Archive for the ‘Restaurant Reviews’ Category
Pumpkin Flavors on the Rise!
t says: You know it’s fall when foobooz has 76-bajillion “fall menu debuts”. That said, I am resistant to change and made plans to get some good ‘ol fashioned Korean Fried Chicken from Meritage. Yea – it’s still delicious (order it “extra spicy”), but I think they’re discontinuing it at the end of the month (sadness). In honor of fall (and what made me think of posting), g and I concluded the meal with some pumpkin creme brulee (even though I recently vowed to not eat another creme brulee unless it was chocolate … g convinced me that it might be just as good … she’s crafty like that.) It was like pumpkin pie filling, but lighter on the fork, silkier and creamier on the tongue, and had that characteristic crisped-sugar flavor with a hint of that egginess. It didn’t blow me away as much as the chocolate one (but it was still damn good and superior to normal creme brulee), but it did make me wonder why we don’t straight-up brulee pumpkin pies. Or, better yet, … if you somehow put this filling inside of a pie crust (or maybe a graham cracker crust just on the bottom), I just can’t see myself ever choosing a slice of normal pumpkin pie again … no matter how much cool whip you put on it …
Sorry j, if you’re the pumpkin pie from Jim Main’s, I’m pumpkin creme brulee pie …
Napa/SF Recap: Day 3
t says: Our last full day in Napa. What to do, what to do! We started off the morning right with a trip to Boon Fly Cafe with k and cm. We had their trademark delicious doughnuts – they were pretty good. I think they were especially good because they were fresh, but, having had some fresh doughnuts from Mary Anne’s in Sea Isle City, I have had better. I had their chocolate chip pancakes, which were also quite tasty, but they reminded me a lot of something I could have made at home. Don’t get me wrong – the food at Boon Fly was good, it was inexpensive, and it was filling. But coming off of such great food the night before, I was kind of expecting to have my mind blown. Alas, my mind remained intact. Bummer.
We drove off to di Rosa Preserve, and, after a detour through Sonoma (we missed an important turn), we finally arrived … only to find that most of it was closed due to renovations. Double-bummer. We did see their car they had on exhibit:
Pretty wild, right?
We could have reserved a spot to tour their grounds, but we kind of didn’t really want a tour. We wanted to chillax. So we left. But at least we saw their sheep!
In any case, we journeyed across the street to make an unscheduled visit at Domaine Carneros! They seemed like they had patio umbrellas, which sounded like the perfect way to chillax on a beautiful day. First … we parked next to an inferior rental convertible …
Yea, their faux cheateau was a little … faux … but it got the job done. We sat on the balcony and peered over all that is wine country. It was beautiful. We enjoyed a cheese plate and g had a glass of … surprise … bubbly!
After an hour or so, we took their tour. And wow … Domaine Carneros was totally geared for tourists. They had big windows to look through, and a well-appointed tasting area. They did discuss the making of bubblies, which was fun, but it wasn’t really down-and-dirty – it was kind of like “look – we do it there – see?”.
Sorry for the blur – I was trying to be nonchalant!
These are their huge mechanized riddlers!
Touche.
So … where to next? Another bubbly winery!! We hit up Domaine Chandon for a slightly different experience. I won’t lie – Domaine Chandon was also geared for tourists, but there was more walking through the winery involved, which I appreciated. Also, our tour guide was fantastic. Yes, he was on auto-pilot mode (he must have given that tour a billion times), but he was still energetic enough to keep our attention. He also had a huge black eye, which I originally thought was a birthmark of some sort, but turned out to be the result of too much wine and “acting stupid” (his words).
They did tell us something interesting: when the winery was built, the surrounding area protested. They did not want a big ugly massive structure from LVMH. And so … they made a winery that you really cannot see from the road whatsoever. It was pretty well concealed. Here’s the front door. I’ll spare you the other photos of inside the winery … you’ve seen enough for this post …
We did a “mixed drink” tasting at Domaine Chandon. It was … interesting. Our tour guide hammed it up, and we have now learned the beauty of the ginger-mint mojito (with bubbly!) … but I think it was the people around us that made it most fun. cm sat at a table with some Turkish people who were involved “in textiles”. They apparently did not want to discuss their involvement. At the table with k, g, and me was a couple approximately our parents’ age who turned out to also be from the South Jersey area! When the woman found out we were from Philly, the first question she asked was, “So … do you go clubbing in Old City?” “Nooo … we just live there.” Throughout the course of the tasting, as she came to know more about us, she kept referring to us as “such good kids”. I guess the four of us are goody-two-shoes.
