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Wednesday Night: Citizen Cake

Another fabulous meal was had at Citizen Cake. We were here also on our last visit, and were greatly looking forward to a repeat visit. Our waiter from last time remembered us from the impromptu "vodka challenge" he gave the wife -- and more importantly he remembered that she won.

For cocktails, I had John's Negroni (Boodles gin, sweet vermouth, campari). Negroni is an old standard drink. I've tried them elsewhere, but they're always too bitter (from the campari). They do something special for "John's Negroni" and I wish I could figure out what it is. The wife had the
Michelle Michelle (housemade pear infused vodka with dollop of ginger sorbet) which was exceptional.

For salad, I had the Roasted beets walnut paper and goat cheese foam. "Walnut paper" turned out to be something sort of like the consistency of a thin sheet of corkboard, which I know doesn't sound appetizing, but it tasted good and was very creative. The goat cheese foam was actually more like the consistency of whipped cream rather than true foam, which was fine by me since I was foamed-out. I'm not a fan of goat cheese, but in this lighter whipped form mixed with the beets and walnut paper, it all worked. The salad was a perfect balance of flavor and texture. The wife's salad was Mixed greens with easter egg radish and sherry-shallot vinaigrette. We were told that an "easter egg radish" was a particularly colorful radish, although it looked and tasted like regular radish to me.

For my entree I had the Pork weiner schnitzel with fennel, pearl onions, mustard panna cotta and apple-radicchio salad. I can't say enough about how great these flavors were. On the bottom of the plate there was a sauce of tender diced fennel and pearl onions with the mustard panna cotta. Panna cotta is traditionally a dessert similar to custard or pudding, except made without eggs. This savory mustard panna cotta quickly melted into the sauce adding another flavor to the mix. On top of the sauce was a good sized breaded pork cutlet, topped with a sort of slaw of apple "matchsticks" and radicchio dressed in a bright, zesty vinegairette. Put all this together in a bite and it was amazing.

The wife had the Citizen Steak: Estancia Ranch rib-eye, potato-leek pave, wild mushroom ice cream. The steak was done perfectly and could have stood by itself, but the real standout was of course the wild mushroom ice cream. Last time we were here the steak was served with a nice bleu cheese ice cream (which subsequently made an appearance when chef Elizabeth Falkner appeared on iron chef). The wild mushroom ice cream was even better! You assume its just going to taste like some cold mushroom cream thing, but instead it was ever so slightly sweetened which made the excellent mushroom flavor really pop. A bite of ice cream with the well-seasoned saltiness of the steak brought the whole dish to another level. The potato-leek pave was basically potatoes au gratin -- good, but nothing special.

And on to dessert... I had the Poire belle ballon: pear-honey bavaroise, pain d’épice, red wine gel, crisp soba noodle which roughly translates to pear-honey bavarian cream with ginger bread and red wine gel in a solid chocolate "balloon" (about the size of my fist) on a bed of crisp fried noodles. Interesting, but, a little difficult to eat and keep off your shirt. I didn't get much flavor from the pear-honey bavaroise, especially when tasted with the chocolate balloon. The red wine gel was pretty good though and came through the chocolate, and the crispy noodles added a nice crunch to everything. It was paired with a glass of madeira (Cossart Gordon N.V. Madeira 10 Year Old Bual) suggested by the waiter.

The wife had a hard time deciding between a pumpkin based dessert which I can not remember, and the rose creme brulee. The waitress suggested the pumpkin dessert, and the waiter suggested a glass of sherry (Lustau Almacenista "Amontillado del Puerto" Sherry) to pair with it that was really great. Mark this as the first time either of us sipped (rather than cooked with) sherry and really liked it. As a bonus, the waitress ended up bringing us the rose creme brulee as well, since we'd been such good patrons. Our mistake was trying the delicate flavored creme brulee after trying our own desserts. Any hint of rose was lost to our palates after tasting our more spicey desserts.

All in all, terrific dinner, right up there with Cyrus for flavor and creativity, but not as stuffy.

