Amazing Foodie Find

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One good thing about the down-in-the-dumps economy is that the price of wine-paired dinners has dropped. The last few years prices skyrocketed to way over $100 per person, closer to $200. Now the cost is so reasonable that there's really no excuse not to indulge. So I did just that at the Everglades Restaurant in the Rosen Centre hotel (rosencentre.com) on Orlando's International Drive, where $65 gets you a five-course menu with pairings. (Despite its proximity to the convention center, the guests were almost all locals, and repeat diners at that!) Chef Fred Vlachos called his dinner: "Homage to Fromage" Vine & Cheese. We're talking Italian wines and glorious cheese enjoyed in an elegantly casual dining room in the company of faux herons, gators and a tank of real angelfish. I loved his rich, baked St. André triple cream Brie en croûte paired with a Caposaldo prosecco and his Maytag blue cheese-encrusted filet of beef served with a sangiovese-driven Torcalvano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany. Yet it was his butternut squash and goat cheese ravioli, stuffed with Spanish Drunken Goat cheese and served in a pool of sage-and-hazelnut brown-butter sauce, that had the diners at my table applauding and requesting the dish be added permanently to the regular menu. We finished with Frangelico cheesecake, complete with a chocolate thimble of the hazelnut liqueur, and a finale cheese board paired with bone-dry Gavi. The next dinners are: Feb. 14, March 26, May 28, July 23 and Sept. 24.

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