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Farm-to-table Modern American cuisine is the prevalent style in the Napa Valley and Sonoma County, but this encompasses both the delicate preparations of Yountville’s Thomas Keller, whose restaurants include The French Laundry, and the upscale comfort food served throughout the Wine Country. The quality (and hype) often means high prices, but you can find appealing, inexpensive eateries, especially in Napa, Calistoga, Sonoma, and Santa Rosa.
Spouses Andzia and Jenay Hofftin opened this organic restaurant, retail and wine shop, and community gathering spot inside Occidental's oldest building (1872). The "farm-fresh comfort food" menu encompasses everything from egg sandwiches and a yogurt and grain-free-granola parfait for breakfast to vegan bowls and pork melts for lunch and (three days a week) early dinner until 7.
A vaulted wood-beamed ceiling and paper-topped tables set the scene for romance at this softly lit French bistro inside an 1890s boathouse. Look for clever variations on classic dishes such as croque monsieur (grilled Parisian ham and Gruyère) and salade niçoise for lunch, with veal sweetbreads, cassoulet, beef bourguignon, and, in season, steamed mussels for dinner.
Giovanni Scala opened this boisterous roadhouse restaurant in the mid-1990s, and it's still a hangout of Napans who appreciate its Cal-Italian bistro cuisine, prepared with flair by Scott Warner, Scala's executive chef and partner. Warner augments the greatest-hits lineup—fritto misto (deep-fried calamari, onions, fennel, and rock shrimp), spinach ravioli with lemon-cream or tomato sauce, slow-braised lamb shank, and wood-fired pizzas—with daily specials based on seasonal ingredients.
Escargots, cassoulet, steak au poivre (pepper steak), and other French classics are prepared with precision inside this tan-brick country bistro whose flower-filled window boxes, extra-wide shutters, and red-and-white-striped awning hint at the old-world flair and joie de vivre that infuse the place. Regulars often start with the rich tomato soup in a flaky puff pastry before proceeding to sole meunière or coq au vin, completing the French sojourn with crème brûlée au chocolat or another authentic dessert.
Skilled baristas churn out a dizzying array of coffee drinks—drip, cold brew, nitro cold brew, all the fave espresso options—in a clean downtown space with white walls and teal wainscoting. Pastries, tartines, avocado toast, quiche, and egg-inflected sandwiches (some vegan or gluten-free) are the breakfast hits, with banh mi and the like added for lunch.
A casual storefront restaurant on Guerneville's main drag, boon eat+drink has a menu built around salads, smallish shareable plates, and entrées that might include a vegan bowl, chili-braised pork shoulder, and local cod with shiitakes. Like many of chef-owner Crista Luedtke's dishes, the signature polenta lasagna—creamy ricotta salata cheese and polenta served on greens sautéed in garlic, all of it floating upon a spicy marinara sauce—deviates significantly from the lasagna norm but succeeds on its own merits.
The team that created The French Laundry is also behind this place, where everything—the zinc-topped bar, antique sconces, suave waitstaff, and traditional French onion soup—could have come straight from a Parisian bistro. Pan-seared flat iron steak with caramelized shallots and mussels steamed with white wine, saffron, and Dijon mustard—both served with crispy, addictive fries—are among the perfectly executed entrées.
Calistoga's flashy 19th-century entrepreneur Sam Brannan built the depot in 1868 to receive spa patrons, but it was looking careworn until his 21st-century equivalent, Wine Country vintner-showman Jean-Charles Boisset, restored the wood-frame building and opened a combination gourmet grocery, café, wine shop, distillery, and wine and beer garden. As at Boisset's historic Oakville Grocery, salads, artisanal sandwiches, and wood-fired pizzas headline.
Cookbook author and Iron Chef judge Domenica Catelli returned home to revive her family's American-Italian restaurant, a Geyserville fixture. Contemporary abstract paintings, reclaimed-wood furnishings, and muted gray and chocolate-brown walls signal the changing times, but you'll find good-lovin' echoes of traditional cuisine in the sturdy meat sauce that accompanies the signature lasagna paper-thin noodles and ricotta-and-herb-cheese filling.
A curved marble bar spotlit by contemporary art-glass pendants adds a touch of style to this downtown restaurant whose northern Italian cuisine pleases with understated sophistication. Mussels with house-made sausage in a spicy tomato broth, chopped salad with pancetta and pecorino, and the daily changing risotto are among the dishes regulars revere.
