priceless | Johnny Prime

My wife and I scored tickets to another MasterCard Priceless Table dinner. This time the event was held on the Weill roof terrace and in the Weill terrace room at Carnegie Hall. Really, an amazing venue and a once in a lifetime opportunity to dine there.

We went with our food blogger friend Chubby Chinese Girl and her husband.

The views at night were insane.

The evening was catered by Chef Ashley James of STARR events. He has worked in several Michelin star restaurants in England, France, Spain and Germany, and is a frequent guest on Access Hollywood, E! and the Today Show.

Cocktail hour was outside on the terrace, and we enjoyed the music of the Julliard String Quartet from inside.

Cocktail hour, obviously, served us some booze, but it also included passed Hors d’Oeuvres that consisted of mini lamb chop Provencal; crab Louis with Meyer lemon and chive on a house made whole wheat cracker; James River oysters on the half shell with mignonette caviar, micro chives and shaved horseradish; Scottish smoked salmon and cucumber mille feuille; traditional Angus steak tartare on ficelle crostinis; veal sweetbread with Madeira and morel mushroom vol au vent; and watermelon with feta crema, aged balsamic and micro basil.

My favorites of these were actually the tartare and the watermelon. Both were vibrant pops of flavor. Unfortunately the lamb and tartare didn’t come around as often as we would have liked, and I never did see the crab item.

The dinner menu, inspired by the movie Titanic, started with a chilled vichyssoise with Meyer lemon creme fraiche, a baby squash blossom and Petrossian caviar.

This was velvety and smooth. The caviar gave it a nice salty pop. It was my wife’s favorite dish of the night.

The fish course was Lobster Thermidor: Maine lobster with spinach, parmesan, bisque and XO cognac.

This was incredible. The preparation is masterful. The lobster is sitting on top of a bed of cooked spinach which is placed inside the shell, and the lobster meat is then put back into the shell.

The entree was Tournedos Rossini (beef medallion/filet mignon) with foie gras, truffle Madeira jus, Thumbelina carrots and pommes puree. Beautiful.

My cut was perfectly cooked, as you can see. The cuts varied, so other diners had a thinner piece, or an overcooked piece. I enjoyed mine, but nothing comes close to Didier’s version of this at La Sirene.

The dessert was a plated baked Alaska with summer berries:

The ice cream beneath was a little hard, and the marshmallow topping wasn’t as flambéed or as thick as I typically like, but it was still very tasty.

And Petit Fours included French palmiers, macarons, madeleines, and Grand Marnier truffles.

The French palmiers were my favorite, the little curly cookie thing right in the center of the plate. It was buttery, flakey, and both salty and sweet at the same time. I loved it.

The great part is that our ticket price contained a donation to the Stand Up 2 Cancer program, so it’s all for a good cause, just like the other Priceless Table experiences we’ve been going to.

My wife’s credit card gives us all sorts of perks, like being able to attend Top Chef Duels and Masters premiere parties, or to dine on a billboard above Times Square. The perk we took advantage of yesterday was a special Oktoberfest beer tasting and food pairing event hosted by several breweries around New York, right next door to our apartment at the bar in Whole Foods. Yes – there is a bar in Whole Foods, and it is actually a pretty good bar!

I won’t go through all 12 beers that we got to try, but I will highlight some of the better choices.

My absolute favorite of the night came from local Oceanside brewery Barrier Brewing Company. It was a briny, salt-of-the-sea Belgian style wheat beer that had hints of toasted peat, called Le Pete. It was fucking perfect. The only thing that would possibly make this beer better is if it were served with an ice cold place of oysters on the half shell.

My next favorite was Original Sin’s Hard Apple Cider. It was crisp, light, flavorful, and not too sweet. Most cider’s hurt my teeth because of the sweetness. This was naturally sweet without being overbearing. Boozy, bubbly apple water. Awesome.

My third favorite was the Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout. It was a beastly 10.2% ABV with notes of chocolate and molasses for sweetness and toasted coffee for a little bitterness at the end. This was paired with our dessert (see below).

Okay now onto the food and pairings.

We entered the bar to a nice set-up of bench tables with an assortment of snacks already set out for us:

The best was by far the hummus with toasted, herb pretzel bread pieces (immediately above).

The first course was a barley risotto with aged cheddar. This was pretty nice. Good texture to the barley, great flavor from the aged cheddar, and a little bit of sauteed apple in there for a kick. Naturally this was paired with one of the Original Sin ciders.

Next was quail with a butternut squash bread pudding and some sliced root veggies. This dish was great. The sauce was a little bitter, but when you mopped it up with the bread pudding it was a great balance. This was served with a Barrier beer made from butternut squash. Pretty nice.

Dessert was chocolate cheesecake made with the Narwhal beer I mentioned above. A whipped cream was made from the beer as well, and it was garnished with cocoa nibs and sat atop a nice graham cracker crust. Top marks for presentation here though – dessert in a mini beer mug for Oktoberfest:

We closed with a really cool presentation of a home brew kit product from Brooklyn Brew Shop. Looks pretty simple, and tastes pretty great. We were served their chestnut brown ale from the kit, which was my fourth favorite beer of the night, alongside the Barrier cream ale.