Eleven Eleven Mississippi, Vin De Set Owners Blog Way Through Tuscany and Provence

By Ian Froeb Thu., Sep. 9 2010 at 11:50 AM

Categories: Media, Restaurant News & Reviews

Paul and Wendy Hamilton, owners of the ever-popular Eleven Eleven Mississippi and Vin de Set, have embarked on a trip through Tuscany and Provence to study food and wine for the two restaurants. You can ~~envy~~ follow their adventures (with friends Bob and Lisa) on their blog, Knife & Cork. Here is a sampling:

For our main course Bob ordered ravioli stuffed with squash blossoms and ricotta w/ a light mushroom and tomato sauce. Wendy chose what appeared to be dumpling shaped pasta with goat cheese and pear in an absolutely delicious walnut sauce. Lisa had ravioli stuffed with artichoke and ricotta w/ a pecorino sauce and I chose the tagliatelle w/ black truffles. We enjoyed all four dishes but our favorite and most unique was the pasta with walnut sauce. I guarantee a similar dish will end up as a special this fall at the restaurant.

Longtime readers know that I wasn't a big fan of Vin de Set when it opened, and visits to Eleven Eleven Mississippi two years ago left me underwhelmed. Obviously, based on both restaurants' continued success, I'm in the minority. So it's good to see restaurateurs who could be coasting on their success doing the legwork (delicious, delicious legwork, I'm sure) to find new dishes for their restaurants.