Volt

We don't always do dog stuff..occasionally we run off to a cool restaurant just for fun.  A few weekends ago, Kristen, Gyeong, Jason and I packed up the car, had a trusted friend come stay with the large pack and headed to Frederick, MD to visit Volt.  We watch Top Chef and Bryan Voltagio has been on that show numerous times.
We also have wanted to go to some wineries in Northern Virginia for quite some time.  We always hit the wineries associated with Grapehounds, but the ones that don't allow dogs or that are farther from leesburg get missed.  So we knocked a few off of our 'must hit' list on this trip.  I've also moved away from 'loving' most of the central virginia wines and am really  hoping Northern Virginia saves the local wines for me.
We stopped at Molon Lave first which was quite good.

I wish they were closer. They had fantastic grounds and a huge winery..perfect for some dog events. 
Then we made it to Frederick, MD and headed to Volt.  We had booked the small Table 21 which is right by the kitchen and serves TWENTY ONE courses!  Don't worry..i won't show photos of them all.  He also does molecular gastronomy which combines science and food..two of my favorite things (if only we could have had our greyhounds, I'd have been in heaven!)
It was neat watching the chefs do their thing. Bryan wasn't there, but his sous chef who is always on the show with him was. 

One of the small bites. There were roughly 10 'bite size' courses like this.  This was a parmesean baked potato..doesn't look like it, does it? But it sure did taste like it!!!

Busy bees

Then we had 11 or so 'entree' courses which were small plates.  They were all lovely too! This was Lobster with pumpkin kimchee with pomegranite and taragon.

 THis is my favorite 'chef' photo.  It was really neat being in all the action. We also did a wine pairing with it and had our own server who was very friendly and helpful

 After a few courses of desserts, they presented us with a box of handmade truffles and our 'diploma' which had all the courses we'd eaten and all the wines we had sampled. 

 The next morning we slowly zig zagged our way down and hit a few more wineries. One that had been on our list for a long time was Linden Winery.  We did their 'special' cellar tasting of older wines in their cellar. That was good.

 They had a wonderful deck with a great view. The weather was awesome.

And then we did lunch...the best way we know how. 

 After a few hours there, we moved down the road to Narmada winery which is owned by an Indian family. They have great wines and serve Indian food at the winery.  We had the lady do a group shot..it isnt' a great shot b/c i forgot to change my camera but oh well..you get the idea.

Then we have second lunch at Narmada with red wine and various Indian delicacies.  I guess I forgot to photograph that meal..it was quite tasty. 

 So it was a fun 24 hours of eating, drinking and enjoying life.