That night, we had dinner at Ad Hoc. We pre-gamed by hanging out at our hotel with a bottle of white from Castello di Amorosa, a loaf of bread from Bouchon, and a deck of cards. We had to get ourselves mentally prepared for Ad Hoc. It was going to be our only TK-inspired meal. We had high hopes …
When we arrived, I was impressed with how bright and open it was. Bistro Jeanty was a little dim, and Tra Vigne was dim as well. Not Ad Hoc – they wanted you to see everything that was about to go down. It was also a little loud – it reminded me of a crazed BYO in Philly. I felt at home … Let the feast begin …
Things started off with a salad. With bleu cheese. And Bacon. And Beets. You know – I will confess that I was disappointed with “salad” when I read the menu, but I was thinking of some sissy, summery salad. No, this salad is the salad that beats up other salads and takes their lunch money. It would have made kp proud.
Then we moved on to the main course, which was chateaubriand. Cooked beautifully. It was some of the best steak that I had had in a long, long time. I think what made it so noteworthy was that I had grown used to tougher cuts of meat like hanger steak and the like – but no – this was tenderloin … and it was tender. We added on two servings of the “optional” bone marrow and our jaws dropped when we saw the size of those suckers – they were huge! Normally the marrow is barely more than how much butter you’d use on a dinner roll. But I swear there was enough per bone to adequately cover the entire blade of a butter knife.
There was so much that cm couldn’t handle the richness past a single half-bone. It took some real arm-twisting, but I had no choice but to man up and enjoy three half-femurs of bone marrow. It was awesome. My blood probably flowed yellow with the amount of fat I ingested that night, but it was worth it. Vegetables? Yeah, there were some vegetables, too. There was a baked-then-fried potato with bacon, and there was some ?squash? – I really can’t remember, because by the time it mixed with the jus, steak, and bone marrow, it might as well have been meat.
The cheese course was fantastic. I remember thinking to myself, “you know – if this was the last thing I eat tonight, I’d be happy”. And that says a lot – because when it comes to dessert, I always have to have something sweet. But no – not this time – I was fine with cheese … until I saw the dessert:
Now, don’t be fooled by this picture. Sure, it seems like it’s one haphazardly arranged, normal-sized sundae. No – it’s a MASSIVE sundae (as everything served at Ad Hoc is served family style). And it’s not just a normal massive sundae, it’s a massive sundae inspired by s’mores. Graham cracker cookies, vanilla ice cream, marshmallow creme, and rich, luscious chocolate (the kind that puts meat on your bones and sticks to your ribs).
Really, in my opinion, as far as the food goes, Ad Hoc presented us with the most decadent food we ate the entire time we were on vacation. I’m not sure if that made it “better” than the food we had any other night, but it was executed perfectly – I had zero complaints (rare for me), and there was a lot of food. I think it was definitely worth the $50 price of admission.
And you know what … if you wanted more of any course, you were able to order more!! It was all you can eat! Holy crap! Who in their right mind could possibly eat any more than they had served? Afterwards, I actually thought to myself “darn, maybe we should hit up saladworks tomorrow or something for dinner instead of going out”. I snapped out of it, but you get the idea!
Vega: Tasty But Tacky
g says: l and i are spending the weekend working on some top secret projects (more on that to come), so i hopped a train and am visiting her and c up in hartsdale. we worked hard all day long, and were so excited to get out of the apartment to try some mexican food for dinner. you’ll notice that l and c haven’t made many appearances on the blog, but that has changed tonight! we are joining forces and reviewing this restaurant from all angles, telling our readers what we write about best — i will discuss service, l will talk about decor, and c will be telling us about the food.
