Every Sunday, Tria Caf‚ offers its divine triumvirate of wine, cheese and beer at 50% the normal price at its weekly Sunday School. It is this "fermentation trio" that Tria Caf‚ exalts with aplomb. Tria is unassumingly small and of little aesthetic interest, but a glance at their menu sends even a seasoned sommelier into raptures.
Most impressive is the beer selection, which is a joyous read. We plonked for Russian River Temptation, J.W. Lees Vintage Harvest Ale (2001) and Young's Chocolate Stout. The Temptation is a strange but impressive sensory overload, since it is aged for 16 months in Chardonnay casks, before the addition of Brettanomyces ( a.k.a. "Bad Brett"), a yeast that engenders the funky, barnyard aromas in certain wines and sour ales. By contrast, the J.W. Lees is pure indulgence, and resonated on my palate with a rich and cascading symphony of autumnal flavors. In the words of one companion, it is "this season's must-have accessory." The Chocolate Stout, although not really my sort of thing, was a satisfying winter warmer.
As for the wine, Tria's selection is affordable yet worthy of the most discriminating DIY degustation. Of the dry wines, I was most fond of the Sunday School showpiece, the '98 Chateau les Grands Marechaux, from the Premieres Cotes de Blaye. Its soft and generous red fruit character was still in abundance and a testament to the virtues of the 1998 vintage Right-Bank Bordeaux.
Also impressive was the '05 Adelsheim Pinot Gris from Willamette, Oregon, with its alluring notes of citrus and orange blossom. The selection of dessert wines is equally sagacious, and Niepoort's majestic 1991 Colheita was a fine match for the complex and unctuous Rogue River Blue.
On the subject of cheese, Tria is supplied by Murray's in New York, one of the few cheesemongers in the land that is more expansive than Philly's own DiBruno's. But one need only try Murray's "La Serena," of which the DiBruno's rendition is but a pale shadow, to appreciate the difference in affinage (the art of ripening and maturing cheese). This is one of my favorite Spanish cheeses and reason alone to visit Tria at its gooey, fully-ripened apogee. Our waitress also suggested the fudgey, herbaceous Jasper Hill Winnemere, which will erode the most dogmatic prejudice against American cheeses. Tria's selection changes with the seasons, so Sunday School is never a repetitive affair.
A word of warning though; avoid anything unfermented. Tria's … la carte items are as uninteresting and wan as their fermented selections are cultured. Even the bread is miserable. You may be tempted by "Truffled Egg Toast" and the like, but if you succumb, your learning curve will be precipitously steep.
Stick to wine, beer and cheese and you are sure to score a hat-trick at Tria. The service is informed and unpretentious. Likewise, the menu is well-organized and illuminating, with descriptions that will delight both laymen and cognoscenti.
Tria is a cozy and endearing caf‚, not least for the genius of its concept - just the sort of place to come for a glass and leave all the merrier.
