Birthday Weekend

My wife and I recently spent the weekend in the Lambertville/New Hope area, celebrating her birthday. It was a great weekend of food, wine and shopping. We stayed on the Jersey side of the river in Lambertville at the Lambertville Station Inn (pictured below). If you haven’t visited this area recently, you will be amazed at how many wonderful places there are to shop, eat and drink on both sides of the bridge.

You can’t stay at the Lambertville Station Inn and not have at least one meal at the Lambertville Station (pictured below). It is an old favorite of ours. We decided on a light lunch, which was wonderful, seated at the glassed-in deck area. There is a great walking and biking path adjacent to the restaurant that has various length loop options to work off your meal.

                     

I know. You’re saying, “Isn’t this a blog about New Jersey wine?” Yes…but I’m entitled to digress. But our first walk across the bridge to the New Hope side revealed a wonderful market AND a Unionville Vineyards space.

The Ferry Market in New Hope, PA offers visitors in the area a great venue to try Unionville wines. It also offers a great setting to pair a glass or bottle with one of the many cuisines housed in this unique, hip space. The choices are quite diverse-from Bonjour Creperie to The Good Gyro and The Pork Shack to Cross Culture Gourmet Indian cuisine, and much more. Want to enjoy a bottle at a nearby restaurant? No problem. There are numerous BYOB restaurants on both sides of the bridge (New Hope on the Pennsylvania side and Lambertville on the Jersey side). It was my wife’s birthday so we chose to have a glass of wine here and make the difficult choice of a bottle or two to go with our planned dinner.

I wanted to refresh my memory of Unionville’s Dry Riesling and their Pet Nat (made from Riesling). I had forgotten how much I enjoyed both at the Winemakers Co-Op event at Hawk Haven in May. Most of their extensive repertoire is available at this marketplace satellite tasting room. Among them were many of my favorite Unionville Vineyards wines: their Mistral Blanc, Mistral Rouge, and Pheasant Hill Vineyard Chardonnay, among many others. We enjoyed a glass of the Riesling and a glass of the Mistral Blanc and chose to take a bottle of the Riesling and the Pet Nat for later. The Pet Nat (short for Petiilant Naturel) is a sparkling wine that is produced in a style that actually pre-dates Champaign. The winemaker interrupts fermentation and the resulting wine is a semi-sparkler with a bit less effervescence.

I have written about Unionville Vineyards on numerous occasions over the past three years because they are one of my favorite wineries and they make great wines. While clearly everyone should visit their winery (and all of New Jersey’s wineries), I love that increasingly you can find their wines at many outlets-some surprising and very unique spaces.

For those who may not be winelovers (are there really people like that?), the Ferry Market also offers a brewery (Weyerbacher Brewing). There is also another brewery across the street, overlooking the canal (Great Barn Farm to Glass Taproom). There’s another really good one near the train station (Triumph Brewing Company). It’s located at 400 Union Square Drive, New Hope.

For those interested in something a little stronger (sorry no Cannabis) there is a very cool Mediterranean restaurant and bar called, Nektar. It has indoor and outdoor seating. My wife and I vowed to try it next time. Their website includes a great quote from Christopher Hitchens: “Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks call entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing.” The outdoor seating is pictured below.

What about dinner?

Lots of places for a celebratory birthday dinner. We chose the Blue Moose Cafe in New Hope. It has consistently been rated one of the top restaurants in the area and it did not disappoint.

We could not leave the area without a lunch overlooking the river. We chose Martine’s RiverHouse Restaurant & Bar. The food is great, some nice wine selections and a view that can’t be beat. See what I mean…

                                            

What a great, relaxing birthday weekend! While it was my wife’s birthday, I definitely enjoyed our weekend together at least as much as she did. May everyone reading this get to enjoy as many great birthdays together as my wife, Carol and I have. Love you, honey!

Cheers!

Grab you ebook version of New Jersey Uncorked for $2 off using the coupon code: Summer2019 (only via the Apple iBook App. Works on all iOS systems (Mac, iPad, and iPhone).

Tried a New Jersey wine lately? Visited a NJ winery recently? Why not share your experience here? Like what you read and see here? Consider subscribing and getting your weekly pour of NJ wine right in your inbox. No spills, no mess.