Wednesday: San Franciso, Hotel Rex, Ferry Building

We spent our time in San Francisco at The Hotel Rex. In choosing a hotel, I was trying to find something in a different part of the city from where we had stayed before, and also something with a little more character than the big chains -- and it was a great deal too -- 3rd night free! All in all the Hotel Rex was a good option. The lobby and bar are beautiful (as shown), although my first impression of our room was that it was an old hotel onto which they had tried to slap a fresh, funky coat of paint. The overall interior design is very bright and whimsical, with lots of yellow, orange, purple, stripes, swooshes and hand painted murals and poetry adorning hallway walls (I could help but think Aunt Nattie would love this place). All this just seemed like a way to distract from the vintage 1960 bathroom fixtures, although as our stay went on and I looked closer, I found everything to be clean and well maintained, and they had attention to detail where it mattered. So what if there is a stainless steel kleenex holder with a slot for razor blade disposal recessed into the wall?

Wednesday we slept in (no B&B breakfast awaiting us) and then walked about a mile down to the Ferry Building Marketplace. This is a restored city landmark that has been turned into a gourmet food mecca which I had recently read about in a magazine. This place was free sample heaven! Some highlights:

• Lulu Petite where we had lunch, including an amazing blood orange and tomato braised pork on ciabatta and fresh squeezed Meyer lemonade (I love Meyer lemons). I also got a couple jars of marinade, Preserved Meyer Lemon & Rosemary and Preserved Meyer Lemon, Sage & Fennel, which I had tried to special order at home from and never succeeded in getting (I love Meyer lemons).


• Stonehouse California Olive Oil where I could actually taste a difference between the several different varietals they offer.


• Ciao Bella Gelato where we tried Port and Prune gelato (very good).


• Village Market where I got this neat sea salt from the Phillippines which has large hollow crystals. It sort of looks like kosher salt, but much more delicate so it doesn't feel like you're chewing a rock.


• Far West Funghi where I marveled at all the different varieties of fresh mushrooms -- which I will never be able to get at home.


• Recchiuti Confections where we got several odd-sounding chocolate truffles: Star Anise ∓ Pink Peppercorn, Lemon Verbena, Bergamot Tea, Tarragon Grapefruit, Cardamom Nougat.


• Peet's Coffee where I got a mocha, just to see how this Starbucks progenitor compares to its scion (tasted about the same to me).

After, we walked back to our hotel (does 2 miles of walking work off all that sampling? probably not the gelato...) and relaxed until dinner.

Tuesday Night: Chez Panisse

After Benziger, on our way to our hotel in San Francisco, we stopped at Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkley for dinner. For the non-food-oriented readership, Chez Panisse is something of a icon: Opened in 1971, it is "...known as the first California cuisine restaurant, a style credited to restaurant founder Alice Waters. The restaurant was an outgrowth of Waters' interest in the possibilities of fresh local ingredients, inspired by her 1964 visit to France." [wikipedia] It remains highly-acclaimed (#2 on this year's list of top 50). Downstairs is Chez Panisse proper, where they serve a prix fixe menu (dangerous for those of us not fond of seafood). We ate upstairs at the Cafe, which is more like a traditional restaurant. I've eaten here once before, while on a trip for work.

Before we visited, I checked the dress code to avoid a repeat of the Cyrus "business casual" incident. Looking on the web told me the dress code was: dressy, business, casual -- depending on where I looked (google, yelp, yahoo, etc). So I called and asked: No dress code. OK, but what should we wear to feel comfortable with the rest of your clientele? We've been some places in wine country that said business casual but were pretty dressy. Yeah... we do things a little different in Berkley. You'll be fine in whatever.

Just walking in, I love the smell of this place. It has an open kitchen, but unlike many, rather than an oppressive commercial-kitchen greasy smell, its like you just walked into someone's home. I also marvel at the calm composure in the kitchen.

For starters, I had the artichoke salad with chervil. It was good but did not blow me away, although it was definitely nice to taste fresh artichokes. The wife had the beet and avacado salad with marash pepper. Beet and avacado was a very good combination I never would have imagined, and the marash pepper was really neat -- this is apparently a Turkish ground pepper, and I don't know quite how to describe it, although I know I want to find some for home.

