Wine and beer by the glass at the Goose: introducing the Enoteca

Visit the Goose's cellar where the Enoteca is now open!

In Italy, the neighborhood enoteca is where wine is stored, bought, and consumed. In Indy, the Goose's new Enoteca is a casual place to drink wine.
Order a glass or quartino from the rotating menu of about a dozen wines or choose your own bottle from the cellar shelves. The cooler is stocked with a changing selection of six craft beers, and some small plates--perfect for sampling and sharing--will calm those hunger pangs between sips.

Grab a seat at the communal tables or pull up a stool at the bar. Chris and friends built them all from the reclaimed wood of a century-old barn that fell in southern Indiana. Tunes in the Enoteca come from a lovingly rehabbed turn table and a donated collection of vinyl.

The opening menu is full of temptations and will change regularly, but a few of the combinations we fancy now include...

• a glass of La Croix Gratiot Picpoul (super tart, packed with citrus, very refreshing) and the Crudo plate, cool, thin slices of Amberjack fish with a crisp salad of local kohlrabi, grapefruit, and chives
  
• a quartino of Pazo de Arribi Mencia (lush red berries and old world spice to balance) with a board of house-cured charcuterie like duck & pistachio terrine, stagberry salame, and culatello
  
• a bottle of Piraat--a full Belgian IPA--and a Batali (yup, get your sandwich upstairs then head to the Enoteca and enjoy it with a brew!)

We'll be pouring and serving in the Enoteca during all regular business hours, and thirsty friends 21 and over are welcome. But don't worry...all of the Goose's stock of dry goods and retail beer and wine are still available. We've just made the cellar even more fun. Stop by soon and enjoy the Goose's new Enoteca!

The Goose Gang Grows: welcome new staff!

The Goose has gathered a few more under its wing. Stop by the shop and help us welcome Josh, Monica, and Gabriele!
Young Josh has a lot to celebrate. Two weeks ago he turned 22, and last week he earned his MBA from Anderson University. School was what lured him here to Indiana from his home in Deluth, Minnesota. “Yeah, I go through snow withdrawals,” he says, remembering the days he used to snow shoe out his back door. Still, Josh isn’t sure that snow will be a part of his future. If living on a sailboat and bumming from port to port doesn’t work out (Josh winks), he’s considering opening his own kitchen operation someday. “I love food and I like people,” he says. “That’s what the Goose is all about.” Catch Josh behind the counter as the Goose’s newest meat monger.

Monica is another recent grad. She’s back in Indy, her hometown, after receiving her Poli Sci degree in Alabama, and law school is next on her list. Yale…Notre Dame…she’s keeping her options open for now, but she’ll study international law wherever she goes since a job with the UN is her goal. While she was at school, Monica made the commitment to eat more organic, all-natural, and local foods. “It makes sense on all levels,” she says. With five years of experience pulling shots, Monica is the newest barista at the Goose. “Oh, and I love the gelato, too!” she adds with a smile.

For Gabriele, coming to the Goose is a little bit like going home. After moving to Indy from Italy in 2006, he says, “The Goose is the closest to a real Italian experience.” From his home near Rome, Gabriele finished his thesis before moving to the States and working in masonry engraving and freelance web work. He also brings a bit of home to his Indy kitchen. “Apparently everybody loves my pizza,” he observes. Gabriele’s secret? “The oven has to be as hot as it can possibly be. Just put two or three simple ingredients on a very thin crust. It’s not much of a secret, I guess.” Soon the Goose will open a casual place to drink wine in the cellar of the shop, and you’ll find Gabriele behind the counter in the Enoteca. “The Goose has given me the chance to do what I really want,” he says.

Best of Indy: voting deadline tomorrow!

Get your No. 2 pencil and fill in the circle darkly and completely...

Your very own Goose the Market has been nominated in several categories for Nuvo's annual Best of Indy and you can vote here. Voting ends Friday, June 11, at midnight!

• Best Local Deli (Dining Out Section)
• Best Local Wine Retailer (Shopping Section)
• Best Local Grocery (Shopping Section)
• Best Local Natural/Organic Goods (Shopping Section)

Evoo-lution: new olive oils in the Goose's cellar

From the Catalan region in northern Spain, the Pons family has been tending their olive grove and pressing their own oil for four generations. In 1945, the family’s first bottles left the grove to share with us, and today their estate’s assortment includes an early harvest, unfiltered, extra virgin olive oil that just hit the shelves at the Goose.
Harvesting the olive tree’s first fruits—usually ready in November—gives this thick oil a green glow and bright, fruity flavors. The Pons family decided to leave this young oil unfiltered, so the microscopic bits of the fruit keep it slightly cloudy in the bottle and the pour. The result, though, is a more intensely flavored olive oil that shines outside the pan. Rather than frying or sauteing with this olive juice, we reserve it for drizzling, dressing, and dipping…on the fresh red-veined spinach and field greens just in from Good Life Farms…on this Friday’s fresh fish order…on the crusty, toasted bread smeared with ripe tomatoes from just down the road…or in some of the Pons family’s recipes.

In Italy, the frantoio is the olive mill, and the Manifredi family in Sicily kept things simple when they named their extra virgin blend Frantoia. (Changing the -o to an -a was a tribute to femininity and to Mother Earth, the Manifredi say.)

For the lady in their bottles, the Manifredi blend three types of olives from three different Italian micro-climates: Biancolilla grow in the Agrigento Mountains, Cerasuola in the Trapani hills, and Nocellara from the Palermo mountains. (Notice all the feminine -a’s in those olives, eh?) The blend has tinges of green-gold and a bit of fruity flavor before leaving a sweet almond trace.

Again, this is an evoo that’s meant to gild the lilly, not fry it. We pour it over vanilla gelato (seriously, it’s good), pair it with firm, nutty cheeses, use it (along with crushed marcona almonds) to dress the veg that just came off the grill, but we’ll be thinking of the lovely ladies in our lives the whole time…