Another reason we love this restaurant is the availability, upon request (and not widely promoted) of a completely vegetarian tasting menu. Having a multi-course vegetarian feast at a AAA Five-Diamond restaurant is a true joy.

Yes, the room is gorgeous and filled with a dozen Picassos and a field’s worth of blossoms. But the food, wine and service manage to outshine the ambiance. The words dont do justice to the beauty and flavor of the meal, but heres what we ate and drank last night:

Vegetarian Menu

Heirloom Tomato Salad
Gazpacho Sauce
2007 Riesling, die Leidenschaft, Weinhof Andorfer, Kamptal, Austria

*****

Farcie
Sautéed Artichokes, Zucchini Sofrito, Pepper and Sautéed Onions
2007 Cuvée Roucaillat, Hautes Terres De Comberousse, Coteaux Du Languedoc, France

*****

Butternut Squash Ravioli
Brown Butter and Wild Sage
2005 Vouvray, Moelleux, Cuvée Château Gaillard, Vigneau-Chevreau, Loire Valley, France

*****

Vegetable Ragout
Symphony of Vegetables with Court-Bouillon Sauce
2009 Enamore, Allegrini + Renacer, Bodegas Y Viñedos Renacer, Mendoza, Argentina

*****

Fromage
2009 Chambolle-Musigny, Vieilles Vignes, Frédéric Magnien, Burgundy, France

Disclosure: Absolutely none. We paid for all our food and drink, with pleasure.

The dinner was donated by philanthropists Hal and Sharon Lampert as a live auction item at the Vintage Hollywood event, with the proceeds going to OPCC. The winning bidders were kind enough to include my husband and me on their guest list, and that’s how I came to be part of such an extraordinary evening.

To my surprise, I conistently favored the Ornellaia, even in a blind test (we weren’t told which wines were which for the pasta and lamb courses until after we’d tried them). Having said that, all the wines were absolutely spectacular, and the food was delectable from start to finish.

Here’s the menu:

Hors d’oeuvres
Mini Caprese
Saffron Arrancini
Country pate on crostini
Mini onion and carraway tart
Brandade croquette with basil aioli
Paired with: Krug Grand Cruvee NV

Tableside presentation of Japanese Hamachi
Himalayan pink salt with caviar lime dressing
Didier Dagueneau Silex 2004

Farm-raised rabbit in prosciutto
Tuscan white beans, tomato, fine herbs
Antinori Solaia 1988
Antinori Tignanello 1988
Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 1988
Teunta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia 1988

Hand Rolled Pasta with Wild Mushrooms
Fresh Australian black truffles, foie gras butter sauce
Antinori Solaia 1998
Antinori Tignanello 1998
Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 1998
Teunta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia 1998

Superior Farms Grilled Lamb
Fava beans, baby fennel, artichoke ragout, lamb jus
Antinori Solaia 2004
Antinori Tignanello 2004
Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 2004
Teunta dell’Ornellaia Ornellaia 2004

White Chocolate Amaretto Mousse
Apricot and lemon verbena ice cream

April 4

• From the Heifer International site: Kids can make a difference this summer as they participate in your local Read to Feed library program.
• AOL bought Engadget, but forgot to make sure they’d retain the site’s editorial staff along with it. Oops.
• E One Entertainment is seeking a Toronto-area web designer to revamp its large record label site. Send CV and quote w/examples to ealper@entonegroup.com.
• Wine Expo, a favorite Santa Monica wine shop, will have the Eat Phamish Vietnamese food truck parked outside its Wine Bar this Wednesday, April 6.
• A fantastic story from The Guardian: “I’m a 91-Year Old Body Builder.” Proof that it’s never too late!
• Have mad organizational skills and enjoy working with video? Consumer electronic review and how-to site Tecca wants you.
• Fantastic news for F1 fans as well as fans of gripping documentary: SENNA: The Movie finally comes to the States this summer.
• Walt Disney World’s Haunted Mansion unveils enhanced hitchhiking ghosts.

April 5

• Funny or Die gives us its version of the talking twins from the viral video. This time they’re all grown up and have turned into Michael Chiklis and Patton Oswalt. Now, if Patton had shaved his noggin it might have been even funnier…
• Gawker cites a Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center study that meditation can be more effective than morphine, even for people with little meditation training. That’s good news for me since morphine wreaked havoc on my tummy the last time I had it.
• The Wall St. Journal looks into why some (lucky) people can function well on relatively little sleep. Sadly I’m not one of them.
• The Huffington Post picked up on ThinkProgress’ report that Bristol Palin’s teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit paid her over $250,000 in 2009 – over seven times more in 2009 than it actually dispersed for teen pregnancy prevention programs.

How To Face Down the Wine List and Win – The Awl.