vega is about a 5 minute walk down the street from l’s and c’s apartment building – a pleasant enough travel time on a brisk fall evening. it’s easy to spot this trying-to-be-hip mexican joint, as its glass facade and bright colored lights set a mood unlike any other restaurant on the block. we walked in without a reservation, so we were given the choice of a 20 minute wait for a table, or to eat at the bar. c likes eating at bars, so we decided to give it a try. our bartender was a bright, friendly girl in her late twenties, literally running back and forth behind the bar, but smiling the entire time. she was actually pretty calm compared to some of the other staff, who were hustling to accommodate the packed dining room on a saturday night. she took our drink order, followed by a long hiatus, then took our appetizer order, followed by an even longer hiatus, and finally took our dinner order. we were not in a rush to get out of there, but we were absolutely famished, and wished that we could have sped up that process a bit. but, eating at a bar, such is life, right? just about the time when we expected our entrees to arrive, a food runner came to our seats with an order of chicken fajitas (which i flagged as mine) and some chicken enchiladas (which we did not order, so we sent away). about 5-10 minutes later, as we waited for l’s and c’s dishes to emerge from the kitchen, the runner came back with a manager confused and speaking in spanish about the order. our bartender cut in quickly and diffused the situation – apparently the order was for another couple sitting at the other end of the bar. one point for bartender-girl. she then proceeded to pick up the plates of food (which again, had been sitting in front of me for about 5-10 minutes as the three of us nibbled on tortilla chips) and brought them to their rightful owners. upon seeing this, i leaned over to c (who has spent a bit of time in food service himself) and asked, “can she DO that??” i had always been under the impression that once food hits a table, it cannot be served to another table, but rather, must be discarded. c confirmed this theory, and i snatched that point back from the bartender-girl for being gross. the other couple didn’t seem too bothered by it, i don’t think, so i guess all’s well that ends well. our correct order did finally hit our table a bit later – everything was what we ordered, and nothing seemed to make any stops between the kitchen and our seats, so we were ready to roll. from then on, it was pretty smooth sailing, sans a fairly long wait for l to receive a water refill. all in all, service was not bad for bar seating (not that i have dined at many bars before, but we had fun, so i wasn’t too bothered by the small hiccups). as for the food, c would be the expert in this area (since he lived in LA for many years and knows good mexican food when he eats it), so i will turn it over to him…
c says: the 5 second review is… i thought it was delicious once we got the food we actually ordered! but on to the details: meals at vega always start with hot homemade tortilla chips and refreshing salsa. we started off with an appetizer of house made guacamole, made to order right at your table. the girls thought the guac needed more onion and salt, but i disagree (onions give me heartburn anyway). next course was the main meal. both g and i had fajitas, she with chicken, i with steak. they came out so piping hot, that you could hear it sizzling from across the restaurant [l says: he is exaggerating – it was so loud in there, you couldn’t hear a thing]. the steak fajitas were very tender and tasty! as for the others, i didn’t have a chance to have any because i was so full, but they looked good. we did take lots of food home, though, so i’ll let you know tomorrow how the leftovers are. i had a margarita, too – cuervo with rocks and salt. very good, but a little strong, so i finished l’s white sangria instead. she was feeling whoozy after the first two sips. she’s a lightweight. g had some pee colored drink that she says was okay, but they should definitely serve in an opaque glass due to the unappealing color. [g says: it’s a shame that they have that listed as a specialty cocktail on their menu – there are so many more interesting combinations that would have both looked and tasted better. it’s not that it was undrinkable, just not expertly crafted]. i’m tired and the mlb playoffs are on, so i’ll let l take over… g’night!
l says: g already hinted at the exterior decor so i’ll fill you in on the interior. when you arrive there are two sets of clear glass doors that i always manage to crash right in to because they look like they aren’t there. then there is a tropical floral wallpaper on the wall behind the hostess and after about a minute of trying to look through the colored glass window in to the next room you realize that the colors on the window are actually a portrait of frida kahlo! (side note: when they were doing construction and gearing up for their opening they had a sign up on the door which said “frida coming soon – mexican cuisine!” so I think they couldn’t get the rights to name it frida and had to settle for “vega” which has no meaning as far as i can tell except that its a town in mexico – i googled.) after you get past the entrance you’re kind of overwhelmed by a mix of decor elements having nothing to do with each other which kind of makes the place look schizophrenic – but at least its actually really fun! here are the details: there are crazy-ass metallic chandeliers made of metal cone shapes above the bar that remind me of sea anemones. (could these have anything to do with the water wall dividing the center of the restaurant between the bar and the main dining room?) above either side of the bar area are blinking tube lights (purple. orange. cyan. green) which strobe at random times (they are not in sync) which feel kind of like an 80s disco tech, not that i’ve ever been in one. an element which i do enjoy is the whole left wall of the space which is an open window in to the kitchen where you can view the chefs at work. props to them for the modern white square serving dishes, the ball-ish-jar-with-a-handle and straw water glass, and the wooden platters used to serve the hotter dishes. best of all there is beautiful and classic patterned white anaglypta wallpaper along the whole back wall of the restaurant – i feel awful for it – the only in-good-taste element stuck in this crazy room having to be stuck in the middle of all this crazy crap.
