Recently I had the pleasure of being invited to a wine dinner at A Different Pointe of View restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona.  I’d never been inside the restaurant but have often driven up to the top of the hill it sits on to watch monsoon storms roll across the valley.

The first thing you should note about the restaurant is that you should probably be pretty good at driving a stick shift if you want to make it to the top.  The grade feels like 30%!  I have a diesel truck, so no problem there.   Once you make your way up to the entrance, you’ll notice there’s still a ways to go, luckily there is an elevator.

Once at the top I walked out onto the south facing patio and was greeted by an amazing view of the Phoenix skyline!  Amazing is also an understatement.  Spectacular is more like it.  The next time I know of a storm brewing, I’m definitely heading up the hill with my camera gear.  But wait…. you can’t just go up there to shoot monsoon pics!  You have to relax and enjoy some wine!  Enjoy life a little, bring a friend, a special friend.  And maybe leave all the professional camera gear at home, you wouldn’t want to geek out on that and miss the incredible and romantic setting would you??

So after the sunset and a couple of glasses of wine, and great company, you’ll most likely be getting pretty hungry.  Well now you’re in for a real treat.  The Different Pointe of View restaurant is a critically acclaimed and multiple award winning restaurant.  It’s fine dining at it’s best.

The wine maker dinners are intimate.  Limited to 12 guests who sit in a U shape around the chef as he prepares a 5 course meal.  The night I visited we started with Lobster Bisque, featuring lobster flown in from Maine that day!  Then there was scallops, and lamb.  Not in the same dish, and yea, they were cooked to perfection.  The scallops with lots of butter.  The lamb not too gamey.   For dessert they served a strawberry cream cheese ice cream on cake.  Which is a perfect of many of the things I like, cream cheese, ice cream and strawberries!

Almost forgot, the wine was Jax Vineyards, which I’ll be posting about in the next few days.  Quick preview:  90+ points Chardonnay and a 97 point cabernet…