On this week's episode of "What's Eric Eating," master sommelier June Rodil and chef Felipe Riccio join CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler to discuss Goodnight Hospitality, the Montrose-based restaurant group behind Goodnight Charlie's, Montrose Cheese & Wine, and Rosie Cannonball. The conversation begins with Rodil discussing how she became interested in wine and her decision to leave her prominent role in Austin's McGuire Moorman Hospitality to become a partner in Goodnight.
Even before it reopened MCW and Rosie Cannonball for dine-in service last week, Goodnight has stayed active throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The company distributed produce boxes to unemployed hospitality workers; recently, the company pledged all proceeds from sales of every pizza sold at Rosie Cannonball and every bottle of June’s Rosé purchased at Montrose Cheese and Wine to the NAACP.
Sandler asks the partners about the status of March, the fine dining, tasting menu restaurant they plan to open above Rosie Cannonball. Rodil confirms it will be delayed until the fall; instead, the restaurant's staff will spend the summer training and working at the company's Goodthyme Farm. Riccio shares a little about his plans for the menu.
It's a research-based project. We're seeking to showcase the best that we can do. That's why it's a tasting menu, that's why it's a limited number of people. We want something that showcases the best the team can do without it being stuffy or all these frilly things. Just really good food that we're putting a lot of work into. We're growing the produce and harvesting and processing and preserving.
Then translating that into, here's really good food. At the end of the day, it has to be tasty. It has to be delicious. But this is what we've learned from researching this idea of what is the Mediterranean. It's such a large topic. It gives us so much to look into.
Prior to the interview, Sandler and co-host Linda Salinas discuss the news of the week. Their topics include: restaurants that have had to close temporarily after an employee tests positive for COVID-19; the social media controversy at Cuchara; and the conversion of Midtown bar Mongoose versus Cobra into Red Dwarf.
In the restaurant of the week segment, the two hosts discuss their recent meal at Squable, the European-inspired restaurant in The Heights. Sandler also uses his recent visit to Anvil as the jumping off point for a conversation about how bars are handling reopening.
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