g says: So like we said, tasy but tacky. But definitely worth a visit!
t says: I spent the weekend working … at home … by myself … eating a single large pizza over the course of 4.5 meals …
Napa/SF Recap: Day 2 (the rest of it)
t says: Yea, so I left you hanging on Day 2. Sorry about that – my bad! Just to finish off Day 2 …
After we failed to get into Dominus, we picked up cm and k and went off to our 5th winery of the day (although in actuality, we only really actually visited 1 of the four). We chose to go to Castello di Amorosa, a winery which primarily makes wines from Italian grapes. While one of their recent releases has earned great marks from wine critics, they are more known for the fact that their winery is a giant castle. For real:
Yes, there’s a drawbridge, and yes, there’s a moat. I will say that the tour was fun. They took us around the castle, which was definitely a tourist destination and not a “real” castle (I mean it was finished sometime in the past twenty years, so you know it’s not going to be a “real” castle), and taught us about … well … castles. It was interesting that they really didn’t focus on the wine too much. Yes, there was some talk of vini- and viticulture, but I really don’t recall much. Our guide was nice – she was Austrian (“G’day mate! Let’s put another shrimp on the barbie!” … Dumb and Dumber, anyone?) The tasting was … intense. There were a lot of wines. And because one of us got the regular tasting, and one got the “premier” tasting (or whatever they call it), g and I were able to taste every wine they had. What was interesting was that I (and maybe g) were the only ones not swallowing the wine (well, the pregnant woman was also not drinking wine, either – she looked so bored – we felt bad for her); as the DD, I was making extensive use of a spitoon. By the end of the tasting session, I would say that k was pleasantly buzzed and cm and g were quite smiley/happy (they were trying to master the art of jumping into a convertible). And one more thing … we were all hungry! After all of the Italian wines, all we really wanted was some pasta … and some meatballs …
Our guide told us of a place called Tra Vigne that was supposed to have good Italian food. I figured that she’d just tell us of whatever restaurant they had some sort of “deal” with, but still, it couldn’t be “bad”, right? Plus, at this restaurant, there was no corkage fee for the first bottle of wine (if it was a bottle from Castello di Amorosa), so that was $20 more to spend on food – woohoo!
We called them up, secured a reservation, and drove to St. Helena. We were leaving everything up to chance and being spontaneous. It was vacation … k and cm style! When we arrived, we used the pricing of the menu to determine whether we were dressed appropriately – we didn’t want to walk into someplace too fancy. All the pasta dishes were under $20 with the exception of the one with scallops – we were good to go.
It was awesome. The indoor space was big and open, but it was the outdoor space that was oh so beautiful. It was kind of like a very large backyard patio with lights suspended from trees. We sat on a little porch that looked out onto the patio and thought of how cool it would be to hold some kind of classy outdoor gathering there.
Then we met our waiter. He was an older gentleman. He had a very … monotonous voice. But you know what – he was superb. At first, I thought he was going to be a very dry character – there’s something about his voice that sounded like he was so bored with what he was doing. But it was part of his act. Using this voice, he had perfected the art of delivering punchlines with no change in expression – gotta love the dry humor. He was happy to tell us what he liked from the menu (e.g. he felt the fig pizza was the best pizza that they’ve offered in years), and he didn’t have a problem with saying a dish was only “ok” (one of the desserts). He even snuck in a little bit of song and dance when he was describing what would happen if we ate some other dish that was his favorite. I trusted him.
