Wine Dinners Shine at The Shores Resort & Spa

Azure's Dining Room

Enlarge Photo

We all need to treat ourselves once in a while, and a four-course fine-dining experience is a great way to indulge our inner foodie. Azure, at The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach Shores, hosts a wine-paired dinner on the third Thursday of every month, and at $45 per person, the artful combination of flavors from Executive Chef Michael Bartscher and Sou Chef Justin Bailey provides a huge bang for the buck. Much to my palate's delight, I attended the April iteration of the dinner last week. I walked into the lovely resort lobby eager to catch a glimpse of the prix fixe menu as hunger grabbed hold of my stomach.

The intimate, dark-wood dining room with a view of the Atlantic Ocean set a welcoming stage for the experience. Past wine dinners have included lobster tail, Muscovy duck and even smoked kangaroo loin, so I wasn't sure what to expect. We got off to a good start with a trio of oysters, the most interesting of which was crispy fried with a sweet lemon gastrique, paired with an equally sweet chardonnay. Next came the warm vegetable tower: layers of zucchini, squash and red pepper topped with a shitake mushroom cap. Adding aged provolone between some of the layers and pairing with a merlot blended with a hint of syrah helped make this my favorite offering of the evening, but it was a close race with the main entree, a coco-dusted lamb loin.

By the time the final course arrived (a delicious but not overly sweet lychee nut flan), I was already considering making this a regular dining excursion. That thought was confirmed when I was told that they're planning an upcoming dinner where the chefs pair the dishes with scotch instead of wine. Count me in for that one.

Tags: Daytona Beach | Daytona Shores Resort & Spa | dining | drinks | wine