| | Issue #19.25 :: 01/16/2008 - 01/22/2008 | Heinz catch-up
The pink house on Telfair has come a long way in 21 years, and Chef Heinz Sowinski plans a one-of-a-kind gala to celebrate La Maison’s anniversary
| BY STACEY HUDSON
| 
AUGUSTA, GA - It’s a meal that’s been 21 years in the making: a gala dinner celebrating La Maison’s arrival at the legal drinking age, joked restaurant owner Chef Heinz Sowinski.
But although he’s still finalizing the menu, the seven-course wine dinner with a champagne reception and a cheese course promises to be one of the culinary highlights of the year.
A seven-time recipient of the Wine Spectator Award, the house on Telfair has come a long way since being founded on the ashes of the old eatery Asher’s Corner. And while Amile and Angela Waldis may have founded the fine-dining establishment, Sowinski had long established himself as the rock star on the Augusta restaurant stage before he purchased the place, driven to its uniqueness.
“There is nothing like it,” he said. “It’s a composition of everything. It’s the atmosphere, the type of service, the Wine Spectator Award for seven years in a row — we have a great passion for serving people.”
But only 50 people will enjoy that passion at the Jan. 20 dinner, where guests will nosh on fois gras and more from a menu developed by starting with the wines Sowinski wanted to serve, and building a menu around them.
“It’s going to be all French wines, totally French,” he says. “We’re going to start out with real French Champagne with fois gras terrine, four different tartares with quail eggs, and we’re going to do some vegetarian-type things for those who maybe can’t have seafood.”
Then they’ll move to truffled Yukon Gold mashed potatoes topped with sea scallop and lobster in a beurre blanc with leeks. The event, which runs $95 per person, plus tax and gratuity, understandably sells out every year. But Sowinski is saving a place of honor for the Waldises, who — though retired and living out of town now — will return for the landmark occasion.
And whether you make it to this dinner or for Valentine’s Day, for which the restaurant already has reservations,Sowinski hopes that people will begin to think of the house on Telfair more often.
“I still think it really hasn’t been truly discovered,” he said. “Because come Valentine’s, we could fill two restaurants. So they still find us, but they’re still looking at us as a destination restaurant.”
La Maison actually offers two separate concepts under one roof. Its fine-dining menu is distinctive, with offerings like ostrich filet and buffalo tenderloin listed along with more expected fare like duck, rack of lamb and veal. But for the more casual diner there is Veritas, added in 2002.
“La Maison is affordable. But for so many people that perceive La Maison as a special-occasion restaurant, when we opened Veritas, it kind of breached that. It’s more casual; you can come in without reservations.”
And the menu is no less exciting, with lollipop lamb chops, smoked ostrich carpaccio and the Tower of Lump Crabmeat with Kelt® cognac sauce, avocado and pink grapefruit sections.
“And the cuisine is diverse. It appears French in its roots, butit’s very internationally flavored because that was my training in Europe. And then, of course, when I came to America, in California, oh my goodness, talk about diversity,” Sowinski laughed.
The famous Brown Derby was the first restaurant he worked in after he moved to California from Europe in 1965. From there he went to the Beverly Hilton Hotel, then Brentwood Country Club and then down to the Balboa Bay Club, where he became acquainted with John Wayne and his family.
Then he began a march across the continent, first by moving down to New Orleans’ gorgeous Fairmont Roosevelt Hotel. While he was there, he was recruited by Walt Disney World to help open the gourmet restaurant when the Contemporary Resort opened its doors in 1972. But he left when recruited to Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency, after the resort converted its dining to buffet style in orderto meet unexpected demand.
The general manager of the Terrace Garden Inn at Lennox Square saw Sowinski on a Thanksgiving special. As it turns out, he was the former general manager for the Contemporary Hotel.
“Get this guy,” he told his food and beverage manager.
Sowinski fondly remembers his 20 years in Atlanta, when he opened his own restaurant, The Brass Key at Peachtree Battle Shopping Center, and his wife, Zelda, shopped for grains at Sevananda Natural Foods Co-op. While there, they had three daughters: first Sophia, then Erika and finally Miriam.
But the Waldises recruited him and, after 21 years, he’s grown settled in the community.His daughters all finished school here and he purchased the restaurant himself. He and Zelda will celebrate another wedding anniversary on Jan. 16.
So it looks like he’ll stick around here a little while longer, with Sophia and Erika still living in the area. And his family has put down even more roots. The Sowinski’s grandsons, Erika’s three little boys, live just a stone’s throw away from the restaurant.
21st Anniversary Gala Dinner
La Maison on Telfair
Sunday, Jan. 20
$95 per person, plus tax and gratuity
706-722-4805
lamaisontelfair.com
|  | Photo Gallery 
Go to the
Gallery >>
| | |
| |
| |
Comments (0)
