Visits and Visitors

It is almost always possible for visiting members to attend Triangle Bailliage events and for Triangle Bailliage members to attend an event elsewhere.    Its a great way to add something special to your travels while meeting  people who share your interests.  Locating the events on websites or by direct contact is easy and all you have to do is ask the Bailli for an invitation!  This page records visitors to Triangle Bailliage events and attendance by Triangle members at events elsewhere or visits to Chaine establishments.  Triangle members, please send me a note so I can include your visit here.

Chambellan Provincial Miller Performs Induction                  Sept 26, 2004

Chambellan Provincial John Miller and Chargée de Presse Provincial Sandi Miller came from their home base in Charlotte so John could perform the Induction at Treyburn that saw four members receive ribbons.  John obviously takes his ceremonial duties seriously because he used the longest sword ever seen at an Induction.  The blade was an Imperial German Artillery Sword of 1913 vintage and was wielded with sufficient skill (and only modest amounts of champagne) that all inductees kept their ears.  Don Davis and Al Swanstrom were inducted with the rank of Chevalier.  Professional Members Sarah Warden and Adrian Taylor received their ribbons as Professionnel du Vin and Maître de Table Restaurateur, respectively.  Triangle Vice Chargé de Presse Paul Winter received a Bronze Star of Excellence award for his Gastronome and website work.  The most significant award at the event was the Officier Commandeur badge awarded to Bailli Mel Levine recognizing his 30 years of Chaine membership. There are not a lot of these awards currently held and Mel is young enough that he may someday get to collect an award that doesn't yet exist, the one for 50 years of membership service.

Chaine on St. Maarten, a Visit by Paul and Tina Winter             Dec 20-27, 2003

St. Maarten is east of Puerto Rico and toward the northern end of the chain of Caribbean islands.  It has both a French and Dutch side, but nothing that inhibits free passage between the two sides.  It has hundreds of restaurants and a reputation as one of the best places to dine in the Caribbean.  It also has an active Chaine, Bailliage des Caraibes, that includes other islands of the Netherlands Antilles such as Curacao and Bonaire.  Their excellent website has all the contact information one needs to plan a more complete exploration of Chaine establishments on those islands than our one week visit could permit.  We took the opportunity to dine at two establishments that have hosted Chaine events.  We had a late lunch in Marigot (the main town on the west side of the French part of the island) at Le Claude Mini Club, looking at Marigot harbor and  Ft. Marigot,  where Maître de Table Claudine Pont and her staff prepared a superb lobster soufflé.  We enjoyed a dinner at Le Cottage in Grand Case (also on the French side) where the main street is mostly restaurants that provide a wide range of choices.  The typical French dinner included foie gras and local seafood while our chosen street side table provided us an arms length view of the local Christmas parade.  Both establishments (and many others on the island) have excellent, unpretentious wine lists that emphasize French wine.  At both, we selected a red Loire valley wine made from Pinot Noir grapes.  These wines have clean, fruity Pinot Noir flavors and are best drunk young and chilled; its too bad we rarely see them in the U.S. because they would go very well with many of our North Carolina summer menus and are excellent values compared to Pinot Noirs from Burgundy and California.

We also spent two days on nearby pristine Saba, where gorgeous scenery, arduous hikes up paths into the cloud forest, and scuba diving are the only tourist pursuits (no sand beaches at all and only 1400 inhabitants).  No Chaine there, just local food and the homemade local rum concoction, Saba Spice.

Chicago Member Richard Groh Visits DuBose House Event    Sept 28, 2003

 The DuBose House event, Consummate Concomitant Consommés, had a visitor from the Chicago Bailliage, Chevalier Richard N. Groh.  Richard is retired and has been touring in the southeast, doing the things one doesn't have time to do when working, including visiting our event.  Immediately prior to coming to our event, he was in Charleston, SC.  His Chicago Bailliage runs a very active schedule that you can see by visiting the Chicago Bailliage website.  Richard reported that he learned about DuBose House event from this website and used it to contact Mel for an invitation. 