For entree I was between two meatless options: Pizza with fontina and stinging nettles (they stop stinging when cooked), or Poached egg, crispy polenta, eggplant ratatouille. I went with the waiter's recommendation of the egg dish. I don't care for runny yolks, but mixed in with everything else, I could handle it. This was a great dish that sounded rather heavy, but wasn't at all. The ratatouille (eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, zucchini, garlic and herbs) was probably the best I've ever had. So often ratatouille is just a single flavor mush, but this had a perfect balance of flavors where each ingredient was distinctive.

The wife had the Breaded chicken cutlet, roasted potato and frisee pickled pepper salad. This was just a simple, unadorned chicken cutlet, but it was perfectly prepared, about a 1/2" thick with light crispy breading and extremely moist and tender.

Dessert was persimmon pudding for me, and chocolate ice cream with wafers for the wife. I was a little disappointed that the permisson pudding was actually a steamed pudding, which is more like a cake. It pretty much tasted like a carrot or pumpkin cake, and not much like persimmon. The chocolate ice cream was terrific with a deep rich chocolate flavor, sprinkled with crumbled bits of almond cookies.

While there was nothing revolutionary in this meal, it exemplified for me what Chez Panisse is about: No thick sauces or fancy preparations, just top-notch ingredients and crisp clean flavors. This dinner was a good respite from the rich-- however excellent -- meals we'd had earlier in the week. And I learned about a new kind of pepper.

The Grape Leaf Inn

The entryway of our B&B, The Grape Inn, in Healdsburg, and our room, "The Merlot"...

Tuesday PM: Benziger

Benziger was next on our list. Our inn-keeper had hand written some directions from memory (I think these are right, call me if they aren't) for a short cut to get us to Glen Ellen without going through "all that stuff in Santa Rosa". I had no idea what that meant, but I was game, especially when I saw that directions included a Starbucks as a landmark, which was a our first stop. The directions (which were mostly right except for the count on traffice lights) sent us off 101 just north of Santa Rosa, and onto Fountain Grove Parkway to get over to Rte 12.

We got a little lost on back roads since the maps we had didn't really name the roads that Benziger was on, but we made it by 3:30pm, just in time for the last tour of the day. We had attended a wine tasting a couple years ago at the now-defunct Crescent City Bistro where we met Kathy Benziger. The chef from CCB had told us to be sure to visit and let them know he'd sent us -- although as soon as we drove in, it was clear we weren't going to get to meet any Benzigers on this visit. The place was huge.

Benziger was one of the better tours we went on. Everything about Benziger is impressive -- historic cottages (it's sort of a compound with all sorts of family living there), landscaping, vineyards, caves, winemaking faciilties -- and they let you see pretty much all of it. They loaded us into a tram pulled by an honest to goodness real tractor, and up into the vineyards for the start of the tour and tremendous views. The main message of the tour is about what they call "biodynamic farming" which is a step above organic. To be certified as biodynamic, the workings of the entire farm is considered (read all about it). It was a pretty neat tour, although the wines we got to taste were not particularly impressive, which is not surprising given the number of guests they must serve daily. They had a large bustling gift store, and we got a little Benziger tzotchke, but feeling hungry and wined-out, we skipped the reserve wine tasting and headed out.

Tuesday: Alexander Valley to San Francisco, via Glen Ellen and Berkley

One nice thing about staying at a B&B is it gets you up and going at a reasonable hour. Breakfast at nine, checked out and on the road by 10:30. We covered a lot of miles this day.

Tuesday morning we headed a little north of Healdsburg to visit a few places in Alexander Valley. We were armed with a nice map from the Russian River Wine Road on which the innkeeper had marked some of her favorites. After a hard day of tasting the day before, we weren't up for much, so we only visited two:

