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dining in the wine country
Aug. 12th, 2009 08:00 pmIn her time M. de Joie has enjoyed many a fine meal in the Napa Valley. In particular she reminisces pleasantly about the 1000-Almond Duck at Mustard's in Yountville, the rabbit at the sadly late Catahoula in the Mount View Hotel in Calistoga, and the frisee with lardons and a poached egg at Thomas Keller's Bouchon (since the oil well in the back yard has yet to pay off, that is as close as M. de Joie is going to get to Keller's $240.00-including-service dinners at the French Laundry).
In recent trips, though, it seemed to her that some of the more heavily touted places, such as Cindy Pawlcyn's Go Fish in St. Helena were long on hubris and short on results. While Mlle. de Joie does not mind spending money on good food, she does object to being ripped off. Both service and the quality-slash-quantity of food served seemed to have suffered, replaced by very small portions of peculiarly-combined foods presented beautifully on very large plates by waiters who were more concerned with larger parties and the 20% tip they hoped to get.
Recently M. de Joie and Amico del Signore spent a few days in Calistoga. In our opinion, this little town at the north end of the Napa Valley is the only place to stay while doing a little wine tasting. To be sure, there are plenty of accomodations in Napa, Yountville, St. Helena, and so forth, but Calistoga beats them all for charm, peacefulness, dignity, and value for money.
Where to Stay:
Washington Street Lodging features small cottages with effencies or full kitchens on a quiet street along the Napa River. We parked there and walked to Lincoln Avenue (downtown). A good value.
Dining:
All parking is on the street, which shouldn't be a problem.
Checkers, 1414 Lincoln Avenue, (707) 942-9300. Cash, credit cards. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Beer and wine.
Checkers is decorated in warm earthy tones with a vaguely Italianate feel. Tables are covered with butcher paper over the tablecloths. Service is offhand: you better know what you want because the servers aren't up for giving much detail.
We enjoyed fat wedges of warm rosemary foccacia bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to start.
.
The Calistoga salad, with frisee, baby greens, sun-dried tomatoes, feta, blue cheese, pine nuts, honey-mustard dressing.
.
.
Greek salad: Romaine and leaf lettuces, cucumbers, red onion, olives, feta, yellow and red tomatoes.
.
The Mediterranean pizza with feta, red onion, olives.
.
Thai pizza - chicken, cilantro, peanuts, shredded carrots, lime, mozzarella.
Checkers also features pasta (a clerk in Zenobia Dress Shop down the street waxed rhapsodic over the garlic prawn linguine) and more substantial mains such as leg of lamb.
Hydro Bar and Grill, 1403 Lincoln Avenue, (707) 942-9777. Cash and credit cards. Full bar. Open at 8:30 AM for breakfast. Closes: late.
.
.
As we strolled along Lincoln Avenue late in the evening, we passed Hydro Bar and Grill and were drawn in by live swing jazz floating through the open windows.
.
It was a serendipitous find: not only did the Hydro have wonderful music and a lively crowd that crossed all lines - age, race, income, sexual orientation - but the bar is by far the most inclusive we'd ever seen. Bottles lined up on the stone bar (where you can actually pick them up and take a closer look) included specialty vodkas (Acai and blueberry, anyone?) and anejo tequilas that had certainly escaped our eyes. There are twenty - twenty! - beers on tap, including a healthy selection of Northern California microbrews such as Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.
And the food isn't bad either.
.
.
An appetizer order of Pimentos de Padron was $6.95, about two dozen thumb-sized peppers, sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with salt. As Calvin Trillin wrote in Feeding a Yen, these sweet and crunchy peppers are highly addictive.
We enjoyed breakfast one morning at Hydro - Eggs Bennetto, poached eggs on a thick cake of polenta, creamy marinara poured over and a sprinkle of Parmesan, paired with chicken-apple sausages, and a whole-grain French toast with fresh fruit were both filling and slightly out of the ordinary.
Service was fine when we visited, though there are rumors that it can be disorganized and slow. We had no complaints.
Puerto Vallarta, 1473 Lincoln Avenue. (707) 942-6563. Cash and credit cards. Beer and wine.
At one end of Lincoln Avenue is the popular Pacifico Restaurant. It's perfectly good, has a full bar, and serves Sunday brunch. Nice place. But if you eat there, you might miss the delights of Puerto Vallarta. This little hole in the wall offers delicous, authentic Mexican cuisine at bargain prices.
NOTE: This Puerto Vallarta is not, as far as we could tell, related in any way whatsoever to the Puerto Vallarta chain.
.
.
There's an shady outdoor patio just off the street; it leads to a small cafe that shares a fenceline with Cal-Mart Supermarket next door.
.
