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  The BAB?s tried the First Wednesday Food and Wine Night at Arpa March 19th, 2008 Posted by Hunter Wilson

  The BABs are a group of seven young, professional women who found each other through work, and cemented their friendships with a common love of all things fabulous " food, wine, careers, gossip, and men (but not necessarily in that order)!  They are motivated career women, who love to go out and enjoy the finer things in life"together of course!  The BABs naturally have a lot in common, but they value each other"s differences as well: They hail from all over the country, their ages range from mid-20s to early 30s, they have different jobs, relationship statuses, and even preferences in wine.  But they all love each other " and of course all the amazing things uptown Charlotte has to offer! They officially termed themselves the "BABs" which is an acronym with a double meaning. One of those meanings is Bright and Beautiful"and as you can tell, modest J.  If you want to learn the other, buy them a martini and maybe you"ll find out! The BAB"s tried the First Wednesday Food and Wine Night at Arpa last night. Overall the experience was enlightening and fun, with only a few minor criticisms. We were all pleasantly surprised when Candace e-mailed us with the great new deal at Arpa " 6 tapas paired with 6 wines all for 12 dollars on the first Wednesday of the month. It seemed too good to be true".we were a little skeptical of how this would work out. A crumb of food" A splash of wine" It turned out to exceed our expectations, in terms of quantity. The wine samples were generously poured (and re-poured upon Natalia"s request, what a lush) and the tapas were smaller than usual, but still substantial enough to enjoy with the wine. We left full, tipsy, and high on each other"s great company! Arpa"s wine distributor was acting as sommelier for the evening, dispensing tons of interesting information about each wine. She was very verbose, almost too much, but for a group of wine neophytes it was good education. She also informed us of wine tasting at Pewter Rose every Monday night, where for 10 bucks you can sample 8-10 wines".and really "geek out" as she put it. Though a little long-winded, she was incredibly articulate and knowledgeable about the wines, getting into weather patterns, grape diameter, effects of root age on structure, and other stuff we could only pretend to understand! Round 1: Mint and Cucumber Tabouleh served with Gewürztraminer blend We had no idea what tabouleh was, and were happy to see that it was our good old friend cous cous. The wine was super-sweet and nobody was in love with it"until we paired it with the cous cous. It was an incredible transformation! The sharpness of the mint and the sweetness of the wine balanced perfectly. Penelope was especially excited about this one, and made sure to compliment our sommelier for the pairing. Round 2: Chickpea Bruchetta paired with Rose The chickpea bruchetta was overall pretty nice. We received a fun story about Rose " apparently in Europe it"s seen as very "girly" for men to be seen drinking white wine, so as a lighter alternative to red, they drink Rose. We all agreed that if we saw a dude drinking a Rose around here, we would definitely have to question his masculinity . . . visualize the equivalent J.D. ordering an appletini, you get the picture"! The Long Pause There was a 25 minute delay between rounds. We were p!ssed. You can"t leave a group of BAB"s stranded with no food or wine like that! We eavesdropped on what sounded like a horrible first date"an attractive but extremely nasal-voiced woman was babbling on about"everything"to a dude we can only assume was cute by the back of his head. As she babbled, he sat perfectly still"not a nod or a body gesture to be seen. Poor guy. The girl totally caught us listening in too"see it"s in everyone"s interest to give us more food and wine! Round 3: Chicken Brochettes with aged lemon vinaigrette served with Chardonnay What"s a brochette" Is that the same as a croquette" We debated this until it came out " two tasty hunks of chicken on a skewer. Nice. It went perfectly with the Chardonnay " the lemon cut right through the wine. We learned that this chardonnay is "unoaked", unlike most California chards. We"re still not 100% sure what unoaked means (removed from oak barrels" never stored in oak" Huh") but it was good J. Round 4: Olive Toast served with Spanish table wine: We were told ahead of time that this had been most people"s favorite pairing of the night"so sad for Penelope, who apparently doesn"t eat olives! So good for Isabella, who eats them straight from the jar and has been known to drink the juice! This pairing WAS good " the super salty olives and the light tempranillo/cab blend was very nice. Round 5: Chorizo and Goat Cheese Balls with Grenache Things start to get a little fuzzy for Veronica here " her alter ego BaconLover08 came out and was overjoyed to hear that Natalia"s hubby has discovered microwavable bacon and eats it twice a day! A fellow bacon lover in the world. Anyways, these chorizo goat cheese balls got a lukewarm reaction from the BAB"s. "Not goat-cheesy enough". The Grenache, however, was excellent. We planned to stock our headquarters with Grenache for our next meeting. Round 6: Lamb Meatball served with Rioja Lamb meatballs are yummy, who knew" So was the wine " the boldest of the night. Natalia is a white-wine-only girl, and generously distributed hers to the rest of the table. Good idea at the time, bad idea next morning, at least for Veronica. Immediately upon finishing the meatball, we ordered 3 plates of fried goat cheese balls with honey. Immediately upon receiving them, we devoured them and sang the praises of goat cheese for at least 5-7 minutes! In summary, it was a great experience (and not just because the BAB"s are generally fabulous at all times). 18 bucks flat, for 6 tapas, 6 wines, some spicy feta dip and a bunch of goat cheese balls. The slow serviced chapped our @sses a little bit, but since this was a brand new event, we expect them to improve with time. High points: great wine education, unique and varied tapas selection, and a great crowd for a Wednesday night. We"ll definitely be back next month, and we"re anxious to try the wine tasting at Pewter Rose next Monday!

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  Hunter Wilson

  Owner, CarolinaNightlife.com1 Posts

  Charles is the Executive Director of Carolina Nightlife and very involved in the nightlife industry in NC and SC. He has been working with venues of all sizes, different brands and products, and countless events across NC and SC for over 8 years.

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