• Robert Young Estate Winery - This was a beautiful vineyard, including the house. Out here, the farms seem a little more real and less tourist show pieces like in Napa. On this farm, Mr. Robert Ashley Young apparently used to grow only coffee (!) and prunes and resisted growing grapes until his kids talked him into trying it on a little spare plot. The money rolled in, and within a few years grapes became the main crop. Again, for years he was only a supplier of grapes to other wineries, until the children decided to try their hand at winemaking. Their wines seem to be big award winners, especially the Chardonnay and "Scion" Bordeaux-style blend. They were pricey, but we had to get a bottle of Scion.
• Alexander Valley Vineyards - We really only went here because the innkeeper said they had a nice tour with lots of history about Mr. Cyrus Alexander, for whom the valley in named (a-ha, and the restaurant). Alas, upon arriving, we were told the tours were by appointment only. We tried a few wines which we nice and very reasonably priced. Looking around the tasting room, I noticed a lot of schwag with the "Cyrus" name on it and asked about that wine. Well... that's from our reserve list and I have to charge you a $10 fee to taste from that, although it goes towards the purchase of a bottle if buy it. Cyrus was a pretty expensive wine, so this was a gamble --- pay $10 to try something you find out you really like and only wan more of!? Well, maybe I can give you a micro-taste... you're going to like it. And indeed we did; this Bordeaux-style blend was easily our favorite wine tasted on the trip. In the end, we consented to join the wine club, which got us an on-the-spot 20% discount on a vertical 3-pack (2000, 2001, 2002) of Cyrus which was already a pretty good price off the retail for a single bottle. This was an extravagance... but I have to point out -- we had a free night's stay in SF coming which offset the purchase in the budget.

Next we headed back to Healdsburg to ship the wines he had collected. Now, at each vineyard, they could ship to NH for us, although one of the first we visited (Thumbprint) had said we could just collect all our wine and ship it once through a place in town. When we went to said place, the woman said: Nope, can't ship to New Hampshire and produced a letter from someone at the state liquor commission telling her not to ship to NH. From prior discussions with this same gentleman, I was pretty sure that while wineries needed a license, I was allowed to ship to myself for personal, nonresale use. Didn't matter; she wouldn't do it. The letter included his phone number, and I called, but at close to 3:30pm EST on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, he wasn't there. The woman wouldn't take our wine, although she packaged it up nicely and suggested we check it as luggage.

I went back to Thumbprint and asked their advice. There was a different person working than the previous day, but she bent over backwards to help me and called around and found a place a few towns south that had the proper license (or whatever) to ship to NH -- although it ended up costing over $90!!! So, lesson learned: If you're from NH, have each winery you visit ship whatever you buy!

Perhaps I will get motivated to write my state rep and ask why NH is one of only 3 red states on the "do-not-ship" map (the others being NJ, where I assume it has something to do with the mob; and liberal-puritanical conflicted MA, where gays can marry but not buy alcolhol on the Sabbath).

Next we headed south to Benziger in Glen Ellen, and then Chez Pannisse in Berkley for dinner... which I'll save for a new post.

Monday: Healdsburg, Sonoma County

When I picked a B&B in Healdsburg (which is the north end of Sonoma), I didn't even realize what a cool little city it is. In Napa, you have big wineries lining Rte 29, which means driving. In downtown Healdsburg there are a ton of winery tasting rooms all within walking distance of our inn. So, we spent all day Monday on foot and visited several:

• Seghesio - Mostly known for their Zinfandel's, they also had a nice Pinot Noir, and a white they called "Arneis" which we liked.
• Thumbprint Cellars - Definitely the coolest tasting room lounge in Healdsburg. It looks like a trendy martini bar working a day job. The guy we spoke with had lived in Portland (Maine) and asked if the Friendly Toast was still in Portsmouth (and if he lived there now, I'm sure he would hang at the Red Door). We liked their Carignane Rouge, Cabernet Sauvignon and Viognier and joined their wine club since its the only way for us to get their wines, and it was pretty reasonably priced.
• Suncé - The Thumbprint guys suggest we visit Sunce, which is a little off the beaten path down a side street. Along with Thumbprint, we found this to be one of the most friendly places we visited. We enjoyed the Late Harvest Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Barbera (which was unlike anything I had tasted before).
• Sandwiches from Oakville Grocery (considerably less crazy than the one in Napa).
• Rosenblum - Honestly by this point we were a little tired of tasting, especially Zins, which Rosenblum seems to focus on, so we skipped right to the Chocolate Zinfandel Port which everyone in the tasting room was clamoring for. They actually added "chocolate essence" to the port. Very different, not really a nice standalone sipping port, but great with a chocolately dessert.
• Selby Winery - Another one the Thumbprint guys told us to visit, but alas, it was late in the day. Notable at Selby were the 5 or 6 letters from the White House Head Usher informing them that Selby was served at this-or-that function to the President and so-and-so dignitary, along with a menu. Pretty neat. If it's good enough for the President... wait, Is the head usher a political appointee, or does he actually know what he's doing? We liked their Pinot Noir, but that was about all we could muster. I probably would have liked more earlier in the day

All in all, we did a lot of tasting and felt like we got try some great wines we would never have access to otherwise. And we were still able to walk home, although we stopped at Flying Goat Coffee on the way for a cookie and shot of caffeine.

