By Lex Golden
One of my several personal interpretations of Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, is how your life’s influences are developed based on such simple unrehearsed decisions. Following on is such an example of how we Goldens became so interested in food and wine and its leading us to France and Paris……Alex has asked me to chronicle this path and it is likely to reveal how one small $25 decision on a bottle of wine in December, 1976 has played such an influence in our lives!
It began that year as Ellen and I hosted a Christmas party at our home offering a bar including beer, to a group of about 30 couples, and out of beer we ran…. off to Yancy’s to replenish whereupon on paying at the counter, I noticed a fine wine on display for the Season. It was a 1973 Chateau Lafite Rothschild, said to be the most highly regarded red wine in the world, and priced at $25, an outrageous sum at the time. Knowing most nothing of it, except it must be exceptional I had to have it (knowing Ellen always wanted me to be able to choose wines at dinners outings with friends, a talent I critically lacked, and this would/could be my excuse.)
I awoke the next day thinking “what more foolish act could I have taken?” Now committed however, I began reading of its qualities, others like it, the vineyards of so many varietals, and weather, water and sun, and winemaking, and tastes, and oxidation……on and on and on……. until it led ultimately to Ellen suggesting we travel for my approaching 40th birthday to Bordeaux, France, the home of this love child to put a “face” on my research! It was to be our first intercontinental trip as a couple and was in lieu of Ellen’s initial desire, set aside for my growing interest in wine, to go the Far East on a guided group tour. Can you imagine the divergence Frost spoke of and its impact!!
Just a few examples of which I will provide details about over the coming days and/or be willing to answer questions about and including priceless tips discovered and mistakes made including……
Most importantly, meeting new friends, both American, French and British, including memorably:
Herb Jones and Janet Treseder Jones, American IBM executives, who influence us to this day and whom we treasure, and with whom we spent several memorable weeks in the South of France and cultivated our love of that area.
Michel Cornubet, a true bon vivant Frenchman who has shared his culture with Ellen and myself fully and deeply and who now likely has more friends in Little Rock than we, and who has assisted us in exploring the interior of France in a way we would not have been able to otherwise.
Norbert and Monique Chiche, then owners of the most remarkable “blue plate café” in Paris, Au Pied de Fouet, who gave us (for 6 months) their son Benjamin, to assist in opening Chattie’s Restaurant in Little Rock, which brought the magic of duck confit, foie gras, geisier salads, oufs mayonnaise, lapin moutard, tarte tatin, and house wine by the carafe to Little Rock for the first time…
These new friends whose lives influenced us indirectly led to Ellen’s twenty plus years in search of all things French and the beginnings of Ellen Golden’s Antiques, as well as our mutual acquisition of Terry’s Finer Foods, the iconic grocery in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock, resulting in a larger, more complete fulfillment of our dream of a fine French restaurant in Little Rock that brought two accomplished chefs over the years to America to serve us with style and flair….. These businesses inspired by France allowed us to experience the country, and mainly Paris, in a way that has given us rare insight into its workings and secrets. In reality, we have only scratched the surface, but to us, it is a deep cavern of knowledge that we would not have been privy to otherwise.
I would be remiss not to include also in this group our dear, and considered member of our family, Elka Halliger, the now deceased German born lady who shared my birthday (just a few years later), later immigrating to France who learned so well to incorporate her German strengths into the French way and shared them so fully with us, helping with bank accounts (not an easy thing), purchasing my adored, invaluable VW Touran that truly gave me the accessibility to Paris and France I so deeply desired, renting of apartments, both long and short term, which led us deeper and deeper in Paris becoming our true 2nd home, which Hemingway describes so aptly as a moveable feast.
We have so many memories and experiences which will be my Plaisir to reveal over time to you through Everyday SoMalYaY and I hope it may lead to an exchange of thoughts that will promote the enduring relationship between our America and France, our oldest friend…. And assist our followers in their ability to find experiences otherwise out of reach.
Purchasing that bottle of wine in 1976 (45 years ago) is incredibly poignant considering the last paragraph of Frost’s poem:
