Archive for the ‘Restaurant Reviews’ Category
More hunting in Napa
t says: Day 2 started off with a bright and early with a 10am tasting. But of course, tasting too early on an empty stomach is generally a bad idea. Fortunately, I got up early and made another run to Bouchon Bakery.
Ahhh, sleepy, peaceful Yountville. Nothing like a brisk morning walk with hot air balloons in the distance … followed by pastries and macchiato. (Not pictured)
The Larkmead tasting was phenomenal, as usual – and we got to talking to Dan Petroski, a winemaker at Larkmead. Such a nice time! We wished a was there – he would have loved it! Ultimately, the 2010 cab offered the best bang for the buck … So we walked away with some juice! The streak was over! And it was over in a big way, as we then proceeded to go on a shopping spree at Quintessa and Robert Sinsky (the former more impressive than the latter).
We lunched at Bounty Hunter, where g vanquished a BBQ pork sandwich and I took in a veggie sandwich. Quite a nice change of pace from the new American cuisine that’s on every corner in these parts. The beer can chickens looked pretty awesome, too!
Before dinner, we squeezed in a trip to back room wines and Napa Vintner’s Collective. The highlight if our acquisitions was a signed a numbered bottle of Massican Annia (signed by Petroski!!) – g did her booyah-happy-dance.
For dinner, we kept up the theme if chillaxed eating and dined at R + D Kitchen, a relatively new resto in Yountville. While this place is essentially like an upscale Ruby Tuesday, we have to confess that we actually liked everything we had! The chicken sandwich was crazy good with a beautiful zippy slaw and super-crispy chicken. And g’s salad had so much extra “stuff” that she smiles the whole way through!
The return to Napa – it starts …
t says: It’s been about a year since our last Napa trip and g and I were looking forward to a revisit of wine country as well as visiting kp in SF. We made up our list of wineries and tasting rooms to visit, booked our virgin America flights, and off we went … after a several hour delay leaving philly …
We started off day 1 with some quiche and donut from Bouchon Bakery. The quiche was second only to some of Talula’s Daily’s creations, while the donut was a little too butter-laden for us..
But we did think it was cute that hey gave you a donut AND a donut hole!
We then went to Maisonry – a great place for rapid-fire tasting in a serene setting. The ’10s and ’11s we tasted were very lean and green – it was going to be a tough time for wineries to pry money out is my wallet this trip! Oh and there was a dude hawking his late harvest Sauterne-style wine (and Trader Joe cheese) – quite good for the amount of sweetness it had (g and I tend to avoid sweet wines). But if it’s going to be $75 for a half-bottle, it better make me cry with how good it is.
Lunch was courtesy of Reddwood, a new addition to Yountville, and right next door (kinda) from Maisonry! It had some kickass food, from a delish chopped salad …
… to a crazy burrata (which inspired g to say: you know there is nothing better than burrata and bread …)….
… To meatballs and greens …
Newton was our first winery visit this trip and the winery was beautiful, with nice gardens and sweeping views of rows and rows of vine. The wines, themselves were pretty good – g liked the ’09 Puzzle – but I wasn’t convinced that any were worth the price tag so I held out – two wine stops and no wines purchased! A new record!
We went to Bottega for dinner. g was initially embarrassed to take pictures, but when this hamachi came out, I told her I was overruling her and did as I pleased …
. The pastas were out of control, too! g did a version of carbonara and I had the sweet corn pasta with squab ragout. Quite a great meal (and WAY better than Bouchon).
vedge-ing out
t says: A few weeks ago, g’s colleague had to turn down a reservation at Vedge. g was all over it like white on rice, having agreed to go well before even checking to see if I was free. Fortunately for me, I was free! And so off to Vedge we went … after years and years of wanting to go …
September 2013, Friday Dinner, Party of 3. I didn’t quite know what to expect on the inside – I had never seen pictures of the dining room. In my dreams, I imagined a small restaurant, with cute framed pictures of bizarre vegetables (either black-and-white photos or hand-drawn/painted), and displays of antiquated gardening equipment … ok – not really … but I guess my point is that whatever I thought could have been inside the restaurant was in fact not. It actually was quite classy in there! Lots of rich tones of brown against gleaming white. No clutter, no frills. This was a nice restaurant – not “expensive” nice, rather, “date” nice. Did not see that coming …
And the food? Well, I was quite lost on the menu because there were at least 17 things I wanted to try. It was good we had three people, because between the three of us, we were able to order 10 items (and dessert!). But rather than show you EVERYTHING we got, I’ll give you a small sampling:
“fancy radishes”: this was an amazing array of radishes that is photographed extraordinarily poorly. I have to say that I did not think I could possibly enjoy radishes this much – but I can see why this dish is often compared to a sashimi platter in terms of its beauty. The leg up that it has over sashimi is that the textural differences between the different radishes and preparations are all over the place – so it was quite the adventure! (not that raw fish don’t have different textures …) This one probably wins my award for best dish of the evening.
carrot: I often joke about vedge, saying “why would I want to eat a carrot for dinner?” And this is the answer: carrots “shwarma style”. I have no idea what “shwarma style” means, but I know this carrot was nicely seasoned and served with some black lentils that g just could not get enough of! For me, I dock it some points because I’m not a carrot fan (I’m not sure that’s fair but I don’t care), but as far as carrot goes, the texture was beautiful and the non-carrot flavors were right-on … BUT … I couldn’t help but wish the carrot was replaced with a piece of pork belly/shoulder/cheek.