And he was right. Their food was fantastic. From their fresh mozzarella cheese and tomato caprese to their fig pizza to my dish, which was a braised rabbit and pappardelle (that was easily as good as anything I’ve had at Melograno – which says a lot!). It really was a most excellent meal. g took a picture at the restaurant, but I noticed that there wasn’t any food in the picture. I guess the food was so good that neither of us wanted to pause eating for a pic. I think k got one!
I remember that their desserts were also quite good, but I can’t remember specifics – maybe one of my dinnermates can fill in the details? The point: Tra Vigne was fantastic. I was worried that it wouldn’t have lived up to Bistro Jeanty the night before, but it did! Later on, we found out that Michael Chiarello had opened Tra Vigne (although no longer there); whoever’s there now knows what they’re doing! What a great night!
Lightning Round 3: C19, Salento, Gardenia
t says: We visited a few places recently – one before our SF trip and one afterwards. There were some highs and lows:
Gardenia:
We visited for brunch one morning on a whim. It’s hidden in the Art Alliance building off of Rittenhouse Square. Props: The food was quite tasty and the selection of jams were great. Best of all was the picturesque setting of sitting in a quiet little garden patio – this place would be great for a chill outdoor event. It’s just SO peaceful! Slops: Unfortunately, there were a few undercooked areas in my lemon-blueberry-ricotta pancakes. They were so close to being exemplary lemon-blueberry-ricotta pancakes, too! Verdict: If I had to stay in Rittenhouse for brunch, I’d take this place over Parc’s overwhelmingly energetic/frenetic atmosphere anytime.
EDIT: Parc’s brunch is still energentic/frenetic, but we’ve since learned to block out the people around us …
Salento:
There’s this small BYO near that wannabe Apple store on Walnut (Springboard Media). A newspaper clipping in their window boasts “gnocchi on heaven’s door”. We were bored and hungry so we gave it a whirl. Props: There’s never more than one table occupied. My orechiette and braised duck wasn’t half bad. Slops: There’s never more than one table occupied. My orechiette and braised duck wasn’t half good. g had the pasta and shrimp in tomato sauce and is pretty sure she could replicate the dish at home, if not make it better (Italians and their tomato gravies …). Verdict: Sorry Salento – I’ll now never know if the gnocchi was delicious because La Viola gives a similar quantity at a similar price-point for better quality (and neither will usurp Melograno for our local Italian eatery) .
Cicheterria 19:
This new place just off of Rittenhouse has a pretty small sign to look for. Boasting Venetian small plates, everything on the menu online sounds so good. So, the moment we saw gift certificates on sale at restaurant.com, we bought a $50 gift certificate for $4 (or was it $2?). Props: The space is very nice. The table-tops are cool, the stools are contoured, and the lighting is soothing. The server had a very authentic accent. The wine list has some lesser-known Italian varietals (i.e. not just a bunch of chianti sangiovese and other mainstream grapes – but it does have those, too, if you’d like). The Italian meatball was quite good (even g admitted to liking it … and, as mentioned above, she’s Italian), kp enjoyed the tiramisu, which had a nice contrast in texture between the lady fingers and decadent mascarpone, and the panna cotta, even though a bit sloppily presented, was creamy and the perfect consistency (*wink wink*). Slops: Seasoning was all over the place: the salt baked branzino was too salty while the potato-leek soup and french fries didn’t have enough. Scallops were inconsistent (over-cooked in some places, perfect in others), squid ink polenta was kind of bland (even for polenta!), and the arugula-egg-bacon-fig-gorgonzola salad didn’t quite sing harmony (it was a disjointed muddle of weak flavors … which was surprising). And we never got our baccala small plate despite ordering it and bringing it to their attention … Verdict: I’d go again for wine, meatballs, and dessert. It’s a shame that you need to order an entree for a restaurant.com gift certificate to work.
EDIT: Philadelphia Weekly went to C19 and had a similar experience!
