Since we haven’t had a Boston-area offline in a while, I would like to organize one at DUMPLING DAUGHTER, a modern Asian BYOB in Weston MA that was opened 1 1/2 years ago by the daughter of well-known Chinese restauranteur Sally Ling’s (hence the name), who apparently collaborated on the menu.
Theme will be food-friendly wines you want to share. (Original, I know.)
DUMPLING DAUGHTER
37 Center St
Weston, MA 02493
(781) 216-8989
Easy parking in front
I’ve been there before, and the food is quite tasty. I wouldn’t call it the best Chinese I’ve had in the Boston area, but corkage-free BYOB puts them over the top. They have glasses and corkscrews, but as always, yours are better.
5:30PM Saturday October 1st , reservation for 12 people
Attendees (11 of 11) & wines:
xKevin F – 2007 Domaine Barmes-Buecher Riesling Hengst
xRon B – 2009 Pierre Gimonnet Champagne Blanc de Blancs Brut Fleuron
xDoug S – 2007 Vilmart & Cie Champagne Coeur de Cuvée
xRon K – Dom Perignon or Krug Champagne
xBryan W + xKelly – Something red + TBD
xKevin L + x1 – Pinot + Riesling
xAlbert B + x1 – TBD*** + TBD***
xSteve C – 2005 Château Rieussec Sauternes
*** White: Age Sancerre (probably mid-late '90th something like Jadis) or William Selyem unoaked chard or dry German Riesling
Demi: Something from Alsace(ZH or Boxler) - aged 10-15 year
Red: California PN from mid 90’s Flowers, WS or something similar
I’m in. Either date should be fine as long as you can confirm which it is when it gets a little closer. Thanks for taking the initiative to get something going in the area. I always enjoy offlines.
In honor of RonK’s return to the endeavor that he helped pioneer (“offlines”), let’s go with 5:30PM Saturday October 1st so that he can attend. Hopefully the early time is OK with everyone. The restaurant actually closes at 8:00PM.
Sorry to loose you Michael. Hopefully the next time around works better.
I’ll also send a message to Ron’s email list to see if we can attract a few more bottles (and people)…
Updating first post with confirmed attendees. RonK will you be +1?
Michael is not available Oct 1st. I’ll add Steve and Eric to the wait list and we’ll figure things out as we get closer. I’m not sure if I’m +1 or not either.
I need to make a reservation for a group this big…
OK, this just got a little more complicated. I made a reservation for Oct 1st, and it turns out they have a LOT of flexibility as far as a menu/off-menu goes. I spoke with Nicole, who is owner Nadia’s sister. Nadia can apparently work with us to develop a menu.
Options include:
Each person just orders the individual items they want off the menu and pays for them individually, or we split the tab equally
Food served family style (~$15-$25/per person price points, depending on how fancy the food is)
Custom menu, which can include whole fish, lobster, or even Peking duck prepared tableside ($25-$60/per person)
So this is an open-ended question: How much do you all comfortable spending per person and we can work on a menu in that ball park? Throw out some numbers here or PM me with what you are comfortable with. I could go with anything, but since this is a casual Chinese-type place, I’d be inclined towards something in the middle. Push them a bit to see if they can impress us, since we might want to make this a regular stop, but don’t break the bank the first time out (I’ve only had the inexpensive on menu stuff previously).
She also asked how adventuresome the group is? Any objections to some weird stuff (fish heads, frog legs, whatever)? For me, the offaler the better, but that’s just me.
BTW, as far as wine price points, Ron’s previous casual policy for a theme-less dinner always seemed to work well. Bring something good that you’d like to share. Personally, I’m not going to get bent out of shape if someone brings a $50 bottle of wine and someone else bring something that cost $250. I’ll just be grateful to the latter person! [Remind me to tell you about the killer bottle I accidently brought to a non-wine lovers 4th of July BBQ this year!]
Royal East offers us lamb chops, soft shell crabs, frogs legs and a myriad of other goodies and the bill usually comes to $45 pp plus tip
to keep in mind for future OL’s
Anything in the range of prices you mentioned is fine with me. I’m a bit difficult for specialty menus as I don’t eat any meat besides seafood (and they should be told that includes broth/stock). If it’s easier, I can just order off the menu for myself and everyone else can have whatever is planned. Or I can eat the courses that do work for me as long as that adds up to a meal. However it works is fine with me. By the way, I love fish heads.