Enchiladas rancheras with rice and beans. Mlle. de Joie asked if carnitas could be substituted for the usual beef-chicken-cheese choices and the waitress was happy to do so.
.
.
Chile rellano and a bean taco plate.
.
What we liked: the freshest of salsas, mild and flavorful, with crisp chips. We loved that the plates were not topped with handfuls of shredded cheese to add nonessential fat and a gummy coating to cover up all other tastes. The refried pinto beans were made on-site - not the usual puree, these were about half mashed and half left whole. And the greenery accompanying the taco was not the watery crunch of iceberg lettuce, but a flavorful shred of leaf lettuces and cilantro. Fresh-made iced tea had a surprising fruity taste that was refreshing with the hot food.
We liked Puerto Vallarta enough to eat there twice in one day. While Amico del Signore ordered the chile rellano and crisp bean taco again - they were that good - M. de Joie opted for a tongue soft taco and a bowl of shrimp ceviche. The taco was small, tender, juicy, with squares of tongue dressed with cilantro and tomato. Finding ceviche on a restaurant menu is well-nigh impossible in Redding but not at this little place that caters to a largely Mexican clientele. The ceviche was tart with lime, crunchy with lemon cucumbers, filled with small shrimp and fresh vegetables: refreshing on a warm summer night and virtually fat-free.
Bosko's Trattoria, 1364 Lincoln Avenue. 707-942-9088. Cash and credit cards. Open seven days for lunch and dinner. Website at http://www.boskos.com/
We wanted to like Bosko's. It gets great reviews and the staff is friendly and helpful. It's attractive and peaceful inside. But not everything was quite up to par.
The list of wines by the glass is fairly extensive and reasonably priced for the Napa Valley, including a few Italian wines such as a rosseneu. In addition to tasting flights, Bosko's also offers a flight of beers - three half-pints for $8.00.
Our waitress was cheerful and helpful, but she advised us that a half-order of garlic bread was plenty for two people. Perhaps two people who aren't hungry is what she meant.
We ordered house salads - a nice balanced mixture of greens with cherry tomatoes and a "creamy Italian dressing" that didn't seem at all creamy, but did enhance the greens nicely. Both of us ordered spaghetti with marinara and a side of meatballs. The marinara was quite spicy and tasted of tomato paste; the spaghetti was regrettably overcooked. However, the meatballs had a good meaty texture and herby flavors of basil and oregano. Fortunately the pastas came with additional bread and butter - otherwise we would have left still hungry.
To sum: there is plenty of good food to be had in Calistoga, and you don't need to spend the moon for it. But buyer beware: not all bargains are created equal.
Next: food shopping in wine country.
In recent trips, though, it seemed to her that some of the more heavily touted places, such as Cindy Pawlcyn's Go Fish in St. Helena were long on hubris and short on results. While Mlle. de Joie does not mind spending money on good food, she does object to being ripped off. Both service and the quality-slash-quantity of food served seemed to have suffered, replaced by very small portions of peculiarly-combined foods presented beautifully on very large plates by waiters who were more concerned with larger parties and the 20% tip they hoped to get.
Recently M. de Joie and Amico del Signore spent a few days in Calistoga. In our opinion, this little town at the north end of the Napa Valley is the only place to stay while doing a little wine tasting. To be sure, there are plenty of accomodations in Napa, Yountville, St. Helena, and so forth, but Calistoga beats them all for charm, peacefulness, dignity, and value for money.
Where to Stay:
Washington Street Lodging features small cottages with effencies or full kitchens on a quiet street along the Napa River. We parked there and walked to Lincoln Avenue (downtown). A good value.
Dining:
All parking is on the street, which shouldn't be a problem.
Checkers, 1414 Lincoln Avenue, (707) 942-9300. Cash, credit cards. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Beer and wine.
Checkers is decorated in warm earthy tones with a vaguely Italianate feel. Tables are covered with butcher paper over the tablecloths. Service is offhand: you better know what you want because the servers aren't up for giving much detail.
We enjoyed fat wedges of warm rosemary foccacia bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to start.
.
The Calistoga salad, with frisee, baby greens, sun-dried tomatoes, feta, blue cheese, pine nuts, honey-mustard dressing.
.
.
Greek salad: Romaine and leaf lettuces, cucumbers, red onion, olives, feta, yellow and red tomatoes.
.
The Mediterranean pizza with feta, red onion, olives.
.
Thai pizza - chicken, cilantro, peanuts, shredded carrots, lime, mozzarella.
Checkers also features pasta (a clerk in Zenobia Dress Shop down the street waxed rhapsodic over the garlic prawn linguine) and more substantial mains such as leg of lamb.
