgaard), Wednesday, July 23, 6:30 p.m.

Vintners Club, 415-381-4467, www.vintnersclub.org:
• Old Red Burgundies Library Tasting, Tuesday, July 29, 6-7:30 p.m.

E-mail: jeannine@northsidesf.com