If you’ve been looking for a reason to get out on a Wednesday night, Princi Italia on Royal Lane is doing a Cakebread Cellars wine dinner on May 20 that’s worth the calendar block. Four courses, four pours, a Cakebread ambassador walking you through each pairing, and the whole thing is $95 a head. Dinner starts at 6:30 p.m.
Cakebread is a Napa institution — family-owned since 1973, consistent, well-distributed, the kind of producer that shows up at wine dinners because the wines actually work with food rather than overwhelm it. That matters here because the menu is built around the pairings rather than the other way around.
The evening opens with scallop fazzoletti alongside the Sauvignon Blanc, which is a smart call — that wine has enough brightness and citrus to cut through a butter-finished pasta without fighting the scallop. From there it moves to eggplant caponata with the Chardonnay, then grilled beef tenderloin with both the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Merlot, which gives you a side-by-side look at how Cakebread handles their two reds. The finish is a Texas peach crostata, which is a good way to end a May dinner.
Princi Italia does scratch Italian — housemade pastas, a wood-burning oven, a place that takes the food seriously without making you feel like you’re being lectured about it. The Royal Lane location is at 5959 Royal Lane, Suite 707.
Reservations for the wine dinner are through princiitalia.com. Seats will go, so don’t sit on it.
