A celebration of a mural that is dedicated to this family owned brand, found in a cellar underneath the Brooklyn Bridge
Last Tuesday, the luxury champagne brand Pol Roger, treated guests to an intimate and exclusive dinner atop One Hotel which oversees the Brooklyn Bridge. This event was to celebrate a wine cellar underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. This history of this cellar is that it once stored an abundance of Pol Roger wine and champagne, a favorite of Winston Churchill. However, this cellar was closed down and repurposed for non-alcohol storage during World War I. However, a mural of Pol Roger still stands inside this cellar in dedication of this brand and all the years that this wine and champagne was stored in its depths.
Guests arrived to the very top of the rooftop where they enjoyed such a breathtaking view of the bridge, able to see how the sun lit the bridge up during the day all the way to how the bridge lit up when the sun set. On this rooftop, guests were able to sample some of the Pol Roger champagne and eventually toasted to Pol Roger and the mural that is dedicated to it inside the Brooklyn Bridge cellar. During this toast, Hubert de Billy – a fifth generation family member of the Pol Roger brand – spoke highly on the importance of the Brooklyn Bridge to Pol Roger and how this family owned champagne brand has an important history with New York City as a whole.
Following this toast, guests were brought down to the Pineapple Room to enjoy a full 4-course dinner that was selectively paired with a Pol Roger wine. For the first course, a pumpkin brioche, warm olives, and a charcuterie and cheese board were all served in a family style manner. This course was paired with a Champagne Pol Roger Brut Vintage 2012. Our favorite part of this course was definitely the pumpkin brioche. The bread was so warm and moist inside and paired with a vanilla bean butter added a soft sweetness to the bread. And then paired with the Brut Vintage which has a lot of tree fruit notes such as apple and pear, finished off with a toasty roundness to it added an extra layer of flavor once paired together.
The second course consisted of a baby gem lettuce and hen of the woods. This was paired with the Champagne Pol Roger Rose 2009. Our favorite for this course was the hen of the woods which was paired with a balsamic soy glaze, pickled honshimeji, parmesan and a chimichurri remoulade. Mushrooms are one of our favorites, but aside from that simple bias, the mushrooms were cooked delicately which didn’t allow for such a chewy texture to it. The glaze and the parmesan added a nice sharpness to it which really balanced out the earthy tones from the mushroom. And as far as the rose goes, it might have been our favorite of the night. It wasn’t as acidic as others like it which was a nice welcome, but was still as bold as the rest. It packed flavors of citrus like strawberry and raspberry and other red fruit notes which is where the sweetness comes from with it.
For the main course, guests were treated to a pappardelle, a faroe island salmon, rotisserie chicken, and a fossil farms NY strip. This was all paired with a Champagne Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 2008. Our favorite here was the NY strip which was paired with a wasabi spinach, puffed buckwheat, and bruleed onion. The steak was cooked to perfection, and by perfection I mean a nice medium rare temperature. The steak itself practically melted in your mouth and was seasoned perfectly with a good amount of salt and pepper. The spinach and onion were interesting and tasty takes on some of the classic pairings you would see with steak so it went really well with it. There was definitely a lot of umami flavor in this dish which made it hard to stop eating. And the champagne pairing was great too. The Winston Churchill was a very interesting and sophisticated wine that boasted a toasty and creaminess to it which was paired with notes of apple, apricot, peach, and other citrus.
And what is a meal without dessert? For our last course, guests were treated to campfire s’mores, citrus cheesecake, and sticky toffee pudding. It was a hard call to decide which our favorite was but the s’mores took the cake. This was a dish with toasted marshmallow, chocolate cremeux, graham cracker, and cinnamon ice cream. With the dish being served in a cup, this made it easy to layer in each part of the dessert for a complete bite. The chocolate was rich and creamy which paired well with the simple sweetness from the marshmallow. The graham cracker added the much needed texture to the dish. And the cinnamon ice cream gave a very bold punch of flavor and spice to the dish that made you keep coming back to it. The wine that it was paired with was the Champagne Pol Roger Rich NV which was a nice light touch filled with a hint of tree fruit like apples.
All in all, this celebration of the classic and elegant champagne brand was incredible. Not only was the food served top notch, but he wine pairings that went along with it could not have been better. It is a great thing when not only does the wine accentuated the flavors of the food, but the food has the ability of accentuating the notes and flavors of the wine. Pol Roger is definitely one of the best champagne brands we have tried in a while so there should be no second thought for everyone to try it.