The Food and Wine Experience at Kohler

This past weekend I headed up to lovely Kohler, WI for the Kohler Food and Wine Experience. We planned ahead and signed up for some ticketed events as well as a massage for me at the Kohler Spa.

Gin in Classic Cocktails
Originally titled "Ginnovations", which definitely drew our attention, the session somehow got changed by the time we walked into the session, were handed a gin and tonic and sat down in front of a tasting menu and samples of various types of gin. The presenter was from Death's Door gin in Madison (which works with farmers on Washington Island, along with Capital Brewery, to obtain all grains for their spirits) and shared the history of gin including the story of how it was original referred to as "Dutch Courage" because the British saw Dutch mercenaries drinking it. Ultimately it got so popular everyone started making it, incorrectly, and it then became known as "Mother's Ruin" for killing people. Of the styles we sampled my favorite, the Old Tom style Hayman's, had a nice subtle citrus flavor. My least favorite, the old original Dutch Genever style, was a bit whiskey, but really more closely resembled rubbing alcohol.

The absolute highlight was a couple of gin cocktails the presenter mixed up and shared. One, called the Martinez, was a pre-prohibition cocktail made with one and a half ounce gin (he used a London Dry, Death's Door), one and a half ounce high quality dry vermouth, 3/4 oz maraschino liqueur, 2 dashes of angostura bitters and a little lemon oil on top. This drink is soooo good. Take my word for it, you want to try this.

Next up was a gin mojito. I love mojitos but the process of making them and muddling just daunts me. Never again! The process of making this gin mojito is so easy and the easier act of shaking replaces muddling. 2 oz of gin, 1 oz of simple syrup (which is a 1-1 equal portion of sugar and water), 1 oz fresh lemon are combined in a shaker with a couple min sprigs. Steve volunteered to help shake for all attendance. Strain and top with about 3/4 oz of Perrier or sparkling water. So good.


Scotch vs. Irish Whiskey and a Massage
I went off to the Kohler spa with their plunge pools and luxury amenities while Steve attended the Scotch vs. Irish Whiskey session.  I can't report on too much about this session other than to say Steve definitely enjoyed it and will gladly give you a report on what he experienced.

Dinner at the Immigrant Restaurant
The American Club and Kohler have a great history, of immigrants who came over to work in the Kohler factory and learned how to be American. The Immigrant Restaurant has six rooms, each representing one of six cultures that made up the early immigrants to Kohler. We were in the Danish room with low light and attentive staff and really excellent food. I had a great mushroom and black truffle risotto, followed by a salad with balsamic vinegar gelee and couscous pearls with vegetables seasoned with great herbs that I didn't even bother to try to figure out because it was just so good. Steve had the special, duck breast, which he couldn't stop raving about as well. There was a wonderful classic guitarist playing in the restaurant bar which we stopped and listened to for a bit before stumbling back to our room.


Barrel and Non Barrel Aged Wines
Our final ticked session introduced us to Wollersheim and Cedar Creek Winery, both in the same family in Wisconsin and involve a cute story of a French wine intern coming over to the US, thinking he'd go to Napa or Sonoma and landing in Wisconsin, where he fell in love with the eldest daughter of his wine making hosts and now he runs the family wine making business. 

Now I've always known I didn't like oak in wines and while chatting with our sommelier at the Immigrant Restaurant I learned my aversion may actually be to new American oak and while trying the various barrel and no barrel aged wines I found myself leaning, as suspected, towards the oak free or towards the primarily minimal aged french oak wines.  The Prairie Sunburst Red by Wollersheim, which was unoaked with no barrel aging, was my favorite. My second favorite, their well known Domaine du Sac, is aged in a combination of French and American oak for five months.

The Rest

The Shops at Woodlake, the Design Center, everywhere seemed to have complementary demos and tastings going on. While exploring the shops we happened across the Stella Artois tent and when we got to the front of the line and asked how much a beer cost, we were pleasantly surprised to hear everything in the beer tent was free!


All in all a great experience of staying at the American Club and exploring their native gardens and neighboring shops. Definitely an experience I'd do again and perhaps go a bit earlier to take more advantage of more sessions.

Dining Out: Making Vegan Sexy

"Making Vegan Sexy" is the tag line of Karyn's on Green. And while I've never really thought of food as "sexy" I'm all for a place that focuses on unique vegan cooking, while not depending too much on processed fake meats or tofu. This is the third venture for Karyn, after Karyn's Cooked and Karyn's Raw. I've been to each and they are both good, though I've found I have a limited appetite for "raw" food. Beyond a nice salad, things get a bit odd for me.

Karyn's on Green has a little fake meat and tofu, but they are by no means the primary focus which I was pleased to see and there are enough options on the menu to craft yourself a nice diverse well rounded vegan meal. And they have cheese, though cashew based instead of soy (which I further appreciated). From the maki role with red beet, avocado, cucumber, jalapeno, carrot and rice which made me think "Why haven't I tried to make this at home" to the vegetable salad with corn and hearts of palm to the pumpkin risotto, it was a good and fairly affordable vegetarian variety.

The chopped vegetable salad was good though as my dining companion noted, nothing overly unique.  I'm also partial to anything pumpkin this time of year so the creamy risotto with a hint of pumpkin was just what I expected and very filling. I sampled some of my companion's steak fries (dark, crispy and well seasoned with a barbecue sauce and some kind of unidentified strange orange aeoli) butternut soup (which had a great rich taste), roasted foraged mushrooms (a nice unique combo of Japanese eggplant, fava bean, cashew sherry purée)  and coconut curry (which when compared to a Thai curry - which may not be a fair comparison - didn't quite stand up) to round out the meal.

We were too full for dessert though there was a good looking sweet potato pie on the menu, which I would have tried if I had the room.

Perhaps my favorite part of the meal was the non-alcoholic elixir I tried, the Chairman's Cobbler, made of organic green tea and pomegranate juice, ginger syrup, muddled lemon and mint, goji berries, fresh raspberries. It was just right, not too sweet or strong. My friend had the Blueberry Mint Fizz with lemon juice, simple syrup, blueberry, mint, soda water. It was subtle, but perhaps too subtle. It could have used a burst of flavor.

I'm excited to try another meal there and see how they develop their food. And regardless of the tag line they choose I'm glad to see a nice place offering a variety of vegan options, without too much fake meat or tofu, making a name for themselves and drawing a veggie and non-veggie crowd alike.