NapaEats Blog

Eeek. I haven’t put anything new up on NapaEats since the start of July. I guess I got a bit of review burnout there. But back in the saddle we go…

We posted a Bayleaf review and some pics. The owner stated that he wanted some sort of 1960s type of elegance, and I guess that’s what they got. It admittedly feels a little bit out of place given that most Napa Valley restaurants at the Bayleaf level are fairly casual and laid-back. What might seem natural at say the French Laundry comes off a little affected at Bayleaf. The area outside of the restaurant is fairly pretty and out of the way. It does give it a hidden feel if you’re trying to escape the tourist feel. But the food struggles a bit to live up to its price tag and atmosphere. Here’s a picture of their Beef Wellington (and supposedly nothing says 1960s elegance more than Beef Wellington!)

So, we finally got around to putting up a Press review. Press is right next to the Dean and DeLuca (both owned by the same guy, Leslie Rudd) out on Hwy 29. We don’t stop into Dean and DeLuca often (the last time we went was to buy our first truffle to use for when I got a job after we moved up here. I got a job, but we forgot about the truffle until about oh…2 years later. Oops.) And I suppose since we’re so used to driving past D&L without actually going in that we never got around to going to Press. Here’s a picture of the filet mignon au poivre.

There are a number of steakhouses in Napa Valley, ranging from Cole’s and Jonesy’s in Napa, FlatIron in Calistoga, and a ton of grill type places that do steaks. We’ve only been to a few, and probably as pure steakhouses go, Press is probably our favorite so far if we’re just in the mood for an upscale steakhouse. Admittedly, this isn’t often as the sticker shock is not tiny. But you know, it’s by Dean and DeLuca where I’ve been told that people pay $20 per sugar cube (imported. Domestic is $10) so I guess we knew what we’re getting into.

Finally got around to putting up the Bistro Jeanty images as well as touching up the Bistro Jeanty review. Here’s a shot of the escargots which outside of being tasty as heck also happen to make for nice photos

Anyway, more images are up on the Bistro Jeanty review. Bistro Jeanty is one of our favorite restaurants in the area. It is heavy, but sometimes a lot of restaurants in Napa Valley sort of taste the same. Sure, the food’s good, but it’s like too many restaurants are going off the same playbook. But Bistro Jeanty is unapologetically classic hearty French and delicious.

One time someone asked me what are some good locals’ favorites in the area that you could just go in without a reservation but the food was still pretty good. So, here, locals’ favorite means hidden, I guess. But if the food was pretty good by the area’s standard, it doesn’t seem likely that it would remain hidden for too long, especially in a tourist-driven area like Napa Valley. I can point out some restaurants that tourists aren’t that familiar with that deserve more attention than they get (eg, ZinsValley), but I wouldn’t necessarily call them the best restaurant experiences in the area, just overlooked for their level.

Others really want to know where the locals go to eat so they can eat as the locals do. But you know, one of the most popular place in the city of Napa is the local Applebees. Similar level restaurants are also pretty popular. Why? The median household income in the city of Napa is about $50K. These folks are looking for more affordable meals. For them, a trip to Piccolino’s is a meaningful night out; for the foodies, they see an Olive Garden, hardly a foodie-worthy experience. Sorry, but these high-end dining places are at least 50% for the tourists, probably a lot more.

Others just want to avoid tourists. Some sort of insider club. But most of the best restaurants in Napa Valley have a heavy tourist weighting. Redd, Ubuntu, Bistro Jeanty, etc. You’d expect that right? The best restaurants tend to get the most press. That isn’t to mean that some aren’t perhaps overrated and get more tourists than you’d think (for me, Mustard’s is sort of in this category), but you know, it’d be strange if the best restaurants DIDN’T have a heavy tourist component.

I usually just ask these people what’re they in the mood for and let’s start from there.

We finally managed to make it to Ad hoc’s fried chicken Wednesdays (actually others have told me that their fried chicken is usually on Mondays…check the menu online first!), and life was good. I prefer the normal Ad Hoc menus more overall, but if you’re in the mood for fried chicken, this is a pretty sweet spread (and this is just the fried chicken portion of the prix fixe menu).

