This recent article written in the SF Chronicle about the closing of a beloved and well rated restaurant really hit a particular note with me. It was written by one of the restaurants sous-chefs who talks about all the expensive choices the restaurant made in pursuing a business that sought to honor its suppliers, employees and customers. The economy has a significant impact on independent restaurants and retailers. Those who have been unwilling to trade down in quality to improve their margins, or to let valued employees go have been hit the hardest.

Eventually, it became clear my careful attempts at cost-cutting weren’t nearly enough. We either had to start serving many more people each day, or dramatically lower our costs. By this time, we’d already tried everything we could to attract diners – lower prices, happy hour, an extended bar menu, more comfort foods, you name it. None of it did much good. The only choices that remained were to buy lesser ingredients and replace our cooks with cheap labor.

We couldn’t do those things. We couldn’t forsake our principles and our employees just to keep the restaurant open. Such a restaurant wouldn’t have been our Eccolo, anyway.

Before shutting the doors, we decided to have a week of special dinners. We’d cook the food we loved to eat, be surrounded by our friends, and pay tribute to the purveyors whose work we’d so greatly appreciated.

We spent each day in the kitchen preparing a different menu of Chris’ favorite dishes. Eccolo overflowed with people; regulars fretted about where they would now eat.

Chris and I just looked at each other and wondered, “Where were all of these people before this? How could it be that only now, on the eve of closing, Eccolo had become the restaurant we’d always wanted?” We kept hearing from people, “I wish I had come more.” We wished it, too.

Regardless of what the money people said, I think these customers knew that we were doing the right thing – supporting family farmers, putting money back into the local economy, hiring people from the neighborhood. I just don’t think most people realize how hard or expensive those choices are.

Amen to that.

To begin with please excuse any foul language in the short film, we had to post it because it really shows the underbelly of the wine business. Besides if you are reading our blog or buying our products you are over 21 and just may have heard a few curse words by now.
This short highlights the tactics of some of the larger distributors and name-recognition wineries.

This is part of the business that we deal with every day and why kybecca is unique. We resist. We work with small and medium distributors who don’t employ these tactics and instead sell wine they think is good and fairly priced. We taste everything and care about who makes it. When I first saw this video about 5 or 6 wineries came to mind with wines that we get asked for on a regular basis. The problem is that the wine isn’t that good (an probably over-priced) so they work with distributors who are willing to push the wines in this way. It would certainly be easier to just sell wines with this type of name recognition; the system is built to promote it but we just can’t. We take pride in finding top quality small producers and distributors who don’t ever try to push their inferior wines on us (and thus on you), and in swimming against the tide of giant selections of mostly mediocre wines.

Our wine selection is personal and meant to delight you, sometimes challenge you and support an alternate system of buying from small businesses who do things the right way. So the next time we don’t have [insert brand name here] there may be a good reason why, and for sure we have a great alternative.

My favorite wine of the summer is a little Greek white wine I learned about through Eric Asimov’s wine column in the NY Times. It’s the Mantinia Tselepos made from the Moschofilero grape, an indigenous varietal to Greece. Asimov described is “smelling like rose petals and tasting like grapefruit” and it is absolutely correct. In a sea of wine that all try to taste the same, this wine is beautiful and different. Pair with lighter seafood dishes, raw oysters, salads and sushi.
We have it in the Enomatics right now if you are curious and want to taste it.

Just recently I took home a few cheeses for the house from our cheese selection. One was from a cheese producer I was familiar with but hadn’t had this particular one. The Appalachian from Meadow Creek Dairy is my new favorite cheese. Meadow Creek is a darling of food writers accross the country yet relatively unknown in VA where the dairy is located. This must change.

Meadow Creek Dairy is a family farm in the mountains of southwest Virginia. At an elevation of 2800ft, the combination of pure water, clean air and deep soils produce an ideal environment for growing diverse, mineral-rich pastures.

Since 1980, farming has been our craft. We have worked closely with our Jersey herd to give them the best care, develop the genetics best adapted to our farm, and in the process produce the highest quality milk. Now we take our craft to its next level, providing you with a full flavored, healthy, ecologically friendly cheese.

They produce farmstead cheeses (meaning the whole cycle happens on the farm) of exceptional quality. The Appalachian which we have in stock now is described as having a:

supple straw color paste and a white mould rind with glimpses of pink showing through. The flavor is mild and buttery with a spicy finish and just a hint of mushroom.

It melts beautifully and is wonderfully flavorful. Pair with the Jefferson Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay or Linden Hardscrabble Chardonnay for a completely local experience.

Ever stop to wonder just how much glass and can waste one restaurant produces and do they recycle all that waste? Unfortunately most places do not, which I really don’t understand. It’s simply a matter of separating things as they are used.
Above is what we accumulate in recycling during a slow week, and we are just one small wine bar. Imagine what a large, chain restaurant puts in the landfill. Going green is about more than buying a few local ingredients, its about making choices across the board that are better for our environment, from light bulbs to chemicals and recycling.

As we have grown and developed the wine bar it was always within our sights to develop relationships with local farmers who could supply us with fresh, seasonal produce. One of our favorites is Miller Farms who are located in Locust Grove (we also encourage you to go shop at their store on the farm, always great stuff).

They supply us with these lovely zucchinis which we use with our Romesco sauce ($4) and about which the Washington Post said:

We were most surprised at how much we loved a simple dish of roast asparagus with a romesco sauce of oven-roasted tomatoes, roasted peppers and sherry vinaigrette. We used up two baskets of bread trying to get every last red scrap.

We keep the Romesco sauce throughout the year and serve it with seasonal produce. Right now is also tomato season and we make sure to use perfectly ripe Miller Farms tomatoes in our Caprese salad. Get it while you can, because once the season has passed, the dishes are gone.

Our Washington Post restaurant review came out this last Sunday in the magazine (you can access it here) and the response has been great. Only about 50 restaurants a year get a Sunday review and we are honored that they would include a little wine bar in Fredericksburg in the mix.
We found out a few weeks ago that they were doing an article on us through the arrival of the photographer. A lovely French woman called and said she was with the Post, coming to take pictures and could we have the following dishes ready? Of course we complied, but we still had no idea what the article was about or what section it would appear in. When she told us it was a Sunday review in the magazine, I was in shock. It was more than we could have hoped for, by a large margin. It has been difficult to get top-tier media interested in the Burg for a variety of reasons and this was definitely a top-tier spot. I credit our excellent PR company, a little good luck, and lots of hard work from the whole kybecca staff. Without any of them this would not have happened.

Before I get to the daily menu offerings, let me just say a few words about Kybecca’s Sunday brunch menu: This, my friends, is why you get into your cars and suffer the drive on Interstate 95 to get to Fredericksburg.

Sit outside under the bright red awning, sip a glass of chilled prosecco and dig into a plate of slow-braised corned beef hash topped with a poached egg and a drizzle of vinaigrette (one of Kyle’s home recipes). Or try one of the crisp, yeast-risen waffles sprinkled with local berries. Or a crepe filled with spicy, locally made chorizo and scrambled eggs.

Cheers