Triangle Members Visit Charlotte Regional Assemblage    Jan 31-Feb2, 2003

    Vice Chancelier-Argentier Barbara Levine, Vice Chargé de Presse Paul Winter and Tina Winter represented the Triangle Bailliage at the Regional Assemblage in Charlotte, NC on Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2003.  The regional event provided an opportunity to meet national and regional officers, members of the Charlotte Bailliage, and representatives from other bailliages in our region. Of course, it also provided an opportunity to attend a reception, two dinners, a business meeting, a luncheon, and a  Sommelier Competition, the winner of which will represent our region in the national competition later in the year.  The Friday night reception and Saturday morning business meeting were held in the historic Dunhill Hotel on Tryon Street where out of town visitors stayed.  Its location right in downtown allows convenient walking to many points of interest. Plenty of good wine, with an emphasis on Burgundy, was poured at the events and our Charlotte hosts thoughtfully provided a shuttle to take us to and from the events.  The Friday dinner at Bonterra and the Saturday luncheon at Bijoux provided ample evidence that gastronomic progress is continuing in Charlotte and that the energetic Charlotte Bailliage membership, led by Chambellan Provincial / Bailli John Miller, is an active participant.  The Saturday dinner event at the Myers Park Country Club also included an Induction conducted by Bailli Provincial Karl Kunisch.  On Sunday, Triangle attendees were the guests of Conseiller des Bailliages National Hon. Jack Stewman and Officier Ann Stewman for brunch at the Charlotte Country Club.  Details of the weekend will be published in a 2-3 page article in Gastronome, including photographs by Paul Winter who assisted Chargée de Presse Provincial Sandi Miller and L'Ordre Mondial Editor Bill Wortman with the weekend coverage.  The focus of the business meeting was on continued improvement of our organization. Paul had an opportunity to meet Golden Isles Vice Conseiller Gastronomique Jim Timmons who helped make our Triangle Bailliage website possible. Regional and national events are open to all members to attend as much or as little of the scheduled festivities as they wish - we had a great time with "old" friends and new friends in Charlotte!

Visit the Charlotte Bailliage website

Paul and Tina Winter Visit Maui   Nov 30, 2002

We obtained an invitation from Maui Bailli Mitch Kysar to attend their Induction Dinner at the Maui Prince Hotel.  The theme was "Frozen in Time, A Festive Winter Occasion".  The spectacular event was attended by 86 people and received lavish attention from the hotel, other host sponsors, and members of other Hawaii Bailliages.  We met many of the Bailliage members who gave us vacation tips specific to our interests and Maui/ Pacific Isles officers including Bailli Provincial Robert C. Lee, Jr. who presided at the Induction.  We also met professional members representing establishments in Hawaii.  Those meetings led us to some great meals in the two weeks we spent on Oahu and Maui at places like Sansei, A Saigon Café, Alan Wong's, Chef Mavro, L'Uraku, and Roy's.  Gastronome 2003 Volume 2 has a full report on this event that featured a lavish menu (6 tins of beluga, sevruga and osetra were only part of the opening) with many local items, entire serving tables made from ice, classical music, framed photographs of each couple attending as gifts, and after dinner cigars with an assortment of older vintage Ports served while jazz entertainment was provided.  Thanks to Mitch and his enthusiastic group for making us welcome at an outstanding event.

Visit the Maui Bailliage website

A series of recent Chaîne events in Hawaii have honored US military services, with personnel of all ranks invited as guests.  In 2003, a "Salute to the Navy", sponsored by the Honolulu Bailliage, will be held at the Admiral's Quarters on Ford Island, that was also used to film the opening dance scenes of the John Wayne film, In Harm's Way.  You may recognize the control tower above from the recent movie, Pearl Harbor.  The  Missouri, on which the Japanese surrender ended WWII, was recently made a museum ship and berthed next to the Arizona Memorial on Battleship Row, Ford Island where direct US involvement in WWII started.  The Admiral's Quarters are just behind Battleship Row, not far from the two palm trees at the extreme right of the above photo.

Brooks Firestone Presides at Triangle Induction    Nov 17, 2002

Hey, our Bailli Mel Levine must be "in good" with the big guys!  Bailli Délégué Brooks Firestone himself flew in direct from another event in Arizona to preside at the Triangle Bailliage Induction Ceremony, arriving just in time.  (I only got about 10 phone calls from Bambi while I was driving Brooks in from the airport!)  Much to the satisfaction of our 16 prospective members (and hopefully with no surprise to any of the spouses) Brooks found all to be "worthy"  and inducted each in the prescribed manner, using swords flown in from NY headquarters.   Brooks also updated the members on recent international organization developments.  Our Triangle Bailliage special thanks go to Brooks for making his tight schedule work for our benefit. 

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