Christmas Eve at Restaurant Iris

After a long grueling Christmas Eve workday at the wine shoppe all I needed was a cocktail & some decompression. However, Kelly had other plans for us. I came home, cleaned up & we headed to Restaurant Iris for a good meal & some good vino. I love walking into a restaurant & seeing the place full with happy diners. The energy at the restaurant was jovial, joyous & smiling happy faces all around were making that "oh my god this is so delicious" face.

I brought along one of my favorites to pop open



The Champoux Vineyard is one of the premier growing sites for Bordeaux varietals. When we first popped this open I was a little worried because the cork sort of...disintegrated. At first sniff it seemed a little jammy, almost roasted but after about 45 minutes I remarked to Kelly that "this has developed into the wine I hoped it would be. It's the wine I wanted." The dark fruit gave way to gripping, earthy texture & all kinds of spice notes were popping out. Absolutely divine.

My first course was



Roasted Marrow Bones with Pico de Gallo & Fresh Brioche. Mmmm meat butter. The luscious texture on the soft bread with the brightly acidic pico was a texture & flavor sensation that almost made me lose my mind. Whoever was just thinking "eww" because of the picture needs to get over themselves, get to Iris & order this immediately! Absolutely one of the best dishes I've had.

Next up



Braised Lamb Shanks.

I'm a total sucker for a good shank. Seriously. The rich meat that had been cooking down for hours just melted away in my mouth. It was a total "eyes rolling back in the head" moment. Paired with the Andrew Will Champoux I almost lost all concept of space & time.

I joked with my friend Jaime, our server, that I needed a straw to suck out the marrow in the shank too. I can never have too much marrow. She promptly returned to our table with straw in hand.