By Lenn Thompson, Executive Editor

By any measure, last night's NYCR Artisan Dinner at Luce + Hawkins — featuring the wines of Heart & Hands Wine Company — was a success. The packed house enjoyed an incredible meal prepared by chef Keith Luce and his kitchen team, and I'm pretty sure that everyone came away excited about what Tom and Susan Higgins are doing with pinot noir in the Finger Lakes.

I'd like to thank everyone one for coming — especially Tom and Susan who made the trip to Long Island wine country just for this dinner and were on their way out of town early this morning.

We don't do a lot of photo essay-type posts here on the site, but there were some great sights last night worth sharing:

The menu

Local yellowtail sashimi with spicy tomato water and basil seed caviar. Paired with 2009 Brut Rose.

Tom Higgins addressing the sold-out dining room.

New potatoes with housemade chevre, charred corn, sweet peas and mushroom syrup. Paired with 09 Pinot Noir.

Porcelet — suckling pig stuffed with sausage — with southern-style beans and oven-roasted tomatoes. Paired with 08 Barrel Reserve Pinot Noir

Lemon curd and local berries topped with buttermilk cream and apricot-saffron-white pepper sorbet. Paired with 09 Riesling.