Some California Wine Country recaps-LONG

[amw5g]

Recently took a tour of San Francisco, Sonoma & Napa Valley with many oportunities to sample the aponymous cuisine. Here were some highlights. The wife wrote them in the context of a larger trip recap, so the flow may be a bit odd from where I edited. These are long, so go to the bathroom now, I'm not stopping once we start. I'm Andy, she's the first-person.

First night- Girl & Gaucho, Glen Ellen
It was a tapas restaurant, and was really cool! We had cornmeal fried calamari that was so tender and delicious and well-seasoned with a pineapple oregano dipping sauce, then grilled prawns with mojo sauce (I have no idea what this is), then grilled steak with a red mole sauce, and finally corn cakes with melted crème fraiche. The corn cakes were our least favorite, because they were a bit bland and the crème was melted instead of cool, but everything else was delicious. For dessert, Andy had a wonderfully light, creamy mango custard, a chocolate custard, and a crème caramel. I had a chcolate tarte with banana ice cream, which was good, but very rich. To drink, I had a wonderful fruit juice while Andy sampled some South American reds.

Second Night- La Sallette, Sonoma
A Portuguese restaurant off the main drag. I had Dungeness crab in puff pastry for my appetizer, then California (not Chilean!) sea bass with a fresh parsley crust. It was really delicious, and everything tasted so fresh! Andy had sweetbreads sautéed with garlic butter and braised in red wine with fava beans, then duck crispy-roasted with pistachios and honey. The duck was way overdone, but the sweetbreads were tender and scrumptious. We ended with fig cake ice cream sandwiches. Andy sampled three different ports over th course of the meal.

Third Day Lunch- Girl & the Fig, Sonoma
B by the same woman who owns The Girl & The Gaucho. Andy had moules et frites, with a white wine sauce. We laughed, because he asked for mayonnaise for his fries, and the server gave him a strange look, then said, “Well, we have a tarragon aioli, which is like mayonnaise.” All of the restaurants there were like that; you couldn’t get just plain food! I had a duck confit omelet with goat cheese, and I really enjoyed that. Then for dessert, we split profiteroles, but we were very disappointed in these. The puff pastry was very hard & stale, and there was very little puff but a WHOLE lot of ice cream. We usually enjoy profiteroles, but these were sub-par. However, the rest of the menu was delicious.

Third Day Dinner- Deuce, Sonoma
Arguably the best place in Sonoma Valley. My appetizer was a plate of tempura battered calamari, with a lime aioli sauce. Words do not describe how good this calamari was! It was SO tender, and very lightly battered, and that lime aioli added just the right hint of tartness. Perfection! Andy had Dungeness crab for his appetizer, and his entrée was a rare filet mignon with a bacon wine sauce over white cheddar mashed potatoes. He enjoyed the bacon sauce and the crunchy shoestring potatoes on top of the steak. My entrée was a salmon filet, and for dessert, I had Swedish cream in ginger snap cannolis, with fresh blueberries and raspberries. Andy had a trio of sorbets: blackberry, raspberry, and pear. The pear sorbet was very mild, light, and refreshing. We really enjoyed our dinner here, and we had wonderful service. We asked our server Kim for recommendations, and she was spot-on with every suggestion.

Fourth Day Dinner- Taylor's Refresher, Oakville
Not a rave for us, so I won't go into details

Fifth Day Lunch- Rutherford Grill, Rutherford
Good, but not a rave, so no details.

Fifth Day Dinner- La Toque
We were not disappointed; this is our second favorite restaurant now, second only to Victoria & Albert's (Walt Disney World). They offered a tasting menu, with 2 choices for each section, so I picked one and Andy picked the other, and so we got to taste everything on the menu.
We had 2 amuses bouches here – a small piece of pate on brioche and a fig with Prosciutto – both delicious! I had a Salade Armateur with summer vegetables and Dungeness crab to start out. This kind of freaked me out, because it had anchovies in it. I had never had anchovies before, and I had no desire to taste them, but I sucked it up and tasted it anyway. It was quite good, but I still cringed knowing I was eating whole little fish – yeck! Andy had Duffy’s Early Girl tomato soup with brunoise of panzanella. I followed that with a langoustine with fried green tomatoes and whole grain mustard, and Andy had the New England spotted skate wine with champagne grapes and brown butter. We both thought this course was delicious. Then I chose seared artisan foie gras with port and artichoke hearts, and this was absolutely the best thing I had ever tasted in my entire life. Andy tried some, and we agreed it was unimaginably good. So tender, cooked exactly the right amount of time, and as soon as it entered our mouths, it spread and melted. Mmmmmm…. Wonderful.
Andy’s course was good, too, but nothing for the rest of the meal came close to that foie gras. He had a wild mushroom and snail cannelloni with cabernet celery root reduction. He really enjoyed this, but I thought the sauce was a bit too overpowering. Next, I had the rib roast served rare with cranberry bean ragout. This was very rare and tender; I definitely enjoyed it. Andy had the Montauk bluefin tuna seared rare with garlic roasted porcinis and red wine sauce. He liked this very much, and loved the texture of the rare tuna. We followed this with a selection of ripe cheese with walnut bread. The cheese course was very good; Andy told the chef to just select a few cheeses, and he picked Epoisses, Reblochon, Tete de Moine, and Roquefort. We both enjoyed the Epoisses the most – it was melted and creamy, but still had a strong taste. The Tete de Moine burnt my mouth a bit, which was kind of weird.
For dessert, I had a bittersweet chocolate and raspberry mousse, and Andy had the upside down yellow peach “bombe,” which he does not recall at all, perhaps because of the wine pairings he had with dinner!
During the course of the meal, I got up to go to the restroom, and discovered that the entrance was outside, in a lovely courtyard. The restaurant is connected to the Rancho Caymus Inn, and I fell in love with the quiet courtyard. It was dark and shady, with a fountain in the middle and exotic smells from the flowers. We will probably stay at the Rancho Caymus Inn next time we go there, and will definitely dine at La Toque again. The servers here were great – they were knowledgeable and friendly, not intimidating or stuffy at all. I was glad in a way that we didn’t go to the French Laundry, since I have heard it’s a much more formal and pompous atmosphere, but I was sorry for Andy’s sake that we didn’t go, since I know he was really hoping for it. We got the chef here to sign a copy of the menu for us, which we have as a nice souvenir of our dinner there.

