We celebrated a lovely New Year’s Eve at Coast Restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama this year. It was a great place to stop and spend the holiday while traveling from our home in Oklahoma to Florida for a cruise.
The nice folks at The Beach Club Resort & Spa offered us a complimentay 7-course meal with wine pairing, which we graciously accepted. We’d never been to Gulf Shores but quickly learned a night out at Coast Restaurant there is a perfect way to celebrate the new year.
Coast provided cute hats and tiaras for us to ring in the new year.
Early and late seatings
There are two seatings for the special New Year’s Eve dinner and we chose the early one. We arrived at the beautiful resort and had no problem at all navigating around the property and finding the restaurant in time for our 6 PM reservation. They had a lovely table waiting for us. They even provided cute hats and tiaras for us to wear in honor of the new year. Of course, I take every opportunity I have to wear a tiara in public. Smile.
Shrimp with brie and amaretto cream.
Our first course was one of my favorites of the night. It was a silky-smooth shrimp with brie and amaretto soup. You could really taste the amaretto and the flavors were so elegant. The portion was small, which was great because we had six courses to go.
Wilted spinach salad with soy marinated eggs.
On to the second course
Our second course was a wilted spinach with warm bacon vinaigrette, red onions and soy marinated boiled eggs. The eggs really made this dish. It was served in a warm bowl and even though I’m not typically big on hard boiled eggs, I just loved these.
Grilled marinated shrimp with arugula.
The third course saw the beginning of our wine pairings. The restaurant served a few grilled marinated shrimp with arugula and shaved parmesan with a champagne vinaigrette. Then, Winston, a representative from Alabama Crown Distributing Co., came by our table to tell us about the Spanish Gotas de Mar Godello, the first of three wines we’d sample that night.
Alabama Crown Distributing Co. provided a representative who explained all of the wine pairings for us.
Halfway there
For our fourth course (yes, we’re only halfway finished with this incredible meal) we had a delectable citrus marinated duck breast with duck comfit and demi glaze. It was so good! It was served with Caribbean sweet potatoes and roasted winter vegetables. The duck was paired with a Creencia Monastrell wine from Jumillia in Spain.
Citrus marinated duck with Caribbean sweet potatoes and winter vegetables.
By now, we were both getting full and admittedly left some food on our plates. Our fifth course on New Year’s Eve at Coast was a palette cleansing dish – Brillat Savarin gelato with vanilla Riesling poached pears. If you’re wondering with Brillat Savarin is, so did we. So we Googled it. It is a triple cream dessert cheese. No wonder it was so delicious!
Brillat Savarin gelato with vanilla Riesling poached pears.
The sixth course was another entree and thank goodness the portion was small. It was red wine poached beef tenderloin with butternut squash succotash and horseradish cream. This is a preparation we’d heard about but had never tried, so it was a real treat. Winston paired it with Goldchmidt Fidelity wine from the Alexander Valley in California.
Red wine poached beef tenderloin with butternut squash succotash.
The wine pairings
This last wine was a blend of Merlot, Cabernet, and Petite Verdot grapes. And it was amazing!
Then came the final course of the night: Frangelico Tiramisu. If you’re wondering if we were able to finish it, the answer is no. But know we would have liked to. It was rich and creamy and took us back to our time in Italy earlier this year.
Frangelico Tiramisu.
While our time at The Beach Club Resort & Spa ended well before the strike of midnight, the restaurant also had a live band to help ring in the new year with a party that started after the second seating. We loved our meal on New Year’s Eve at Coast Restaurant. It made for a very special way to welcome 2019.
While our seven-course meal and wine pairing at Coast Restaurant was complimentary, the opinions and new appreciation for Brillat Savarin cheese are our own. To book your reservations for New Year’s Eve 2020 at Coast, call (251) 224-3600. Also, we’d like to thank our friend and fellow blogger, Sara Broers, for introducing us to Gulf Shores, Alabama. You can read all about Sara’s adventures there at Travel With Sara.
PIN FOR LATER
