Restaurants & Institutions
Ivy Awards
by Allison Perlik, Senior Editor
May 15, 2004
At 5:30 p.m. on an ordinary weeknight, a family of six trooped into Rubicon restaurant, housed in a two-story brick building tucked amid the proud high-rises of San Francisco's financial district.
"They looked like they'd just come out of a rodeo," says Larry Stone, Rubicon partner and master sommelier. "They were all dressed in faded jeans, and the father had a big cowboy buckle on his belt."
Though the group seemed unlikely connoisseurs, Stone approached them in his customary welcoming manner. Minutes later, he had sold the table a $275 bottle of California wine.
"I've read articles that say you should look for broad signals of dress or attitude to determine how to interact with customers, and I shudder because that's really the opposite of what I believe. You have to talk to people. You can't go by the way they look," Stone says.
The episode happened nearly a decade ago, but at its heart lies the reason that Rubicon, the West Coast flagship of Drew Nieporent's New York City-based Myriad Restaurant Group, is a San Francisco institution, unrivaled in its storied wine list and in the keeper of its cellar, Stone himself.
The only American with the title of French Master Sommelier from the Union de la Sommelerie Francaise and one of just five people ever to pass the London-based Court of Master Sommeliers' exam on the first attempt. Stone's near-legendary tasting and pairing abilities are revered among peers and customers alike.
"Most of the people who have been in this business for quite some time, like myself, have always looked up to Larry," says Ralph Hersom, wine director for Le Cirque in New York City. "As far as I'm concerned, Larry is the premier, No. 1 authority on wine. He's a walking encyclopedia."
To many, Stone is Rubicon. But from the parade of notable names that have held court in the kitchen since the restaurant's 1994 debut--from opening Chef Traci Des Jardins to current Executive Chef Stuart Brioza--it is clear that food is not meant to take a backseat to Stone's much-envied, 1,600-selection wine list. Rather, the menu plays in harmony with wine, pairing top-quality California ingredients with French techniques for a symphony of seamless flavor.
Indeed, the challenge of the restaurant's wine-centered premise was one of the greatest appeals for the newly installed Brioza, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who joined Rubicon in April after leaving the acclaimed Tapawingo restaurant in Ellsworth, Mich., to return to his Bay Area roots.
"Every dish we put on the menu has to have an outlet for wine. It's our driving force here," he says. "A strong percentage of guests come knowing they're going to be dazzled by the wine list. My primary objective is to accommodate that dazzle and at the same time, stand up to it."
Brimming with confidence, Brioza's spring menu appears up to the task, featuring a host of fresh contenders such as scallop ceviche with citrus vinaigrette and avocado; tagliata of corn-fed beef strip loin with crispy polenta, arugula jus, pine nuts and olives; and crispy skate wing with turnips, soybeans, cashews and Gewurtztraminer-ginger butter.
The wine list's influence also finds its way into the dessert creations of Pastry Chef Nicole Krasinski, whose offerings include caramel apple confit with walnut streusel, apple-armagnac broth and creme fraiche; and a bittersweet chocolate tartlet with espresso emulsion, cocoa sorbet and syrah-poached cherries.
The menu varies according to seasonal availability of ingredients, but versatility is a daily feature. When requested, Brioza and Stone will devise for a table a customized menu of entrees and wine selections. On a smaller scale, if certain elements of a guest's chosen dish conflict with the wine selection, they will find harmony by swapping ingredients or altering preparation methods.
It's a style Stone learned in five years working with Charlie Trotter at his Chicago restaurant, where by Trotter's account, any given night would find Stone running into the kitchen to entreat the chef to adapt a table's entrees to better suit the selected wine. In Stone, also an able chef in his own right, such stories reveal the characteristic passion that one employee calls an "almost boyish zeal" for his job.
"I feel like the baseball player who asks, 'I get paid to do this too?'" Stone says. "I never thought this would be a way to make a living. When the opportunity presented itself, I thought, this can't last. I still don't believe it can last somehow, because it's too good."
A Toast to Talent
Myriad Restaurant Group partner and multiple Ivy Award-winner Drew Nieporent calls Rubicon "a launching pad for chefs and sommeliers," and the restaurant's long line of success stories bears out the statement. For employees--most would-be oenophiles eager to harvest Master Sommelier Larry Stone's knowledge--Stone is more professor than supervisor, imparting his wisdom through hands-on guidance and weekly blind tastings open to all interested staff. Servers are required to have a wide breadth of knowledge, including wine history, geography, soil types, regions and producers.
"Larry was a hard and disciplined teacher. He didn't want to give you the answers without you doing some of the work," says Rubicon alum Alan Murray, now wine director at Masa's restaurant in San Francisco.
Heather Branch, who left Rubicon to become wine/beverage director at Craftsteak in the MGMGrand, Las Vegas, says the biggest lesson she took from Stone was the idea of accessibility.
"Larry was a great influence on the way I work in my restaurant now as far as trying to be approachable and never, ever making someone feel bad about the choice they make," she says.
The restaurant's tradition of learning continues among current staff. Three-and-a-half year veteran Kyle Boatwright accepted a bartending position at the restaurant in December 2000 based on its reputation as a wine destination; he's now bar manager, cellar master and assistant sommelier.
"Larry always will take time if someone has a question, especially an employee," Boatwright says. "Some people have worked here who didn't know much about wine before and went on to wine careers just from being exposed to Larry."