Napa/SF Recap: Day 2 (part 1)
t says: We wanted to start off day 2 in Napa with a bang. Because we were lodging in Yountville, the only thing that made sense for us to do for breakfast was to go to Bouchon bakery. We passed by the cafe next to our railway car/hotel room, crossed the street, walked 50 yards and bam! there we were. I got just a few things: chocolate bouchon, chocolate croissant, and something else that likely had chocolate in it. The bouchon was tasty – it was more cakey than Garces Trading Company’s, which are more fudgy – I can’t really say which I prefer. The chocolate croissant made me cry a little on the inside, as it had the chocolate concentrated in a rod in the croissant. I hate it when they do that. But then g brought up a good point – when was the last time I had the mythical chocolate croissant that had chocolate throughout? The last time was over a decade ago. They were sold by this little coffee cart inside the Johns Hopkins undergrad library circa July 1998. At the time, I was still in high school staying at JHU for the summer, but when I matriculated at Hopkins in 2000, they no longer served those croissants anymore. I think Au Bon Pain used to do it the good way, too. But now that Keller doesn’t do it that way, I’m beginning to wonder if it ever could have been done, period! Did my mind make it up? After all, if anyone would go through the extra effort to evenly distribute chocolate, it’d be TK, right? After all, he is the guy that suggested that you sift your chocolate chips before using them in cookies to get ride of those tiny pieces that might make the cookie look less appealing (?dirty?).
We next visited Quintessa winery. This was going to be our token “real deal” winery for the trip; we were visiting other wineries more for the experience of going to beautiful vineyards with a variety of “shticks”. Artesa’s “shtick” was that they were the first bottle of wine we purchased (and we’ll never purchase again). Specializing in bordeaux blends bearing its namesake (although we have come to find that they are involved in the production of a very small run of white named Illumination), Quintessa’s “shtick” is that they make great wine (although the winery is indeed beautiful, too!). We’ll reveal future shticks as we go on. a hooked us up with one of his friends who hooked us up with a 10am visit at Quintessa. We owe them both, big time, because as far as wine goes, these were the best we tasted on the entire trip!
From the road, Quintessa doesn’t look like much. It looks like a giant stone wall set into a small mountain – it’s hard to imagine in the pic because you only see such a small part of it. It’s amazing how much of the facility is hiding behind this wall and/or underground! This is apparently a great architectural accomplishment; I believe it!
This is the view from on top of the wall looking out onto the “front yard” as I would call it. They probably have a better name for it.
This is the “back yard” (my term). It was amazing to see all of the different vineyard blocks situated on hills, valleys, and flat lands, with the rows oriented in different directions. I guess I had just assumed that the geography for any winery would be relatively constant (e.g. it’s all on one side of a mountain), but here you see that it’s quite varied – and this is for a winery as small as Quintessa. Interestingly (although not surprisingly), each patch (block) may be considered a distinct microclimate and have different soil conditions, thus may produce identical grapes (e.g. Cabernet Sauvignon) of varying flavors. Therefore, the grapes from each is kept separate and blended together later to make one final wine.
Is there a better way to start off the morning than with a 10am glass of Illumination? I can’t think of many.
Some grapes up close.
We were also taken inside the winery and while we didn’t take any pictures of the vats or anything, we did take an obligatory picture of the barrels. Everytime I see views like this, I’m always overcome with peace. I think it’s because it’s dimly lit, quiet, and the barrels are all neatly arranged; it’s a sense of calm.
Of course, we also did a tasting. We tasted the 2005, 2006, and 2007 Quintessa wines, which were drastically different from one another. Between the different growing conditions for each year and the different final blends used in the wine, that was not surprising. g was partial to the ’05 which had a nice balance of fruit and not-fruit (highly technical terms here). The ’07 was tight still, with some bitter tannins up front, but I felt like there was a more powerful wine hiding underneath it than the ’05. The ’06 in our opinion had the lightest body of the 3, showing more fruit up front, but the flavors and mouthfeel dissipated very quickly. We bought a bottle or two of the wines we liked and are having them shipped to NJ in November. Because shipping to PA is either a no-no or extremely expensive (we did visit one winery that would do it, but it cost $100 for 3 bottles), I hope sr and ha don’t mind …
What next? Lunch. Angela, our guide at Quintessa (who was absolutely awesome) gave us a suggestion: Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen.