Our flagship annual event, Vintage Hollywood, will be held on Saturday, June 12 (just 6 weeks away!) from 6:30-9:00pm. It features two dozen prestigious wine producers, each represented by its winemaker and/or proprietor; a dozen of L.A.’s top restaurants and purveyors including Artisan Cheese Gallery, The Foundry, Jar, Joe’s, and Tavern; and live and silent auctions. Our celebrity auctioneer this year is the brilliant Kevin Pollak; our emcee for the evening will be KNX Newsradio afternoon host Jim Thornton.

Vintage Hollywood is a relatively intimate event – we admit a maximum of 350 guests – held outdoors, this year at the home of Mr. Ray Leonard and Mrs. Bernadette Leonard (boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard) in Pacific Palisades.

Our primary beneficiary for 2010 is JDRF / Los Angeles Chapter. JDRF’s mission is to find a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications through the support of research. JDRF is also committed to developing new and better treatments to improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes in the near term, and keep them healthy while they advance toward a cure.

Tickets for Vintage Hollywood are $200 apiece, and can be purchased at the Vintage Hollywood website. Sponsorship opportunities, including a private June 11 “dinner with the winemakers,” are also available; for more information, contact Annie Aft at (310) 559-6325 or email VH2010 (at) vintagehollywood (dot) org.

This afternoon on Twitter, a lively discussion broke out among several of us about corkage policies at restaurants. It brought to mind a piece we published in our July/August 2003 issue, reproduced below. (Keep in mind that the restaurants and prices cited are from seven years ago!) I’d love your thoughts about corkage (really); please add them in the comments.

The ABCs of BYO

Many restaurants will let customers bring their own wine with them to dinner, usually charging a “corkage” fee to offset the costs of the server opening and serving your wine, the use and cleaning of the stemware, etc. However, bringing your own is definitely not as simple as grabbing the closest bottle and heading out the door. Here’s how it should be done (and what you should definitely NOT do).

DOs

1. Bring your own wine for the right reason. Good reasons to BYO are:

• You’re celebrating a special occasion for which youve saved (or bought) a bottle.
• It’s not a special occasion, but you’ve got a rare, unusual or favorite wine that’s not available at the restaurant to which you’re headed.

2. Call ahead to find out the restaurant’s corkage policies and fees. Some simply don’t allow it. Among those that do, fees vary widely. Typical charges are $5-15 per bottle, but that’s not always the case. Some places set high corkage fees to discourage the pracrtice; Aureole, in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Hotel, charges $35 per bottle. Calling ahead is respectful, and will prevent you from being embarrassed when you arrive or shocked when you leave.

3. Share. Offer a taste of your wine to the sommelier and/or your server. They’ll appreciate the gesture, particularly if your bottle is uncommon. Your generosity will help pave the way the next time you want to BYO.

4. Be a good customer. Regular customers are the lifeblood of restaurants, as they are for any business. If a restaurant knows you dine there often and introduce others to the place, they’ll ooften waive your corkage fee.

5. Tip fairly. Many servers depend on tips for their income, and most tips are based on a dinner bill that includes wine. When you bring you r own, the server has to do just as much work as if you were buying off the restaurant’s list. Take that into consideration when deciding how much of a tip to leave.

6. Be a good sport. If you’re drinking more than a bottle, buy the second one off the restaurant’s list. Some restaurants, like Rockenwagner in Santa Monica, will waive the corkage fee if you do so.

7. Go out of your own way. If you want to drink your wine chilled or have it decanted, ask the restaurant if you can bring it in ahead of time. They can arrange for the sommelier to serve your wine at the desired temperature, or decant your bottle the requisite 30 to 60 minutes before you expect to drink it. Again, remember to tip appropriately.

DON’Ts

1. Never bring a wine on the restaurant’s list. As the front of the award winning list at Thee Bungalow in Ocean Beach, CA admonishes: “If it’s on our list, put it back in your car.” If you’re not sure, a simple phone call ahead of time (or a check of the restaurant’s web site, if they publish their list on it) can answer the question.

2. Think twice, if not thrice, about bringing your own wine to a restaurant renowned for its wine list. It can be an affront to the restaurauteur who’s spent six figures (or more!) assembling a stellar cellar if you bring your own bottle. Unless you’ve got a darned good reason (or wine), leave yours at home and take advantage of the restaurant’s bounty.

3. Corkage isn’t a way to avoid paying ‘restaurant prices.’ Bringing your own isn’t a license to whip out something cheap or readily available. A good rule is that the wine you bring with you should cost at least as much as the corkage fee.

4. Limit your BYO wine to a bottle or two. Some restaurants simply place a limit on the number of bottles you can bring. Others don’t, but a restaurateur we know recoiled with horror while recounting tales of one customer who lugged in a grocery bag full of bottles, and another who actually brought a full case. That’s simply abusing the privilege.

5. Don’t act entitled. Corkage isn’t a right; it’s a courtesy extended by those restaurateurs who choose to do so. In some places, local regulations forbid the practice altogether and impose stiff penalties on establishments that break the rules. If your favorite bistro doesn’t allow it, go with the flow and enjoy a glass or bottle off their list.