From pintxos and paellas to Iberian cheeses and fish à la plancha (flat-grilled), the chefs at this Wine Country offspring of Michael Chiarello's successful San Francisco restaurant Coqueta reimagine Spanish classics with a 21st-century farm-to-table sensibility. The frenetic pace in the flame-happy open kitchen, inside Yountville's redbrick former railroad depot, keeps the mood lively in the relatively small dining space, with the vibe on the patio out back even more so.
In a high-ceilinged former barn with plenty of outside seating, Farmstead revolves around an open kitchen whose chefs prepare meals with grass-fed beef and lamb, fruits and vegetables, and eggs, olive oil, wine, honey, and other ingredients from nearby Long Meadow Ranch. Entrées might include wood-grilled trout with fennel and bacon-mustard vinaigrette; caramelized beets with goat cheese and chimichurri; or a wood-grilled heritage pork chop with jalapeño grits.
The mixologists at this verdant "bar-focused restaurant" whip up creative "garden-to-glass" cocktails meant for pairing with neo-comfort food whose ingredients, especially the produce, are primarily cultivated in west Sonoma County. "Umami bomb" mushrooms with sticky rice and the tofu with turmeric and peanut velouté entice vegans and vegetarians at dinner, but with lamb sausage, roasted chicken, a smash burger, and pan-seared fish, there's plenty for meat eaters, too.
Shortly after graduating from a local college's culinary program, chef Carlos Mojica opened this warmly lit Latin American–Caribbean restaurant with a handful of tables inside and out. Loyalists pine for enchiladas with salsa verde and pupusas (corn tortillas stuffed with cheese and pork or vegetables), a prelude to signature entrées like pescado en salsa con coco (fish in sweet coconut) and Caribbean-style paella suffused with smoky-garlicky tomato broth.
Asian tapestries, Nepalese tunes, images of precipitous peaks, and the fragrant scent of curries transport patrons of this storefront restaurant to the Himalayas, at least for an hour. Locals enamored of the flavorful cuisine and solicitous service often pack the place for dinner, served indoors and on the adjoining patio.
The chefs behind this open-kitchen storefront eatery have mastered the art of fusing northern Thai and Northern California techniques without sacrificing authenticity. Hits such as whole fried chili-pepper fish, green papaya salad, and spicy and sour seafood curry captivate even before the first bite with their fragrant aromas, colorful presentation, and obviously fresh locally cultivated ingredients.
Todd Humphries has overseen swank haute-cuisine kitchens in Manhattan, San Francisco, and the Napa Valley, but he focuses on multicultural comfort plates at his high-ceilinged industrial-contemporary restaurant downtown. The signature dishes include a silky cream of mushroom soup, flatbreads, pho, Thai fisherman's stew, duck banh mi sandwiches (go for the voluptuous duck jus add-on), and sweet, spicy, and succulent chicken wings among many other crowd-pleasers that keep this place hopping even in the off-season.
Born in the Azores and raised in Sonoma, chef-owner Manuel Azevedo serves cuisine inspired by his native Portugal in this warmly decorated spot with a heated patio out front. The wood-oven whole-roasted fish is always worth trying, and there are usually boldly flavored pork dishes, along with a casserole, pot roast, stew, salted cod, and other hearty fare.
A bright-yellow slice of France in downtown Glen Ellen, this combination pâtisserie, boulangerie, and café takes its name from its husband-and-wife owners, Pascal and Pascale Merle. Pascal whips up croissants, breads, turnovers, and sweet treats like Napoleons, galettes, and eclairs, along with quiches, potpies, and other savory fare; Pascale creates a cordial environment for customers to enjoy them.
Christopher Kostow gained fame as the award-winning chef of the Restaurant at Meadowood, the essence of Napa Valley haute fine dining, but the fare and mood are more down-to-earth at the order-at-the-counter deli he and his marketing-whiz wife, Martina Kostow, opened at the Oxbow Public Market. Bagels and bagel sandwiches anchor the breakfast menu, with pastrami and smoked-whitefish-salad sandwiches appearing for lunch and early dinner, along with matzoh ball soup, latkes, and other stalwarts.
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