Hydro Bar and Grill, 1403 Lincoln Avenue, (707) 942-9777. Cash and credit cards. Full bar. Open at 8:30 AM for breakfast. Closes: late.
.
.
As we strolled along Lincoln Avenue late in the evening, we passed Hydro Bar and Grill and were drawn in by live swing jazz floating through the open windows.
.
It was a serendipitous find: not only did the Hydro have wonderful music and a lively crowd that crossed all lines - age, race, income, sexual orientation - but the bar is by far the most inclusive we'd ever seen. Bottles lined up on the stone bar (where you can actually pick them up and take a closer look) included specialty vodkas (Acai and blueberry, anyone?) and anejo tequilas that had certainly escaped our eyes. There are twenty - twenty! - beers on tap, including a healthy selection of Northern California microbrews such as Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.
And the food isn't bad either.
.
.
An appetizer order of Pimentos de Padron was $6.95, about two dozen thumb-sized peppers, sauteed in olive oil and sprinkled with salt. As Calvin Trillin wrote in Feeding a Yen, these sweet and crunchy peppers are highly addictive.
We enjoyed breakfast one morning at Hydro - Eggs Bennetto, poached eggs on a thick cake of polenta, creamy marinara poured over and a sprinkle of Parmesan, paired with chicken-apple sausages, and a whole-grain French toast with fresh fruit were both filling and slightly out of the ordinary.
Service was fine when we visited, though there are rumors that it can be disorganized and slow. We had no complaints.
Puerto Vallarta, 1473 Lincoln Avenue. (707) 942-6563. Cash and credit cards. Beer and wine.
At one end of Lincoln Avenue is the popular Pacifico Restaurant. It's perfectly good, has a full bar, and serves Sunday brunch. Nice place. But if you eat there, you might miss the delights of Puerto Vallarta. This little hole in the wall offers delicous, authentic Mexican cuisine at bargain prices.
NOTE: This Puerto Vallarta is not, as far as we could tell, related in any way whatsoever to the Puerto Vallarta chain.
.
.
There's an shady outdoor patio just off the street; it leads to a small cafe that shares a fenceline with Cal-Mart Supermarket next door.
.
Enchiladas rancheras with rice and beans. Mlle. de Joie asked if carnitas could be substituted for the usual beef-chicken-cheese choices and the waitress was happy to do so.
.
.
Chile rellano and a bean taco plate.
.
What we liked: the freshest of salsas, mild and flavorful, with crisp chips. We loved that the plates were not topped with handfuls of shredded cheese to add nonessential fat and a gummy coating to cover up all other tastes. The refried pinto beans were made on-site - not the usual puree, these were about half mashed and half left whole. And the greenery accompanying the taco was not the watery crunch of iceberg lettuce, but a flavorful shred of leaf lettuces and cilantro. Fresh-made iced tea had a surprising fruity taste that was refreshing with the hot food.
We liked Puerto Vallarta enough to eat there twice in one day. While Amico del Signore ordered the chile rellano and crisp bean taco again - they were that good - M. de Joie opted for a tongue soft taco and a bowl of shrimp ceviche. The taco was small, tender, juicy, with squares of tongue dressed with cilantro and tomato. Finding ceviche on a restaurant menu is well-nigh impossible in Redding but not at this little place that caters to a largely Mexican clientele. The ceviche was tart with lime, crunchy with lemon cucumbers, filled with small shrimp and fresh vegetables: refreshing on a warm summer night and virtually fat-free.
Bosko's Trattoria, 1364 Lincoln Avenue. 707-942-9088. Cash and credit cards. Open seven days for lunch and dinner. Website at http://www.boskos.com/
We wanted to like Bosko's. It gets great reviews and the staff is friendly and helpful. It's attractive and peaceful inside. But not everything was quite up to par.
The list of wines by the glass is fairly extensive and reasonably priced for the Napa Valley, including a few Italian wines such as a rosseneu. In addition to tasting flights, Bosko's also offers a flight of beers - three half-pints for $8.00.
Our waitress was cheerful and helpful, but she advised us that a half-order of garlic bread was plenty for two people. Perhaps two people who aren't hungry is what she meant.
We ordered house salads - a nice balanced mixture of greens with cherry tomatoes and a "creamy Italian dressing" that didn't seem at all creamy, but did enhance the greens nicely. Both of us ordered spaghetti with marinara and a side of meatballs. The marinara was quite spicy and tasted of tomato paste; the spaghetti was regrettably overcooked. However, the meatballs had a good meaty texture and herby flavors of basil and oregano. Fortunately the pastas came with additional bread and butter - otherwise we would have left still hungry.
To sum: there is plenty of good food to be had in Calistoga, and you don't need to spend the moon for it. But buyer beware: not all bargains are created equal.
Next: food shopping in wine country.