For dinner we ate at Zin (also walking distance). We first stopped in at Cyrus again for a drink at the bar. Scott Beattie (see below), was behind the bar. I told him we came all the way from NH for his cocktails -- although my wife says I sounded too much like a stalker -- but I figure a guy gets national press he wants to know people read it. I had a gin martini of his suggestion (Millers gin) and the wife had another Iranian Jaya (the one with chile peppers). One other thing we noted: Every single member of the waitstaff who came into the bar recognized us and took the time to say something or welcome us back. It reminded us how excellent the service had been the previous night, and we were very impressed that even staff who hadn't actually served us recognized us.

With only time to quickly down one cocktail, we stumbled over to Zin for dinner, where their signature appetizer of deep fried green beans with mango-cilantro dipping sauce was a real treat. I don't know why McDonalds isn't serving these instead of fries.

Sunday Night: Cyrus: Phenomenal

Cyrus first came to my attention in an article about bartender Scott Beattie's creative and unique cocktails (Raising the bar), and then I noticed it turning up in all the magazines I frequent: #15 on Gourmet's 2006 list of the Top 50 restaurants (one spot below Arrows in Ogunquit), and chef Douglas Keane was on Food & Wine's list of 2006 Best New Chef's (along with Portsmouth's own Mary Dumont). So when we were planning a trip to wine country, I was excited at the prospect of working in a trip to Cyrus -- so much so, that I picked an inn within walking distance (remember, excellent cocktails).

I made the reservation for Sunday night Halloween weekend, and the earliest I could get was 9pm. I looked up the address on Google maps, and we did a little driving reconaissance when we arrived in Healdsburg, and felt pretty confident we knew where we were going. Alas, we arrive to find a real estate office or something. After we wander around a bit, I remember they had called me to confirm our reservation so I had their number in my cell phone. I call and ask for directions: They tell me I'm standing right in front of it, but that their kitchen closed at 8:15pm and they have no reservation. Uh-oh. The wife thinks fast: Did you call the right place? Doh! I also had our Monday night reservation in my cell -- I got my 707 area code numbers confused. Crisis averted.

So we finally arrive. The bar is pretty quiet, and Scott Beattie is not behind it (it is Sunday after all). They take us into the dining room, and the maitre d' turns the hostess around saying "you can't take them to 44" and we're shuffled back out to the bar. After our brief glimpse into the dining room, the wife says: Crap, I need a cocktail dress! and I wonder if I should be wearing a coat and/or tie... but the web site said business casual! Isn't this California, where they invented business casual? They were wearing shorts and mesh tank tops to work back when our stodgy East coast tech employers were still requiring ties!

They finally let us back into the dining room and explained some sort of patron re-arrangement had been called for, but as a result we now had the Best Seat In The House (it was a back corner table). On to the food...

As soon as you sit, they wheel over a cart of champagne and caviar (we passed). The method of ordering here was different from anything I've seen before. It is sort of prix fixe: There are about 20 options on the menu, and you pick 3, 4 or 5 courses of anything you want, for a fixed price (3 entrees? no problem), and optionally they will also pair wines. You can also choose a 7 course chef's tasting menu, where every course is a surprise. All the courses are sized appropriately, meaningvportions on the 3 course menu are larger than the 7 course. We both chose 4 courses, as follows, plus all sorts of complimentary extras:

As advertised, the cocktails were amazing. We were so impressed with the first round, for the second round we specifically ordered ones that did not sound like something we would like, and of course they were excellent as well.

