Economize and Maximize: Wine Series at T.W. Food, Cambridge

365 Days

Economize and Maximize: Wine Series at T.W. Food, Cambridge

Posted 11/20/2008 at 09:32 PM by Cathy

T.W. Food has, rightly, received much critical acclaim in the 18 months or so that they've been opened, even though they're up against some significant odds.

Odds like a tiny, tiny space to house their kitchen. Maximum capacity is three people, including the executive chef.

And a similarly limited dining area as well, though the white walls and high ceilings make it feel loft-ish rather than cramped.

But the odds are stacked highest when it comes to the chef's expectations. Tim Wiechmann, clearly, is what they call hard core. That's usually a good thing in terms of quality but a potentially dangerous thing in terms of the financial reality of running a restaurant.

Wiechmann is formally and classically correct in his cooking technique (in preparing a beurre monté, say, to serve with tonight's poached salmon). Yet this foundation enables him rather than limits his vision or restricts his willingness to experiment. Which means he'll use tangerine zest and juice to start the beurre monté – yes, that's a butter sauce spiked with tangerine. It was perfect by the way in composition and when drizzled on the salmon. And Wiechmann didn't even mind sharing the recipe – sparse and uncomplicated as it is – with his guests.

In other words, the team at T.W. Food have found a way to economize in space and ingredients without sacrificing their vision for the food or the experience. It is not often you find "economize" being used synonymously with "maximize," but that is the case in this tiny restaurant on Walden Street in Cambridge.

The formula of economize = maximize is true, also, on the wine list.

Before dinner Tuesday night my friend wondered, warily, what he might expect for a four-course wine dinner that costs only $49. (It's a reasonable question. For someone who hadn't yet experienced the food at this particular restaurant, anyway.) What to expect, and what we got, were wines that don't break the bank – there's the economize part of the equation – but that maximize what they are.

The thing about the wines on T.W. Food's list is that they are just the slightest bit off-center. Take the 2007 Celestin Blondeau Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre, or the 2005 Domaine des Baumard from Coteax du Layon. "Off-center" here does not mean flawed in any way, or odd. The "off-center" that I mean is like when you take a picture of a famous vineyard somewhere in Pomerol: you might position the vineyard smack in the middle of the frame of your camera because it's what gets all the attention, while a lesser-known yet still high-quality neighbor is off to the side. It's off-center. Which means it's less famous, sure, but it's also less expensive while still maximizing its proximity to an appellation with a well-regarded and justified reputation.

There's that word again – maximizing.

At T.W. Food, whether it's during their Wine Series on Tuesday evenings or on any other night, it's a word that keeps coming up.

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About the Author

Cathy Huyghe

Cathy Huyghe writes about drinking wine every day in the Boston area. She finds the quirky characters, the after-hours events, and the surprising stories that make up Boston's vibrant local wine scene. But no matter where she is, what she's doing, or who she's with, she mostly just wants to drink the stuff.

Her first restaurant gig was at Chez Panisse, when she knocked on the kitchen's back door and asked if she could work there. She's also worked for Jean-Pierre Vigato in Paris and Thomas Keller in Las Vegas. She went to graduate school at Harvard (twice), and her writing has run in Boston magazine, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, Edible Boston, and on Nevada Public Radio and Grist.org.