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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 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.
In a postage-stamp-size open kitchen (the dining room, its white walls adorned with contemporary art, is nearly as compact), chef Jeffrey Lloyd turns out understated, sophisticated fare emphasizing seasonably available local ingredients. Meats, pastas, and seafood get deluxe treatment without fuss or fanfare—and the daily risotto special is always worth trying.
A participant in the Slow Food movement, Central Market serves creative, upscale Cal-Mediterranean dishes—many of whose ingredients come from the restaurant's organic farm—in a century-old building with an exposed brick wall and an open kitchen. The menu, which changes daily depending on chef Tony Najiola's inspiration and what's ripe and ready, might include spicy duck wings as a starter, a slow-roasted-beets salad, pizzas, stews, two or three pasta dishes, and wood-grilled fish and meat.
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.
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.
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.
Regulars of this southern Petaluma "daytime café" with indoor and outdoor seating rave about its eastern Mediterranean–inflected cuisine—then immediately downplay their enthusiasm lest this unassuming gem become more popular. The menu changes often, but mainstays include shakshuka (a tomato-based stew with baked eggs) and a lamb burger dripping with fennel tzatziki.
A longtime member of the United States Pizza Team, chef-owner Leah Scurto has won national and international awards for creations like the Mush-a-Roni (pepperoni, cremini), the Nico (olive oil, mozzarella, roasted garlic, Parmesan), and the spicy Old Grey Beard (two kinds of cheese, sausage, Calabrian peppers, honey, orange zest). She serves her pies—plus salads, calzones, meatballs, and a few other items—in a minimally decorated strip-mall storefront with a spacious entryway patio.
At this hot spot for inventive French cooking inside the historic Sonoma Hotel bar, you can always find a dish with the signature figs on the menu, whether it's a fig-and-arugula salad or an aperitif blending sparkling wine with fig liqueur. Also look for duck confit, a burger with matchstick fries, and wild flounder meunière.
The redwood-timbered main dining space of this comfort-food haven recalls the 19th-century heyday of the former sawmill (later a grist mill) it occupies, though when the weather's nice most patrons take their meals on a plant-filled outdoor deck with timeless Sonoma Creek views. Culinary influences from Latin America to Southeast Asia underlie dishes that might include fire-roasted achiote half chicken, wild poached salmon, and potato patties with red lentils and chutney.
Every dish on the small menu at this wine store, wine bar, and restaurant is a standout, including the pulled-pork and smoked beef-brisket sandwiches served with three types of barbecue sauce, the meltingly tender St. Louis–style ribs, and the signature beer-can chicken (only Tecate will do). The space is whimsically rustic, with stuffed-game trophies mounted on the wall and leather saddles used as seats at a couple of tables.
Succulent fried chicken and St. Louis ribs whose meat glides off the bone are among the hits at this open-air, partially covered restaurant where diners sit at sturdy oak picnic or high-top tables. Many of the ingredients come from top artisanal protein and produce purveyors; most of the two dozen beers on tap are by craft breweries.
A roadside stand at the west end of Calistoga's downtown, Buster's serves Louisiana-style barbecue basics, sweet-potato pies, and corn bread muffins. Local-fave sandwiches at lunch (best time to come) include the tri-tip, spicy hot links, and pulled pork, with tri-tip and pork or beef ribs the hits at dinner (which comes early at 6 or 7 in winter, 7 or 8 in summer).
Two microbrewing brothers' longtime dream, this storefront gastropub along Geyserville's slim commercial row serves their ales and other area craft brews, plus a rotating lineup of kombuchas, ciders, stouts, seltzers, and sours. The beverages beguile, as do the flavors in animal- and plant-based dishes that might include farro salad, cheddar cauliflower muffulettas, lamb burgers, roasted-mushroom melts, pickled vegetables, and pork belly sliders (good with the potent house IPA).
"Elevate Your Everyday" glows a neon side at Crisp, whose spanking-clean interior mirrors the pristine food—avocado toast, beet-cured salmon tartine, breakfast and lunch bowls, and inventive juices, soups, broths, and smoothies—this health-oriented café serves. The location next to Sunshine Market (easy parking out front) may lack glamour, but the place exudes wellness, and the menu acknowledges the requirements of vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores alike.
A dining area with hardwood floors, a pressed-tin ceiling, and exposed-brick walls provides a fitting setting for the rustic cuisine at this Geyserville mainstay. Chef Dino Bugica studied with artisanal cooks in Italy before opening this restaurant specializing in wood-fired pizzas and house-cured meats, with a few salads and meaty main courses rounding out the menu.
This restaurant owes its visual appeal to its clean lines and svelte decor, but the eye inevitably drifts westward to the open kitchen, where longtime executive chef Armando Navarro's team crafts dishes full of subtle surprises. The menu might include ceviche or roasted maitake mushrooms as starters and pan-roasted salmon, fettuccine carbonara, or paella awash with seafood among the entrées.
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