Frontier Psychiatrist has published an interview with David Levi about his background and his upcoming restaurant Vinland.
FP: So, the burning question: what is the food going to be like?
DL: Wild foods are the ultimate for me. We are biologically wild animals, we evolved to eat wild foods, wild foods are more nutritious, they are more unusual and exciting and varied than anything we can buy, and they connect us in the most fundamental way to our landbase. I’m really interested in fermentation, especially wild fermentation (as in, fermenting without a starter culture, just relying on wild bacteria and yeast), so there will be lots of fermented ingredients and lots of foods that can be stored through the winter. Clearly, I won’t be using any food ingredients I can’t get in Maine. So, no olive oil, no black pepper, no lemon. This is where creativity comes in.
So he won’t have pepper because it’s not local, but coffee and European wine is okay…..
I’ve been curious why he didn’t go with local alternatives to imported wine as there are truly great meads and ciders, both far more fitting to the Vinland name, than justifying wine.
So there’s more than a bit of silliness in this particular terroir branding.
Readers might want to actually read the attached article before criticizing. Better yet, give the man a chance to open his restaurant before you start criticizing. I hope to never understand this type of small minded bitter commentary.
If this if your benchmark for small-minded, bitter internet commentary, Bill, I hope you’re not exposed to the rest of the internet’s dregs.
In fairness, it does seem an odd choice on Levi’s part. Presumably there will be more information to come, but to go from his hard push of Maine-sourced products to ‘we’re making exceptions for the drink menu’ smacks a bit confusing, and creates a disparity with the image he’s been cultivating so far. Sure, the spirits will be local, and that’s great. It doesn’t make the wine decision any less disparate.