It will come as no surprise that we ate well across Alsace!

Thursday

After settling into to our apartment we walked over to the Casino Supermarket for some groceries – orange juice, milk, granola (with Belgian chocolate!), comte cheese flavored chips and a $6 bottle of Alsatian Riesling. Next, crossed the street to visit the Sezanne shop that was full of cheese and meats where Leandra picked up a piece of pelardon fermier (an aged goat cheese).

Drinks @ Vins Fins D’Alsace
In the heart of the Grand Rue area is covered outdoor seating with a bar area serving light snacks and local wines by the glass or bottle. I tried the sparkling rose (refreshing) and Eric had the 2015 Riesling (very flinty, mineral, Lt pencil eraser. dry.). Better value to buy a bottle to share as the glass pours are small. Prices for take-away were also a few Euros cheaper. There is a 2€ deposit for the wine glasses that is refundable if you decide not to keep them as a souvenir (we turned ours back in).

Dinner @ Caveau Saint-Pierre
Our host, Solveig, recommended this restaurant to us as one of their favorites in town, so after wandering around checking out menus, we ended up here around 7:30pm. Eric spotted an open table outside on the canal so we swooped in. We ordered a bottle of local Cremant (sparkling) and decided to get one Gratinee tarte flambe (flatbread ‘pizza’ with sour cream, diced ham, onions and whatever other toppings you want, in this case, Emmental cheese) and the Baeckaoffa, a stew with beef, pork, lamb, potatoes, and carrots in a Riesling sauce. Everything was amazing. Eric had the raspberry and lemon sorbet for dessert while I had the caramel ice cream. Mine showed up half melted which was the only disappointment to an otherwise delicious meal.

Friday

Dinner @ L’un des Sens
We has walked by on Thursday evening to check out this recommended wine bar, and liking what we saw decided to book a table for 7pm the following night. We would have loved to sit outside in the open courtyard but a sporadic rain shower removed that option. Once seated inside we ordered two glasses of the Fleith Cremant (sparkling) and one each of the charcuterie and local cheese plates. All the cheeses were pretty mild by French standards, a soft goat, Munster, Comte and one other we can’t quite remember. The meats were ham-heavy with a local biltong-like sausage (our favorite), bacon, smoked ham, a pressed meat with pistachios and another ham variant. The service was very friendly but there were only three people working which made getting additional drinks a bit of a hassle. We stayed for two more glasses of wine each: Eric had the J. Francois “Parcours” natural (a blend of all Alsatian grapes) and the 2015 Ottonel Muscat and I had the 2017 Rose de Roche and the “F” Beck Pinot Noir. All were interesting and we enjoyed the differences between the varietals.

Saturday

Dinner @ Wistub de la Petite Venise
Every time we walked by this restaurant it was packed so we stopped in two days before and booked a table for 8:30pm on Saturday night. I hadn’t yet ordered the Alsatian specialty of Choucroute (various pork items with sauerkraut, served with spicy mustard) so I was committed to that as my main. Eric chose the Jambonneau (or Schweinshaxe), roasted pork knuckle with crispy skin, veggies and a warm potato salad. I had the “house” pinot noir while Eric had the Pinot Gris. Everything was absolutely delicious although we felt a bit of shame that we were the only people who hadn’t completely cleaned their plates. But we did manage to save just enough room to split a coffee-flavored creme brulee.

We definitely ate well in Colmar, and can’t wait to return to try more restaurants in the future!