CHRISTMAS EVE FEAST
Vintage 423 serves dinner and cocktails in intimate environment
Celebrate Christmas Eve in an intimate environment ideal for a romantic date or an evening visiting with friends and family.
New Executive Chef J. Martin Torrez and mixologist Leslie Kiefer have concocted menus of exquisite food offerings and luxurious cocktails in celebration of the holiday.
“As the new executive chef, I want to really show on a night like Christmas Eve what Vintage can be capable of with our elevated cuisine,” Torrez said. “We have specialty salads featuring a roasted baby beet salad with chopped apple, mixed greens, cranberry vinaigrette and red chile pecans — something kind of festive — and then we have our Vintage Caesar, which a lot of guests love. I’m also doing a special soup; it’s a warm potato, leek and pancetta with fried mozzarella. If it’s going to be cold outside, it’s very warming and comforting.”
Kiefer created some winter warmers of her own, including an eggnog Manhattan made with whiskey, eggnog, Luxardo cherry liqueur and dusted with nutmeg. She also mixed up an apple-cinnamon Old-Fashioned. Both pair well with the meat options on the menu, including the Aspen Ridge filet mignon and the 24-ounce bone-in rib-eye. There are also hearty appetizers, such as crab cakes, Hudson Valley foie gras with leek bread pudding and pork belly with mustard spaetzle.
“I’ll muddle apples in place of the oranges that come typically in an OldFashioned and with cherries in an agave nectar with barrel-aged bitters,” Kiefer said of her Old-Fashioned. “The barrel-aged bitters has a cinnamon taste to it so it will pair nicely with the apple cinnamon.”
The filet mignon is Vintage’s bestseller. Torrez will be changing it up for the night, serving it with a red chile and smoked Gouda potato cake with grilled asparagus and a sweet vermouth demi-glace. Those who prefer something other than beef can select from a Snake River Farms pork loin with rosemary Peruvian mashed potatoes, roasted little carrots, and a spiced Granny Smith apple chutney. Other options are herb-crusted rack of lamb with butternut squash risotto and a bone marrow demi-glace or a pan-roasted organic chicken chop with goat cheese and sage polenta and charred broccolini in a riesling cipollini demi-glace.
On the lighter side, the menu also offers a Chilean sea bass entree, a Scottish salmon course, housemade saffron-infused fettuccine with oven-dried roma tomatoes, tequila Chamucos butter and aged Asiago with a choice to add jumbo tiger shrimp or jumbo scallops. Kiefer has created a cocktail to complement the fish and pasta selections. Her gin hibiscus martini with a lemon twist will feature a St-Germain liqueur float. The liqueur is flavored with elderflower.
“Our desserts are going to be festive too,” Torrez said. “All desserts are made in house that night, baked to perfection. We’re going to have our double vanilla crème brûlée with whipped cream and berry coulis. A Samoa cheesecake with a sea salt caramel and an espresso chocolate sauce, a housemade éclair with an eggnog pastry cream and peppermint dust, and then a brownie bread pudding with a whiskey crème anglaise. It is a rich brownie with our take on bread pudding — rich, delicious, decadent, ooey, gooey goodness.”