Sixth Day Lunch- Sarafornia, Calistoga
Not a rave, so skipping.

Sixth Day Dinner- Domaine Chandon, Yountville
This restaurant had a tasting menu, as well, with only 1 option for each course, so we both decided to order the tasting menu. We began with two amuses bouches – a pate wrapped in something else, with a fruity sauce, and an oyster on a small piece of brioche, topped with caviar, and with a very sweet sauce that tasted so odd in combination with the salty caviar.
Our first course was “deconstructed” hearts of palm nicoise style with basil foam. This was pretty weird – it had a sardine in it, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, but the basil foam was very cool. It had a mellow, almost sweet taste, and was wrapped by a cone. So odd, to eat foam, though.
Next, we had coral papardelle (we didn’t know ahead of time what papardelle was – I guessed it might be some kind of soup, b/c there was no soup on the menu!) with a lobster butter. This was pretty good, too – I liked the lobster.
Then came a sea bass “viennoise” with blossom tempura and a mandarin orange beurre blanc. The sea bass was light, but mine had scales on it still, which upset me. I had to pick them out of my mouth twice, and I am the kind of person who HATES finding scales or bones in my fish. Andy didn’t have any scales on his, though.
This was followed with a porcini mushroom risotto with pecorino, which was okay but not too interesting. The roast squab with a truffle crust and pinot noir reduction was good – very tender and moist, and the sauce was quite nice and fruity.
We had a cheese course, too, but this was brought out to us already plated, not on a cart, and we cannot remember what cheeses we had! For dessert, we had an apricot palette with “americano” as a background. I’m not sure what the americano background refers to, but this dessert was pretty good, but not memorable. We were still full of thoughts of La Toque, so Domaine Chandon was somewhat disappointing in comparison.
When we left, we got the chef to sign our menu, and he wrote something in French, of which we can only decipher 2/3, because his handwriting is abysmal. Then, below his signature, he wrote “Unusual Day. July 24, 2003.” We were both mystified by this, but we thought it was kind of funny. Andy had had the wine pairings again, so he thought it was very funny.


Seventh Day Lunch- Deuce, Sonoma
Had to stop again for lunch. Calimari!

Seventh Day Dinner- Farrallon, San Francisco
Not a rave for us, so I won't go into details.

Eighth Day Lunch- Some place in Chinatown, San Francisco
Fun, but not a rave, so no details.

