After a rainy day car outing touring the Florida 30A coastal region, upon return to the Cove, our vacation home in Destin, FL, we stopped for dinner at Clemenza’s Restaurant in Miramar Beach, featured in a recent blogpost, excerpted here.
As I wrote in that post - Italian Dining at Clemenza’s Restaurant in Miramar Beach was founded by an old dear friend of one of our friends and neighbors and how they play polo together in the early days of our equestrian community at home, and Dominic Damiano introduced our friend to his wife decades ago.
Fat Clemens’s Restaurant is named for the legendary chef/cook in the Godfather movie series, the restaurant was in many ways modeled after Tufano’s which he owned in an Italian neighborhood in Chicago.
“It’s important to me to stay true to tradition and heritage, which is why we import a lot of ingredients,” said Damiano. “I want customers to experience these dishes as my family would, to feel like part of the family when here.”
“The eggplant parmigiana.is made from Damiano’s grandmother’s recipe, the Fresh Fish special is caught locally. The olive oils, pasta, tomatoes, flour and seasonings are imported from Italy. Twice a week, a shipment of sausage arrives from Chicago. All other ingredients, especially seafood, is sourced locally.”
We returned to dine at the restaurant, almost walking distance, from our vacation home, that we discovered on our last trip. The restaurant is warm, inviting, comfortable and cozy, with the small dining room nestled up against the small bar adjacent the wood fired oven.
Winemaker Maggie Kruse took over for Rich Davis and produced this classic California Chardonnay in 2021, sourced from cooler vineyard sites in the western Russian River Valley. The wine spent half of its life in stainless steel, and was aged 5.5 months in 100% new French oak.
The local Emerald Coast Magazine wrote that when “Dominic Damiano moved to the Emerald Coast in 2008, life was almost perfect except he couldn’t find good Italian food. His group of friends and family who had moved from different parts of Italy to Destin, also missed the flavors of home, so they decided to open their own restaurant, Fat Clemenza’s, and do what they do best — serve up recipes passed down for generations”.
Fat Clemens’s Restaurant is named for the legendary chef/cook in the Godfather movie series, the restaurant was in many ways modeled after Tufano’s which he owned in an Italian neighborhood in Chicago.
“It’s important to me to stay true to tradition and heritage, which is why we import a lot of ingredients,” said Damiano. “I want customers to experience these dishes as my family would, to feel like part of the family when here.”
“The eggplant parmigiana.is made from Damiano’s grandmother’s recipe, the Fresh Fish special is caught locally. The olive oils, pasta, tomatoes, flour and seasonings are imported from Italy. Twice a week, a shipment of sausage arrives from Chicago. All other ingredients, especially seafood, is sourced locally.”
The extensive menu features Italian fare, wood fired pizzas, calzones, a broad selection of two dozen pasta dishes, and a variety of traditional Italian meat dishes.
I ordered the Daily Chef’s Specialties from the chalkboard menu posted on the wall - Parmesan Crusted Grouper with capers and artichoke, served over angel hair pasta.
Linda ordered the daily special Clam Chowder and the House Salad. As with our earlier dining experience, both our selections were delicious, prepared artfully, served promptly, piping hot in ample portions.
We ordered from the adjacent chalkboard, one of the featured select wines suggestions to accompany the daily specials, a California Chardonnay.
Jordan Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2021
This is an iconic well known brand known for Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, crafted in a European style that allows them to pair well with a broad range of foods. Jordan’s winemaking focuses on the ‘wine's fruit and acidity rather than alcohol and tannin, and achieving elegance and balance in the bottle
This is an iconic well known brand known for Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, crafted in a European style that allows them to pair well with a broad range of foods. Jordan’s winemaking focuses on the ‘wine's fruit and acidity rather than alcohol and tannin, and achieving elegance and balance in the bottle
Founders Tom and Sally Jordan acquired the 1200 acre property in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, and established Jordan Vineyard & Winery in 1972, inspired by the great wine estates of France.
They enlisted the legendary André Tchelistcheff, as consulting enologist, and he was instrumental in establishing Jordan’s Francophile style of winemaking becoming one of the best wineries and brands in Sonoma County, with the help of winemaker Rob Davis. Davis guided Jordan winemaking from the inaugural 1976 Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon and inaugural 1979 Jordan Chardonnay achieving the remarkable quality and consistency of Jordan wines for more than four decades until his retirement in 2019.
On the 1,200 property they planted Jordan Estate with roughly 120 acres of a dozen small vineyard blocks of grapevines, 16 acres with four parcels of olive trees, a two-acre chef’s garden as well as, their home and a second lake. Unique amongst Healdsburg wineries, they left more than three-quarters of the scenic estate, roughly 900, preserved as natural habitat with open spaces, craggy oak trees and lakes providing habitat for geese, rabbits, turkeys and coyotes.
Winemaker Notes - “One of the most balanced Jordan Chardonnays to date. Flavors of juicy citrus, Asian pear and lemon peel balance seamlessly with the subtle French oak notes. The cooler-climate vineyard sourcing this year brings even more lively acidity and purity of fruit on the palate—making this vintage especially food-friendly and cellar-worthy.”
J'nai Gaither of Decanter gave this release 93 points.
Pale golden straw colored medium bodied, rich but nicely balanced full round ripe fruit notes of pear, Meyer lemon and apple with flinty spice notes and hints of vanilla accentuating the vibrant acidity masking the French oak on the lively finish.
RM 91 points.