Other dishes included an eggplant “braciole” that was my second favorite dish of the evening, and the Brussels sprouts side dish that was served up like a small salad but with such a fresh flavor that it kept g coming back for more and more. We did, however, get a grilled tofu that was super-disappointing (despite the gouchuchang it boasted in the ingredient list, there was no flavor!). The desserts, on the other hand, were uniformly awesome. The chocolate uber chunk hand us swooning for that malt custard that was like a budino gone rogue. And then there was the strawberry sorrel bread pudding which was the perfect light-and-lively accompaniment to the rich chocolate uber chunk.
So do I agree with one Mr. Trey Popp that “Vedge might be one of the best restaurants in America. period?” Nope. Can’t say I do. Is it a good restaurant? Sure! Is it a great restaurant? Maybe! But to say it is flat-out one of the best in America? Geez. That’s tough. I think that Vedge gets some big points for cooking precision – every vegetable was prepared to perfection – not a single bite I had was felt to be under- or over-done. They did a nice job with seasoning as well. Additionally, given the sheer quantity of vegetables, I have to say that my gastrointestinal health was probably the best after that one meal than it’s been for the past decade. BUT – does that mean that every dish was a symphony of flavors that blew me away? Not really. It was more like a carnival – I wanted to go on every ride and after finishing each ride, it’s not like I wanted to go on any particular ride again and again, rather, I just wanted to go and check out the next ride. So, in short, maybe I’d like to go speed-dating at Vedge, but then marry Bibou’s pig’s foot? Hm – that’s a weird metaphor … but you know what – I typed it, so I’m leaving it there!
g says: … but I wanna be the lentils …
happy bday v!
t says: We’ve been celebrating v’s birthday quite a bit – but that’s because she’s worth it! Well – yesterday featured the latest installment of the v-b-day series – an “after hours” session at DiBruno Brothers!
For those of you who only go to the CC location, the Italian Market one will feel cramped and small. But! It’s a great venue for one of these tastings, where you have several rounds of finger foods (antipasti, olive oils & salts, cheeses, charcuterie, dessert) and you’re allowed to taste anything you want in the store for no additional cost! No. For real. Anything. And it doesn’t have to be “planned” ahead of time. Like v totally asked off the cuff, “can I try some pate?” and boom – 90 seconds later we had a head-to-head pate tasting. After seeing this, I kinda went a little “high-maintenance” and just started picking out random expensive things to try. For example – a $30/lb cheese? Yes I’ll try that! Jamon Iberico that’s $130/lb? We’ll have a sample for everyone please! The only thing they didn’t let us do was operate the meat slicer … But I have to say that as much fun as it was to pick out things to try, the pre-set courses that were coming out were also no slouches, either! Between the surprisingly-good prosciutto they had (it was like prosciutto 2.0 – twice the flavor!) and the “cheesecake” dessert (they topped a wedge of Delice de Bourgogne with some cherries and stuck a candle in it, and voila! Instant savory birthday “cake”), we were wow’d at every turn. I don’t have many pictures to show because they reveal our identities, but what I do have a picture of is this:
s’more … it was max 365 gruyere topped with homemade torrone and a piece of stone ground chocolate – all of which I’ve had in the past and not really liked – but holy crap – putting them together was a roller-coaster of flavors that blew me away. It was insane.
EDIT: Nevermind! Others took pictures!!
the store in all its glory!
![cheese[cake]!](https://afterdinnersneeze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/photo-3150.jpg)
cheese[cake]!
oh – yea – the hand-pulled mozzarella – you haven’t had mozzarella like this before (well, unless you’ve had this mozzarella before …)
the s’mores
crazy cheeses
a sampling of meats … each one more delicious than the next
the menu for the evening – it’s a lot of food! it could totally replace dinner.
some NOLA loose ends
t says: There were a few pictures that escaped our initial bloggings from our NOLA trip …
We went to the movies while there (it’s a good mid-day activity to avoid the heat) and we enjoyed some delightful gourmet foods from our seat – some parmagiana-black-pepper popcorn, Oregon pinot, and a “Blue Velvet” featuring sparkling rose, St. Germain, candied blueberries, and a twist of lemon (yes, g says it was delicious).
sometimes food is so good that v feels the urge to slap “yo grand-mama”. we have no idea if this fish fry is that good or not, but it reminded us of v …
and the award for creepiest thing we saw on our trip: tree limbs suspended upside down from the ceiling … the Ogden has some interesting stuff! …
and they also had someone peddling a “Southern Dish” that was a whole lot like a beef ramen …
a Patois finale!
t says: for our last hurrah, we went to cute little restaurant Patois. Well, actually we pregamed first at La Petit Grocery, now holder of “The Best Beignet in New Orleans” (and the best wine we had on the entire trip!). Patois was tasty. g did a nice refreshing market salad with pumpkin seeds, and followed with a shrimp over angel hair pasta and buts of love bacon. I went with sweetbread and rabbit-stuffed-with-boudin which were both solid performers. All-in-all another good meal (but not quite besting NOLA’s Cochon)
We ended the trip with a meal at Atlanta’s finest Chinese restaurant … (Kidding!)
Stanley! [again!]
t says: With how good it was the first time, we just had to go again. I went for pancakes loaded with blueberry, banana, and walnuts. g did the eggs Benedict po’ boy, which was wonderful – i was not anticipating such a perfectly poached egg! It was also our first boudin of the trip! For the money, Stanley is a great restaurant with good hours, too!
after dinner sneeze 