Troy Graves and His Time Travel Pop-Up Dinner

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 13, 2011 4:20PM

The Phylloxera louse is a constant threat to vineyards worldwide. In late 19th century Europe, a phylloxera epidemic nearly wiped out wine vineyards. The reason for this was because phylloxera are native to North America and found the vines of European vineyards less resistant. French wine production fell from 84.5 million hectolitres in 1875 to only 23.4 million hectolitres in 1889. Some reports of the time estimated ninety percent of European vineyards were destroyed. Nowadays vineyards fight phylloxera by grafting North American vines to their own rootstock.

Troy Graves, former chef at Eve and now at Montarra in Algonquin, said the idea for hosting a Phylloxera-themed pop-up dinner at Rootstock Wine Bar came from this history. Graves also wanted to work with The Gage and Henri mixologist Clint Rogers to give diners an idea of how scarce wine was for people in 19th Century Europe.

"We thought it would be pretty cool for us to do a take-over at a wine bar, but not serve wine," Graves said. For his Oct. 2 pop-up dinners at Rootstock, Graves will start and finish the five-course dinner with American dishes. Graves will mix in updated dishes from European countries affected by the plague for the other courses. Rogers plans to get creative with syrups, bitters, liquors that surfaced during the epidemic as substitutes for wine.

What intrigues us the most about this dinner is it looks back at a point in culinary history without diners having to wait months for tickets to Next. Graves has also priced these dinners at an affordable and all inclusive $85. Seatings will commence at 6:30 p.m.7 p.m., 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. If you're interested in attending one of the seatings, email here to RSVP. Include your your name (first and last), phone number, number of people in your party and your preferred seating.