The roasted porcini was perhaps the standout food of the night for me. I've never had a fresh porcini mushroom before, and I was surprised at home thick and meaty they were. The flavor was tremendous -- more mushroom-y than the supermarket white mushroom, but not overpowering like dried porcini can sometimes be. The wife's autumn were also neat: Cardoon is a relative of artichokes which I had heard of but never thought I would get to try. It tasted a lot like artichoke but with a nice crunch to it. The spinach veloute looked like a little demitasse of pureed spinach, but the flavor was unexpectedly delicate. I would love to know what else was in there.

The White Pumpkin Tagliarini (small spaghetti-like pasta) was very nice and not overly sweet like so many pumpkin dishes can be. It was topped with some nicely toasted pumpkin seeds which were good match to the creamy sauce. The wife's red wine risotto was the least impressive part of the meal, a little too rich. Neither of us finished this course in an effort to save room.

The crispy poussin (cornish game hen) was a small breast piece with few bones. True to its name, it had nicely crisped skin with moist meat, and a flavorful jus (cider-based I think). I loved the brussel sprouts which were halved and a little carmelized (maybe roasted?). The wife was equally impressed with her lamb.

Finally, dessert: The creme brulee mousse consisted of a vanilla mousse topped with a disk or thin carmelized sugar. It was a very unique twist on creme brulee flavors, but in a very light form. The wife's dessert was really a twist on tiramisu: Espresso gelato, marscapone cream and almond dacquoise (kind of like meringue). It tasted like tiramisu, but didn't feel like tiramisu. Very impressive.

Here's the surprise ending: The next morning at breakfast, out of 5 couples staying at the B&B, 4 couples dined at Cyrus the previous night. That at least made breakfast conversation with strangers easy! Everyone rated it exceptional, except one young guy who was a chef and thought it was "good" and that the plating could have been more colorful. Guess I need to visit his place and see how it's really done!

Sunday: Napa

We got a late start, as you might imagine. I was actually awake at 6:30am (9:30 EST) -- since going to bed at 3 and up by 9 hasn't been too unusual with my work schedule lately -- but I did my best to try and sleep since I knew I'd need it later. We finally got checked out ($100 internet special!) around 11, and made a quick stop at the Napa Starbucks (where you can buy a Starbucks® Fruit and Cheese platter), and headed to Copia.

Copia is the "American Center for Wine Food and the Arts" and is sort of a museum/art gallery with a fancy restaurant and lots of events like wine tastings. Admission is a modest $5. We took a quick spin through the "Forks in the Road" exhibit, and then made our way out to the main attraction (for me): The Edible Gardens. We got to see some cool things like the Chaste tree (eating the berries helped monks control their "urges"), pomegranate bush, a dwarf meyer lemon tree (which looked a whole lot healthier than mine), kumquat tree, lemon verbena bush, a quince tree, a fig tree (now I understand the significance of the fig leaf), jujubee tree, olive grove -- suffice it to say I have some excellent ideas for re-landscaping.

Next we headed to Oakville Grocery, which was a mad house full of angry tourists and largely indifferent staff. It was too crazy to look around, so we grabbed a baguette for a little snack and got out. We know from our last last trip that the sandwiches are terrific, but this time we were just looking for a light snack to tide us over.

We had grand plans of trying to visit V. Sattui, Duckhorn, maybe St. Supery, but our main goal was Rubicon (formerly Niebaum-Coppola), and we knew the tour schedule there was not going to fit so well with everything else, but we thought maybe we'd have time for one or two. As soon as we pulled up to the red carpet, handed the car over to the complimentary valet, and were presented with our passports to Rubicon, we pretty much knew this estate going to take the rest of the day.
Rubicon has an excellent "Legacy Tour" filled with history and an amazing look at the chateau (plus some movie memoribilia). I was amazed to find out how much Niebaum, a Finnish-born, Russian sea captain turned San Francisco-Alaska business magnate, had contributed to wine making in Napa. He was responsible for advances in sanitation (leading to longer lasting wines) as well as the first in America to bottle wines rather than sell them in barrels (thus preventing unscrupulous distributors from diluting his wine). It was also interesting to hear how his descendants had to sell off the Inglenoook, piece by piece, until Francis Ford Coppola showed up and reassembled it all, piece by piece. Thank goodness for rich guys with a passion for wine.

