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NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
Bedminster, NJ, United States, 2011/07/20 - Pluckemin Inn, a four-star restaurant in Bedminster, New Jersey, has now joined the ranks of the world's elite restaurants by winning Wine Spectator's Grand Award for 2011, largely considered the highest honor in the wine world - PluckeminInn.com.
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Pluckemin Inn, the award-winning restaurant, announced today that it has won Wine Spectator’s highest honor – The Grand Award. Out of tens of thousands of restaurants that have vied for this award over its 30-year history, only 74 restaurants worldwide currently hold the distinction.
While Wine Spectator bestowed more than 3,700 awards this year to restaurants in 68 different countries, Pluckemin Inn was one of the four U.S. restaurants to win this year, and only the third restaurant in New Jersey to hold the lauded magazine’s highest honor. Other winners this year include Gilt and Eleven Madison Park in New York City, Pappas Brothers Steakhouse in Dallas and Restaurante Rekondo in San Sebastian, Spain.
According to Wine Spectator, The Grand Award is “our highest award, given to restaurants that show an uncompromising, passionate devotion to the quality of their wine program. These restaurants typically offer 1,500 selections or more, and feature serious breadth of top producers, outstanding depth in mature vintages, a selection of large-format bottles, excellent harmony with the menu and superior organization, presentation and wine service.
Pluckemin Inn Sommelier Brian Hider is clearly thrilled about the honor and notes the commitment of the restaurant’s founder, the late Carl LaGrassa, as the inspiration that led to this award. “I’m so honored for this restaurant and especially for Carl. He would have relished this. His love for wine was unparalleled, and this award would have meant everything to him.”
The wine program at Pluckemin Inn consists of 5,300 selections, carefully curated by Sommelier Brian Hider to complement Executive Chef Juan Jose Cuevas’s farm-to-table menu. In addition to the extensive verticals and rare and hard-to-find wines, Sommelier Hider also offers the “Pluckemin 100,” a list of 100 wines that are priced less than $70 and offer an inspiring list of accessible wines for all tastes. More than10,000 bottles of the wine inventory are housed in the “tower,” a three-story, temperature-controlled wine room, which is also the architectural centerpiece of the restaurant.
The Grand Award is the highest honor yet for Pluckemin Inn, although in 2007, Food & Wine named the restaurant one of the “50 Most Amazing Wine Experiences in America.” In that same year, The Star-Ledger called Pluckemin Inn “The Best Restaurant in New Jersey,” and has awarded it four stars every year since.
“We are extremely proud to have this award as part of the legacy of Pluckemin Inn,” said owner Gloria LaGrassa. “Our team has worked diligently to build something special here, and this honor is such high praise and recognition of their commitment.”
About Pluckemin Inn
Pluckemin Inn (PluckeminInn.com) is a fine dining restaurant in Bedminster, New Jersey, offering contemporary American cuisine in an elegant, yet rustic environment. The restaurant seats approximately 140 on two levels. Features include the Plucky Tavern on the main level, and two private dining rooms on the lower level. The restaurant is completely wheelchair accessible. A key feature of the Pluckemin Inn is its notable wine service. Pluckemin Inn houses one of the most impressive and extensive wine collections on the East Coast, with more than 5,000 selections on the wine list and more than 15,000 bottles housed in the “tower,” a three-story, temperature-controlled wine room and in the underground cellars. The restaurant has been quite favorably reviewed in its six-plus year history by several notable publications, including The New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, NJMonthly and in multiple reviews by The Star-Ledger, including being named “The Best Restaurant in New Jersey”.
Quick Facts:
Proprietor: Gloria LaGrassa
Executive Chef: Juan Jose Cuevas
Pastry Chef: Joseph Gabriel
Sommelier/Beverage Director/Co-Director of Operations: Brian Hider
General Manager/Co-Director of Operations/Private Dining: Tal Itzhaki
Concept: Contemporary American cuisine featuring seasonally fresh and mostly local ingredients
Key Partnership: Three Meadows Farm, Bedminster NJ
Architect: DAS Architects (Philadelphia)
Location: 359 Route 206 South Bedminster, NJ 07921
T: 908-658-9292
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