Vintage Year benefit dinner fights hunger with West Coast flavors and wine

West Coast flavors are helping beat hunger in the Montgomery area thanks to an August 9 summer wine dinner at Vintage Year that's also a benefit for the Montgomery Area Food Bank.

"We wanted to bring some ingredients that people don't really get to eat very often," said Eric Rivera, executive chef for Vintage Year. He's working with his importers to bring in lighter, healthier fare.

"We'll be using some seaweed. We'll be using a lot of different avocados," Rivera said. "A lot of West Coast flavors." That includes seafood.

Servings begin at 6 p.m. The dishes will be paired with five featured wines — sparkling, white and three reds. The wines are from Vintage Year's partnership with Vintage Wine Estates.

"A lot of the wines that we chose through a particular distributor are from Washington, Oregon and California," Rivera said. "So we wanted to do something a little different, kind of like a West Coast vibe with the menu."

For an appetizer, the meal begins with chef passed canape, served with sparkling wine.

The first course is pickled dungeness crab salad with avocado, served with Qupé Chardonnay.

"We're going to be shipping in some dungeness crab from the West Coast," Rivera said. "We eat a lot of blue crab here in the South."

The second course is smoked littleneck clams, with rosemary sourdough and chorizo butter. It's served with Growers Guild wine.

"We're looking to get a specific type of clam called a geoduck," Rivera said. It's pronounced "gooey-duck."

The third course is braised ox tail, served with herb mash, sautéed kale, mole sauce and cashew puree. This will be paired with Owen Roe wine.

For dessert, guests get Amarena cherry chocolate cake, served with Sinister Hand wine.

"It's actually an Italian cherry," Rivera said. "We use them in cocktails, but they're really, really good with chocolate cake, and it pairs very well with the wine. The wine has a lot of chocolate notes to it, a lot of dark cherry flavors."

Vintage Year is located at 405 Cloverdale Road in Montgomery. Summer Wine Dinner is $100 per person, and reservations are required. Reserve your spot by calling the restaurant at 334-819-7215.

"Spots are filling up really fast," Rivera said. As of Monday, they had about 20 spots left, he said.

Rivera said that along with donating part of the proceeds from the dinner to the Montgomery Area Food Bank, the wine distributor will also make a donation for each case of wine sold.

"It's kind of a two-way win for the food bank," Rivera said.

Rivera said guests can make monetary donations to the food bank during the dinner as well.

The Montgomery Area Food Bank serves 12 Central Alabama counties. Through its 211 partner agencies, it distributed 26 million pounds of food last year. Additionally, through its four partner distribution agencies that serve a 35 county area, they helped distribute 75 million pounds of food last year. According to the food bank, each $1 donation it receives provides five meals.

Learn more about the Montgomery Area Food Bank, and find a link to offer donations, at mafb.org.

Montgomery Advertiser reporter Shannon Heupel covers things to do in the River Region. Contact him at sheupel@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Vintage Year helps fight hunger with West Coast flavors and wine