More pictures are up at the Ad hoc review at NapaEats. Admittedly, we’ll go to Ad hoc without even looking at the tasting menu. Seems more fun, but I can understand that if you’re just visiting the area, you probably want to check out the Ad hoc menu for the day first.

If you look closely at the handle of the fried chicken pan, you might see the burnt pieces of my fingertips on the handles.

You can check out the photos at the Ubuntu review. We’ve been to Ubuntu a few times, but it’s always been for lunch for some reason. We finally got around to going for dinner, and so of course, we have to go for the tasting menu.

I’ve always been impressed by Ubuntu because of the fact that I enjoy the food quite a bit but have historically not had great experiences with vegetarian restaurants (yeah, yeah, it’s a “vegetable restaurant.”) But the tasting menu was quite good by any definition, and the combination of flavors, textures, colors, etc. was one of the best we’ve had in Napa Valley. Ubuntu’s flavors can be surprisingly sharp and distinct at times. Does the lack of meat make necessity the mother of invention?

Although the tasting menu was strong from top to bottom, the one that left the most impact on me was the peas and shoots in shell consomme. Looked great, but the taste was awesome. Little bits of white chocolate and macademia nuts really complemented the natural sweetness of the fresh from the shell peas, and the mint helped evoke a spring breeze. Not sure why I like this dish so much. Maybe I was just traumatized by mushy, defrosted peas when I was young.

There is a certain group of people that find Ubuntu either terrific or highly overrated. You can get a feel for both at DeansGuide (Deansguide being the former and John Colbert’s post being the latter). You can see the same at Chowhound (terrific vs. overrated).

But anyway, you can find more pictures at the full Ubuntu review.

So, on Chowhound, some person asks for Italian restaurants in the city of Napa that the person can go to before heading back to San Francisco. The consensus pick (and my recommendation too) is Bistro Don Giovanni. But since Napa is crawling with Italian restaurants, I go ahead and rattle off a bunch more just to toss them out there.

Just in case you don’t want to go with the safe pick, there’s Tuscany (we like the stuff off the grill better, large wall windows that open up during the spring/summer), Allegria (food on the heavier side; you’ll be tasting it for a while but sometimes you’re in the mood for that kind of thing. Cool bank interior with the high ceilings), Uva (usually live music and also offers half-plates which are great if you want to try out a lot of different dishes), Villa Romano (food on the heavier side but quiet dining area like eating in a bed and breakfast way down south on Soscol on your way out to SF), Piccolino’s (least favorite).

So, one Chow foodie, maria lorraine, gets bent out of shape and write in:

What is it about the food at Tuscany (terrible, just terrible), Allegria (a single good report among my crowd), Villa Romano and Piccolino’s that would make you recommend them?

Seems like you merely made a list of Italian restos that exist, rather than making recommendations. Tell me what dishes are well-prepared and well-executed at these restos because I’m very confused to see them even mentioned on a Chowhound board.

Sheesh. Just mentioning them on a Chowhound board is confusing to her. Apparently, it is inconceivable that there are any well-prepared or well-executed dishes at any of these restaurants. Just one person in her foodie crowd can come up with a single decent experience.

Keep in mind, some of these places have been open for a while and still manage to survive despite a competitive environment. Contrary to popular belief, tourists alone usually are not enough to keep Napa Valley restaurants going because during the lighter tourist months, the locals are what tide you over until the tourists return. There just aren’t enough tourist noobs out there to sustain you if you are truly bad.

But different people have different tastes. She probably has far higher standards than I do. Although falme wars have been started with less than her response, at least she has some passion for her stuff. And you know, it’s an Internet forum. You’re just going to bump into people like this; it’s part of the Internet’s charm. You get multiple looks at an issue and then figure out which is the most relevant to you.