There’s a main street in St. Helena. Running parallel to that main street is a much smaller street. This eatery is off that much smaller street. (Do you like these directions? If you actually want to know where it is, google it like we did.) A little path led you to a small patio area with chairs, tables, a fig tree (with lights), and dogs. That’s right. Dogs. Apparently it is encouraged to bring your dog with you should you dine outdoors. Fortunately, they still took us even though we had no dogs. The food was fantastic. I had an arugula pesto gnocchi. The texture of the gnocchi was like a perfect potato gnocchi – a bit firmer than at Osteria. The arugula pesto had some of the peppery arugula taste to it, but I think I would have liked more! g had an “adult” grilled cheese with fig, tomato, and some kind of cheese we can’t pronounce. For dessert, we had the parfait which featured chocolate and coconut sorbets that were out of this world (for sorbets …). The food was great, reasonably priced, and g spotted Cindy Pawlcyn. She didn’t stop and say hi to Cindy, as it seemed like Cindy was in a serious conversation with a chef about the menu, but at least g’s chef-dar is up-to-snuff.
We next visited Clos Pegase a Michael Graves-designed winery built as a “temple to wine and art”. We took no pictures. We took no pictures because the place sucked. Actually, our Quintessa guide informed us that Clos Pegase was a bit “dated”, and she hit the nail right on the head. On top of that, the people manning the visitor’s center did not even recognize our presence when we walked through the door … which is surprising because no one else was in there. They just held conversation with each other and pretended we weren’t there. I hope that someone buys the winery, fires those people, bulldozes the winery, and starts fresh …
We went to Sterling vineyards because we heard that you can take a lift up a mountain. But then we found that they charged you up front at the bottom of the mountain for their tour and tasting. I wasn’t interested in tasting their wine as I was DD. Sorry Sterling – I’m not paying $40 or $50 up front if all I really want to do is ride the lift …
So g and I set out on a spontaneous adventure. At our rehearsal dinner, we shared with our guests a magnum of ’99 Dominus … that was the year we met! It was a delicious wine – one that held significant sentimental value … We were determined to find the winery. We googled it, stuck the address into Mustang Sally’s GPS and off we went. It turned out that it was in Yountville – the town where our hotel was! This is what we saw:
We saw the front gate … and that’s it. You see, Dominus is not open to the public. I’m 100% positive that if we had an “in”, we could have visited. Later on, we found that you can indeed arrange a tour if you’re a smooth talker or have an industry connection – but that even still they’d be reluctant to give you a full-on tasting (I guess unless you’re a really smooth talker). On our next trip, for sure, g and I will pull every string we possibly can to breach this impenetrable fortress …
Well, I’ll finish off the day at my next sitting. Sorry to leave you hanging on Day 2 – but work needs to be done!
Napa/SF Recap: Day 1
t says:
As hinted, we took a recent trip to Napa/SF. Here are the events from Day 1 of our adventure! WITH PICTURES!
We started off the day with a healthy breakfast:
There’s nothing like an airport terminal McDonald’s Egg McMuffin. g was impressed with the meltiness of the cheese. If you haven’t had one of these in a while, go and have one. It really brings you back to a better time …
We were a little disgusted to find pickles in the vending machine at the airport …
No, we didn’t try them …
The flight was ok. I sat next to a rather chatty, older woman with a pleasant Southern accent. She started off a conversation with a:
“Where are you from? Ooooo – Let me guess! … China?”
“No.”
“Okinawa?”
“No.”
“Japan?”
“N-”
“Oh, Okinawa is in Japan. I meant that other one …”
“I’m from New Jersey.”
“No, but your heritage. Where are your parents from?”
I eventually gave in and told the lady I was half-Korean. g chuckled the whole time. She thinks it’s funny when this happens. I guess there are worse conversations to be had …
The flight was long, but we finally arrived at SFO. Meet our rental car! Mustang Sally! Equipped with GPS, she was ready to show us California. Yes … we were stereotypical tourists. I asked for a red one, but the customer just before me got the last one – darn!
After g was sad that we did NOT drive through Sausalito to get to Napa (we took the more efficient, albeit, less pretty route), Sally led us to Oxbow Public Market … where a surprise awaited g (you can see it in the photo …).
This is not the surprise. This was lunch. It was from one of the indoor vendors named “C Casa Taqueria”. There are two soft tacos (one was spiced lamb with mint and goat cheese – we can’t pronounce the name of the other one) and some delicious nachos. I don’t know if we were hungry or what, but these were better than Distrito!