Eighth Day Dinner- Gary Danko, San Francisco
We were both excited about our dinner here. We had tried getting reservations ourselves, and couldn’t get into the restaurant earlier than 10 one night, but Andy’s concierge had gotten us reservations at 9:00.
We ended up arriving at the restaurant around 8:35, and when we got there, there were a few other people standing around waiting to be seated. We saw that our names were on a special list, and they seated us before the other people who were waiting for seats, so that was pretty nice.
This restaurant had a chef’s tasting menu, but the entire menu is actually prix fixe so one can deviate, which is what I did for many courses. Andy pretty much stuck with the chef’s recommendations, making only a few changes. As at the other dinners, he ordered the wine pairings, and I chose a glass of Bordeaux with dinner, then Moscato d’Asti with dessert.
We had an amuse bouche , but cannot remember what it was (it was a sliver of foie gras)! Andy began with the glazed oysters with leeks, zucchini pearls, and Osetra caviar, and he liked this a lot. I began with the seared foie gras, caramelized red onions, and oven roasted apricots. This was great foie gras, but still could not rival the one I had had earlier at La Toque. However, I did enjoy the fruitiness of this sauce.
Next, Andy had the seared tuna with red pepper eggplant marmalade and white asparagus. He loved the way this was cooked – it was so tender and soft that his fork went right through it. I had the roast Maine lobster with asparagus, morel mushrooms, tarragon, and potato puree. This was great, and very tender, and the morel mushrooms added a nice, dark taste to the lobster that I really enjoyed. I also liked the flavor of the tarragon, paired with the lobster.
Andy had the beef medallions with spinach risotto and mushroom confit next, and the medallions were very tender, rare, and flavorful. We both agreed that we liked his beef better than my selection, which was citrus crusted loin of wild boar, with goat cheese polenta and bing cherries. The boar was a bit dry, but the citrus crust was great, and a good, fresh complement to the darker taste of the meat.
Then came the cheese course, and the server pushed the cheese cart to our table, to help us with selections. I had St. Pat, which was a wonderful, herb-crusted cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery, a local cheesemaker. Andy had Red Hawk, also from the Cowgirl Creamery, which was a very mild organic cheese. I also had a goat cheese, which I cannot remember the name of, but which was very good and not too overpowering, and a 5 year cheddar that the server suggested. I cannot remember my 4th cheese at all, but I did enjoy all 4 of them. Andy had a St. Agur, which reminded us of a Blue Castello. The server called this blue cheese ice cream, and he was exactly right – very creamy and mild, but still with that nice blue cheese flavor that wasn’t too pungent. Andy really enjoyed this cheese. He had another blue, too, the Roaring 40’s, which was more like a traditional blue cheese, but wasn’t too salty or ammonia-ish. It was dry, and not creamy, but didn’t have the offensive taste that some of the supermarket blue cheeses have. His fourth cheese was Chaource, a French cheese from the Champagne region, that was really creamy on the outside. The heart of the cheese was firmer, like a standard brie, but the outside was creamier and a bit melted, like a cheese that had been out for a while.
Then came our dessert, which we were excited about, even though by now we were pretty full. I had the baked chocolate soufflé with two sauces, a bittersweet chocolate sauce and a crème anglaise. This was delicious – so warm and light, but very chocolatey.
Andy’s dessert was a bittersweet chocolate tart with chocolate sorbet and hot chocolate. It was so cute – it came on one tray, with the chocolate sorbet on top of the chocolate tart, and then a tiny cup of hot chocolate on the side. It also came with a little glass of milk, that Andy just drank by itself – he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to do something with it or not!


I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have, providing I can remember the details. And yes, I did indeed gain some serious weight.
Cheers!
Andrew

[cape chef]

Andrew,

Thank you for a great post.

I really enjoyed reading it and appreciate the time you took to compile it.

Makes me want to get out west again soon.

[josephreese]

Thank you for the thoughtful review.

Gary Danko and La Toque are on our short list for the next dining experience. I'd love to know, did you have a preference for one over the other?

(I encourage you to dine at The French Laundry. While it is formal, the atmosphere might surprise you. The food almost certainly will.)

[amw5g]

We tried for French Laundry over several days- even had my travel agent's concierge calling for us through a backdoor number. We stopped in daily while in Napa to see if we could get bumped from the wait list to a reservation. After all this, it was no go. It's imperative on our next trip out there.

Wow, La Toque & Gary Danko. If I had to pick one over the other, I'd probably go with La Toque. My wife agrees. The "whys" are harder to say, however. But I'd probably go with the atmosphere at La Toque which feels much more intimate. Gary Danko is a very beautiful place, but tables were close together, it was a bit louder and it felt more like a place to have a "power meal". Splendid and memorable, but not of our own hearts.

La Toque, on the other hand, is in a very charming building with a gorgeous courtyard (check it out on the way to the restroom). The attention from the wait staff, even tho you maye have multiple servers, is likewise more personable. The sommelier did a great description of each pairing and explained why he chose our selections. And the foie gras.....oh the foie gras! It was as if distant trumpets from heaven were calling over the Northern California hills and God himself was giving me a peak into the rewards of heaven when I placed that morsel of fattened liver in my mouth. My whole face- mouth, eyes, tongue- sighed with a pleasure no other food has ever granted. Wow....

With GD I felt that I was enjoying a meal in a wonderfully done restaurant. It's rather formal and business like. With La Toque, I felt more like we had been welcomed into someone's living space and meant to share the kitchen's passion. It's two different styles with two different purposes, but we rather favored La Toque.

Please let me know if you have any other questions I can assist you with.
Cheers,
Andrew

[mike]

Goodness American haute cuisine is so adventurous ..fig cake ice cream, duck confit omelet, wow.

Sounds like a great trip thanks for a fascinating read.

[shroomgirl]

How difficult was it to get reservations at La Toque?

[amw5g]

We made them about 10 days in advance, as our "backup" in case the French Laundry didn't pan out since the hopes seemed bleak. We were not disappointed and I would hate to categorize it as some bastardized second.

They do not have very many seats and the meal is rather long, but perhaps since it is overshadowed by its cousin down the road, it doesn't get the attention it deserves. next time we return to Napa, we're hitting this spot again and woudl seriously consider staying at Caymus.

Hope that helps.
-Andrew