This is one of my favorite dinner clubs of recent history. Maybe I’m bias because I “hosted.” Or the more likely reason is because we had so so much to celebrate. The Barrel Room at City Winery was the perfect place to do it. It’s the only fully functioning winery in the city with whites and reds on tap. Tap! It was the perfect place to celebrate, and with an engagement, two promotions, and one new lawyer with new business cards, it was quite the festive evening.

We started with wine flights – tastes of three different wines on the menu. With that we also did appetizers. And I have to say the waiter was terrific, he brought over rice crackers with the hummus because the bread they normally serve with hummus wasn’t vegan. The other appetizers looked really good for the non-vegans in the group. Burrata with beets, salmon sashimi with some sort of pineapple thing, and mushroom crostinis.

For dinner I went with the tofu hot pot, and the waiter was nice enough (and had a good enough memory) to ask if I wanted it prepared vegan. I really appreciated that, since there was nothing on the menu to indicate it wasn’t vegan. It was delicious. It came with these great greens on top and some sort of spicy orange marmalade-type sauce. It may have been the only vegetarian/vegan dish on the menu, but I would go back time and time again to get it. A place that can cook both steak, fried chicken, and tofu perfectly is worth re-visiting. Especially when dining with a mixed group like ours. During dinner we went with two carafes of wine – one rose and a cabernet. Both were wonderful.

And then of course what celebration is complete without bubbles? With dessert we had a bottle of prosecco. Dessert was a s’more with chocolate mint ice cream (on the side).

City Winery is one of my favorite places in the city right now, even though I’ve only been once before this trip. I love doing wine tastings and it’s rare to find a place with wine and good, vegan-friendly food. (There’s usually just a bunch of cheese and charcuterie). They also do tours in the winery that I definitely want to check out sometime in the near future as well. Service, food & of course the company – all wonderful.