Lone Oak Vineyard Estates

Lone Oak Vineyard Estates

February 18, 2012

Lone Oak Vineyard Estates  http://www.loneoakvineyards.com  is a new discovery to me. It’s located east of Grass Lake at 8400 Ann Arbor Road. I ran across it while looking for entertainment on http://www.mlive.com/.

It caught my attention because they were advertising their Saturday Night Dinner Concert. The featured entertainer was Herbie Russ, which piqued my interest. Herbie is known to us as a fabulous musician and singer. My wife has known him for many years, and we were lucky enough to catch a performance a few years ago.  We had been looking for opportunities to enjoy another of Herbie’s shows, and this seemed a perfect setting.

At $25.00 per person including dinner, I jumped at the chance to see Herbie again. Saxophone is his specialty, and he didn’t let us down! Tenor sax was his weapon of choice through most of the night, but he broke out the alto sax at times, which made my wife happy, being an alto player as well. Herbie is a versatile performer, being comfortable across several genres of music.

We arrived just before 6pm, and found a smallish room, mostly filled up. The tables were set up to seat four, and we were seated with a pleasant couple who lived just down the road. We had a nice chat with them and ordered a glass of wine, Merlot for my wife and Riesling for me.

There was an opening set of music before dinner was served. We got to hear Herbie for an hour or so, before our entrees of chicken (for me) and salmon (for my wife) arrived. They were both served with rolls and fresh steamed green beans drizzled with butter and toasted almond slivers. The chicken was excellent, while the salmon was good, without really standing out.

With dinner winding down, we ordered a glass of white merlot http://www.loneoakvineyards.com/semidry.html , a semi-sweet wine that really hit the spot for both of us. Lone Oak has a nice variety of wines to choose from, which should please any wine lover.

Herbie started up the second part of his performance, and wasted no time in getting us into the music again. During this portion, there was more audience interaction, with requests from his extensive repertoire. After his last number, the owner of Lone Oak came up front and asked Herbie to do his version of “How Great Thou Art”. He blew us all away with this and caused a lot of facial moisture. This night was a memorable one for my wife and me; especially since my wife knows Herbie from days past. The venue was nice, the service was excellent, the company was superb, and the night’s entertainment was second to none. Thank you Herbie- and Lone Oak Vineyard Estates. We will see you both again!

Leif Borreson

leif.borreson@gmail.com

Copyright 2012 Leif Borreson