We got out of Rubicon at about 4pm and headed to Cindy's Back Street Kitchen in St. Helena for a late/light lunch (keeping in mind our dinner reservation is at 9). Here I am expecting a sort of nice deli or cafe, but it turns out to be more of an upscale sit-down kind of place (I think even McDonalds in Napa has white table linen). Nevertheless, I get possibly the best burger ever, and the wife gets a chicken BLT with avacado -- both excellent.

After lunch we headed north to Healdsburg in Sonoma County, and our B&B Grape Leaf Inn. With this place we really lucked out: We're spending 2 nights in this beautiful Victorian full of stained glass and within walking distance of downtown Healdsburg -- almost for free. I guess its the slow season, because they are having a special which knocks off 1/3 of the room price, and the remainder is covered on a Select Registry gift certificate from the wife's sister. Thanks!

That of course means more room in the budget for fancy schmancy meals, which we will be taking advantage of tonight at Cyrus!

And 19 hours later...

...we're in the hotel in Napa about to finally get some sleep. In brief: Manchester -> Midway -- where the layover was no sweat thanks to WiFi, Ben & Jerry's and the secret bathrooms (discovered on a previous trip) -- then Midway -> Oakland, arriving at 5:30pm PST. 40 minutes later we finally had our luggage. First stop: Jamba juice (which was nothing like the Natalie Portman skit, but the smoothies were good). Then about an hour to Napa (what's the deal with all the California drivers who go way under the speed limit on the freeway? do they spend so much time in gridlock they kind of freeze up on a wide open road?), quick check-in, and 8:30 dinner reservations at Mustard's Grill in Yountville.

I found out about Mustard's Grill from an article in the New York Times [Going to Napa, but Skipping the Vineyards] where it was more highly recommended (and less expensive) than my original idea, Thomas Keller's Bouchon.

I was a little put off when we arrived for our reservation and had to wait about 10 minutes. Normally not a big deal, but it was 11:30pm to us, and the hostess didn't make even a cursory apology. Our menus and water came promptly but then it was probably another 10 minutes before our server came back to get our order.

The wife ordered a mixed green salad (perfectly tossed with a subtle dressing) with pecans and a dish entitled "Truckstop" which was a 12oz ribeye, onions, chanterelle mushrooms and bleu cheese potatoes au gratin. The steak was grilled to a perfect medium-rare that left it tender, topped with some sauteed onions and a wonderful demi-glace. The potatoes au gratin was also excellent; the bleu cheese was not overpowering, and the thinly sliced potatoes had a nice toothsome texture. The waitress suggested a glass of Truchard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 1998 which was an excellent match and a wine we both enjoyed in its own right. The wife picked out some hints of cherry in it.

I had the Onion Rings with tomato-apple ketchup for an appetizer, and the Famous Mongolian Pork Chop with mashed potatoes and sweet and sour cabbage. The onion rings were fine: It was a huge platter of shoestring rings like you might get anywhere, and they were a little unevenly fried. The tomato-apple ketchup was a neat twist. The Famous Mongolian Pork Chop was described as being marinated in hoisin sauce, grilled and finished with a homemade mustard sauce. The flavors on this were very unique, so I give it high marks, even though such a strong mustard flavor is not my cup of tea. I could see how the mustard was a nice foil to the sweetness of the hoisin, and I would order it again if only it was dressed up with something other than cabbage. I'm ambivalent towards cabbage -- I don't dislike it, but I don't like it enough to waste calories on eating it -- although I am open to discovering that perfect preparation. This was not it. It just tasted like any other cabbage I've had. I would have like to see something green on the plate instead, like broccoli or maybe baby bok choy. For wine, I had Ceja Red Blend "Vino de Casa" Napa 2004 which the waitress suggested. Again a good match, the wine had a certain pluminess that went well with the hoisin, although I preferred the wife's cab even if it didn't really pair with my meal.

I really wanted to try the Apple Quince and Cheddar Deep Dish Pie for dessert, but we were too tired and full. Southwest Spirit magazine says Quince is the food of the month, and I've never tried it. Maybe later this week.

And we're off!

We're just about to leave for a week in Napa, Sonoma and San Francisco. We don't have too many hard plans yet, other than our dinner reservations (thanks to the very cool site OpenTable: Mustard's Grille, Cyrus, Zin, Chez Panisse, Citizen Cake, Home.