Hello Pastis and Calvados

The best way to entice a friend to spend a leisurely brunch with me is to pick a place with food and wine so good that he won't want to leave.

Sure, some might call that manipulation, but I prefer to think of it as catering to my friend's interests.

So when we decided on brunch, I chose Amour Wine Bistro as our destination, knowing he's a sucker for fine French wines and well-done food.

We were the first customers in the door, so we got the front table, also known as the "aquarium seats"  for the ever-changing view of Carytown street theater (a lot of fake tans, a lot of questionable clothing choices, a lot of bad parallel parking).

I began our multi-hour odyssey with the cocktail special, a fresh grapefruit juice and Rose combination that had a nose of the sweetest grapefruit and the prettiest deep pink color.

My friend has grapefruit issues so he had a Kir Royale, but it couldn't compare to my fresh-squeezed libation, IMHO.

Our first course was yogurt with local blueberries (so large I couldn't finish it), watermelon gazpacho (not a lot but so well done that the flavors sang in my mouth) and blueberry mint jam on a salted butter baguette.

Let me just say that one of my fondest childhood memories was toast with a thick layer of salted butter topped by strawberry preserves.

I can still remember making up that combination and taking it out into the sunshine to enjoy on our swing set in the backyard.

Few things move me like a slice of heavily buttered toast with jam enjoyed on a summer morning outside.

And this blueberry mint jam on a superior baguette would probably have made my head explode had I taken it down to the swings as a child.

With that lovely course, we enjoyed a Chateau la Calisse Rose, pale in color and long on finish. I could have walked away happy after that course.

As we sat there discussing his upcoming trip to the Amalfi Coast, other adventurous brunchers began to trickle in until we were merely one of many tables enjoying a multi-course mid-day meal.

And of course, there was so much more to come.

Next up was the protein plate. On it was a quiche of local summer veggies, flounder with capers and white wine sauce and beef tips with Dijon sauce.

Paired with that array was Chateau de Valcombe Costieres de Nimes Rouge, which managed to work with all three entrees, always bringing out the berries in the wine.

The crust on the quiche was especially well done and the flounder probably my favorite. The beef tips managed to be medium-rare, a feat for such small pieces of meat.

While eating we were making plans for a future day trip while his Mac has to be in the shop. Tough call, north or west? We made no final decision, given our emerging loopy state.

I finished with the cheese plate (Crotin de Chavignol, Morbier, Comte and Fourme D'Ambert) paired with Roussillon Pierre Henri Pinto Noir.

From the first taste of the Loire Valley goat cheese, the wine showed itself to be the ideal accompaniment for my cheese course.

We couldn't decide which we preferred, the Morbiere or the  Fourme D'Ambert (a bleu), but they were all outstanding.

My friend had gone the fruit route with a tart tatin and house-made pastis-melon sorbet (yes, it was my first brush with pastis. Sad, I know).

To accompany his sweet course, he had Calvados (a small amount of which he poured over the tart) and Cremant, because bubbles and dessert are a match made in heaven.

It was my first Calvados, but I found a lot to like about its complementary nature with the tart. And I haven't met too many Cremants I didn't like.

As my friend lingered over his tart, I enjoyed a Cremant d'Alsace Rose, returning to my affinity for pink.

By that time, my friend was happily admitting his fondness for my choice of brunch spots, raving about the baguette, the flounder, the Chateau de Valcombe, the tarte tatin and the Calvados.

He acknowledged that "that was a lot of lunch," but as someone who had had a banana and figs for breakfast, I was feeling mighty satisfied by the time we finished.

He admitted that he wasn't nearly as enthusiastic about going to the office now that we'd had such a pleasant three-hour interlude, suggesting that perhaps he should drop his rate for any work he managed to accomplish this afternoon.

And he had forgotten about any talk of manipulation and was now praising me for my excellent brunch choice.

It should be noted that he did not want to leave.

Mission accomplished.