But this time we planned a late Valentine's Day dinner with some friends and vowed to go to a "new-to-us" place.
The decor of this restaurant, located in the former Bistro by the Tracks building, is, unfortunately, in need of serious help. It feels like they're going for a trendy nightclub vibe with alternating blinking colored lights against white walls (much like downtown Knoxville's Sapphire bar), which makes no sense when you look at their fairly serious menu and wine list. I think their goal is to keep it casual and not "stuffy." I am totally down with high quality food and service in a cusual and relaxed environment. In fact, that is my favorite type of experience, but this comes off just feeling lame.
The music, on the other hand, did help create a fun, youthful environment. The playlist included contemporary rock acts Coldplay, Spoon, Modest Mouse, Radiohead, and more. My only complaint is that the nice Bose speaker near us had a serious "buzz" going on.
Hands down the best part of the evening was "The Wine Fairy." Our server noticed that we were having trouble deciding on a wine, but only because the wine list is absolutely unbelievable for Knoxville. It was so hard to make a decision. Brandy happened to ask, "I wonder if they have a sommelier?" I said, "no way." Well, not one minute later, a gentleman walked over who very much looked like he could be a sommelier. He squatted down beside the table and introduced himself as "The Wine Fairy." I almost fell out of my seat. He was a really quirky guy, but I loved him. He made the dinner. I could go on about him forever, but, ultimately, he helped us decide on a 2008 Frank Family Chardonnay and picked out five cheeses to go with it.
The chardonnay was wonderful. He even demonstrated how 2 different glasses changed the flavor of the wine. And, the cheese assortment went excellently with the wine. The highlights for me were the Bonne Bouche (Vermont goat), Cypress Grove Purple Haze (California goat with lavender and fennel pollen), and Meadow Creek Grayson (Southwest Virginia cow).
I should also note the restaurant serves a great soft small loaf of rosemary bread with a compound butter (can't remember the exact ingredients).
The next part of the meal was figuring out our red wine for the evening. We decided "spicy" and "big" were flavor profiles we could all agree on. After tasting a few samples (and aside of me being challenged by the Wine Fairy on liking Bell's Talianna but not their Clone 6), he suggested a 2007 Rodney Strong Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley. This wine was absolutely fantastic. It had a great bold 100% cabernet aroma, with a little spice and vanilla. The initial flavor and body was quite tannic and rich, but smoothed out and opened up as the evening progressed.
For dinner, I went all out with the $38 Dry-Aged Kansas City strip steak. It was cooked perfectly and had the dry-aged flavor I was looking for. Each steak comes with 2 side (unlike many steakhouses). Unfortunately, they were out of the roasted cippolini onion confit, so I went with the truffled mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus. The other people in my party had the Black Angus filet and the rack of lamb special, both of which were excellent.
Although Chez Liberty presents itself as more of a bistro/brasserie, I think it's more successful being viewed as a steakhouse. If you're looking for a really nice "steakhouse" steak with proper "steakhouse" side dishes and a fantastic wine menu, I would venture to say this is THE place in Knoxville - likely over Ruth's Chris or Ye Olde Steakhouse. Check it out, and make sure you ask to see The Wine Fairy. He'll give you the best wine service in town. Oh, and Ross is his name...
