River City Supper Club #8 - Barrel Thief on Patterson

River City Supper Club #8 convened at The Barrel Thief on Patterson on a Saturday evening. We arrived at 7 PM to a patron-free establishment. This was good in some ways – we had our pick of table location, we could peruse the wine selection at our leisure. In some ways it was not so good – staff was still not focused and neglected to tell us that us that there is no corkage fee on Saturdays.

Out of the featured red wines that we sampled, only one was truly kick-ass: 2007 Domaine des Hauts Chassis Crozes Hermitage. Hearty and priced right.

Our other selections were Patapon – an interesting non-conformist French red from Coteaux de Loir

And Travaglini Gattinara – nice Italian in the skewed bottle.

We ordered three small slates: Smoked Trout, Duck and Pheasant Pate, and Artichoke-Leek spread. We ate pate, the spread, and smoked salmon (another inattention to detail from the staff on a very unbusy night). My hubby and I are just getting into the enjoyment of pate and this one was good. And even though the salmon was a mistake, it tasted heavenly.

We then ordered cups of soup and most looked forward to the Tuscan white bean and bacon, only to be told after our order was taken that only three cups remained of the soup du jour. Butternut Squash Bisque became the substitute. The bean soup offered a lot of bacon flavor, but was distressingly short of beans. The bisque was decent, but laced with cinnamon and a bit too sweet.

Paninis rounded out the evening and were very satisfying.

As always, the company made the evening stellar, but The Barrel Thief was a bit off kilter.