This was the surprise! Kara’s Cupcakes! There is a short-list of things that put g in a better mood … no matter what. They include glasses of sparkling wine, jelly doughnuts, convertibles (with the caveat of good weather), and … cupcakes. But these were more than just cupcakes. These were “the bomb”. The one on the right was a chocolate cake with blackberry filling and cream; g enjoyed it very much. The one on the left was the “fleur de sel” cupcake, featuring chocolate cake, caramel filling, dark chocolate whipped cream (almost like a ganache) and sprinkled coarse salt. I will go on the record right now and say that the fleur de sel cupcake was the single best cupcake I have ever had. Period. The cake was as soft as a cupcake’s cake could possibly be. The caramel filling was perfect. The topping was perfect. But it was the sea salt that made it unbelievable. Brown Betty is lucky that there’s no Kara’s Cupcake here. It was so good that I made sure to stop at another Kara’s Cupcake vendor in SF later on our trip. I ate four of them throughout our stay in California, each one as good as the first. I am now reminded that I should go to the gym, pronto …
Then we visited our first winery. This is what we saw:
This is Artesa winery. We were psyched to visit because the first bottle of wine we ever bought was an Artesa. As you can see, the view is beautiful from their estate. The grounds are spectacular with nice/modern/faux-infinity-pool fountains and a very modern-looking facility. But the people … suck. First off, the bar was mobbed. I guess I can’t fault Artesa for that – it must be because the wine’s really good, right? We reasoned that this was surely because they had improved a lot since that first cab we had some years ago (our recollection was that it was … not so hot). But when I wiggled in to the bar, the bartender completely ignored me. I reasoned that maybe it was because I was at the very edge of the bar without room for a proper tasting. So g and I walked around, looked at the pretentious art, relaxed on the outdoor patio, and took in the view. Gorgeous. Then we returned to the bar. This time, the bartender acknowledged we were there but was completely unwilling to do anything more than absolutely necessary. No history of Artesa. No description of the wine. Not even a “welcome to Artesa!” (although he did make sure to correct my pronunciation of Artesa – it’s Artesa, not Arteesa). I even gave him opportunities to talk to us by asking open-ended questions … but no – he wasn’t having any of it. Furthermore, only “club members” are given a splash of their higher-end wines, which I am totally fine with – but the delivery was more of a “neener neener” attitude than a “I’m sorry, I wish I could give you a splash, but I can’t” attitude. By the way, none of their offerings are at all that expensive/exclusive versus whatever else can be found in Napa, so they can keep their single-vineyard wines. Conclusion: we had come full circle to Artesa after 7 years … and now we’ll never again consider buying another bottle of their crappy attitude. Also – I’ve seen sippy-cups with thinner walls than their champagne flutes … just sayin’ …
We checked into Napa Valley Railway Inn. This place, despite the awful website, is awesome! Lots of room. Very clean bathrooms and bedding. Close proximity to everything in Yountville (i.e. Keller-ville). Free parking. The only downside was that the water temperature was a little temperamental; it kept you on your toes! Also, the railway cars are kind of “cute”. I’ve decided that when we do re-visit Napa, even if we do have more money, we’ll always return to Napa Valley Railway Inn …
For dinner, we dined at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville. It was wonderful for multiple reasons. The first was that we could walk to it. The second was how not-fussy the decor and environment were. Finally, they do rustic French food very well (and it wasn’t ridiculously priced!). The coq au vin was delicious with tender chicken and a powerful braising liquid (my braised chicken never comes out with that depth of flavor), and g had salmon dumplings and ratatouille, which were also fabulous. I think it’s either here or the cupcake where g started off her new “word of the trip”: “yummy”.
While the entrees were very good indeed, let me introduce you to the star of the meal:
What you see before you is a creme brulee … with a twist. The bottom layer is traditional creme brulee custard, which was creamy and delicious, as the inside of a creme brulee should be. This layer was topped with chocolate mousse, which was then sprinkled with sugar and bruleed. This was awesome. I mean, seriously, there is absolutely NO reason that ordinary creme brulee should ever be offered. However, because not all restaurants are reading this blog and therefore will be unaware that they should make the appropriate change to their menus, I guess I’ll just have to be satisfied with never ordering another creme brulee again unless it comes with a layer of chocolate as Bistro Jeanty has done. In any case, this dinner in its entirety was a superb start to the lineup of amazing dinners that awaited us.
after dinner sneeze 