Like I said on the front page, I’m not even going to try to be a Michelin or Zagat reviewer. I don’t have the tastebuds. I have to go to wikipedia for half of the ingredients I come across at some of these restaurants. I don’t have the knowledge. Sorry, I’m just not a foodie yet. Maybe ever (I’m afraid that if I ever end up as a foodie I’ll wake up one day and look like those folks from the foodie club episode from Top Chef and promptly kill myself. Check out pictures 6 and 9. Some people just have too much money (and silicone apparently)

A former marketing professor of mine, Brian Wansink (who wrote a great book called Mindless Eating and was also one of the best profs I’ve ever had) was doing a teaching stint in Europe. In the meanwhile, he passed his first round of sommelier training. His wife was training at the Cordon Bleu in Paris. When he got back to the US, someone noted the Carl’s Jr and other junk food wrappings in the backseat and pointed out that it was odd that someone who was surrounded by fine dining would eat that kind of junk food. And he mentioned that they were all his children. Everything has its place.

That pretty much sums it up for me. We of course like some places more than others. But overall, we like to eat more than we like to be critics. I think part of the reason why we do tour so many restaurants in the area, despite having favorites, is that (a) we still mostly enjoy eating at almost all of these places and (b) you appreciate the better restaurants more.

We were grad students for a long time. You want to talk about bad eats? Be a grad student. You’ll be amazed at what your culinary baseline will be. Top Ramen? Pfff. You hick. Kung-Fu Ramen!

It does stink to get your hopes up that you found a promising, new place to eat and then you find out that the place closed down. Some scattered posts in Chowhound and Yelp said that Gordon’s Cafe and Wine Bar in Yountville had great breakfasts. We wanted to see how it compared to Alexis Baking Company Cafe’s breakfasts because ABC’s Sunday breakfast is still tops in our book. So while trying to find the directions and read a bit about the place, I catch this blog post from winecountrygetaways’s blog instead saying that it shut down because of declining economics although it might be re-opened.

We guess that is partly what made Gordon’s special. Not everyone new about the place, almost a hidden hideaway. We hope Gordon’s reopens soon and keeps the same flavor and atmosphere as before. Visitors just need to know it is there and they will come.

This got me thinking that sometimes I hear about this romantic concept of the “local’s favorite” that nobody else knows about. And yet, it’s really good and the local eaters like to keep it a secret. It gives the smug feeling of being part of an unknown, exclusive club.

But most restaurant owners do NOT want to be unknown (exclusive maybe, unknown no). It would suck to be an owner and have my locals tell me that they love my place so much that they wanted to keep my place a secret and then I go out of business later on.

So, if you really like a place, tell folks about it!

Google Analytics is a lot of fun and brings web analytics to everybody. If you don’t have it for your website, you should definitely take a look. The installation is pretty painless, just drop a snippet of Javascript code into your web page, and voila. You can do more customized installations, but even this basic level shows some interesting stuff.

So, for instance, here are the top 10 individual restaurant pages on NapaEats in terms of pageviews.

1. Ad hoc
2. Auberge du Soleil
3. Ubuntu
4. Taylor’s Refresher
5. Rutherford Grill
6. Bistro Jeanty
7. Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen
8. Bouchon
9. Alexis Baking Company Cafe
10. Bistro Don Giovanni

I’m surprised that Redd didn’t make it on here. This list is biased in the sense that if we don’t have a review for it up (eg, French Laundry), then obviously, it can’t get traffic. Some of these pages get more search engine traffic than the others which gives those pages a bump. But of the 40+ reviews on the site so far, it’s interesting to see what people are interested in once they hit the site.

Some new pictures are up for the Kelley’s No Bad Days Cafe review (not Kelly’s btw). Here’s a shot of the calamari below. Calamari is probably the most overused appetizer in the area, but Kelley’s version is our favorite primarily because of the seasoning mix.

Kelley’s is actually the very first higher-end restaurant we went to when we first moved to Napa. We were just walking around downtown for some new arrival errands and randomly picked it. We had heard so much about the fine dining in Napa Valley in general that we wondered what would happen if we picked some small, unassuming restaurant in downtown. And then we ate at Kelley’s, and it was like “wow, there really are good restaurants just lying around everywhere!” And even though there are better restaurants, and Kelley’s food is on the pricey side, we always remember it fondly. Best calamari in the area, and we like the atmosphere and the quirky owner too. It’s one of the few places we go to because we just like the mood.