NapaEats Blog

I’m not sure which is worse: that the Border closed down before I could write a review, or that it took me that long to write a review after it opened. The Border opened up where Tuscany used to be as Uncork29 explains (fun resource btw) as well as the St. Helena Star. Figuring that the city of Napa probably had oh 2-4 more Italian restaurants than it actually needed, the owner brought in Pablo and Erasto Jacinto, who spent time at Mustard’s and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. When I heard that, I was thinking “Mexican food that reads better on paper than it tastes in real life” because that’s sort of my knock on Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. We went, and yeah, it’s what I expected. The funny thing was that one point, I think the owner was talking about how some appetizer fungus in an empanada grew slowly on corn and was a delicacy. When he saw us eating it, he said “see, it tastes like corn.” Well, yeah, it does, but a fungus that tastes like corn might as well be corn for all practical purposes, particularly when it’s wrapped in a fried corn casing…

The enchiladas were just ok, the border ribs were decent. The chocolate cake was ok; the mango flambe was ok only because I really like mangoes. For the 2 entrees, 2 dessert, 1 appetizer, 2 glasses of wine, taxes, and tip, it was $100 which isn’t that really that high by higher-end Napa Valley standards. But it did kind of feel like the dishes were kind of lacking in flavor and gave the impression of overpriced  (which is sort of another criticism I have of Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen.) Business was pretty good when we went (around when it first opened) in May 2009, but I wondered how long it would last. You can see similar grumblings from the Yelpers here and here and the Chowhounds. I guess the answer was “not too long” which is sort of a shame because I still think there’s a market for higher-end Mexican food. It’d just be nice if someone did it with a stronger point of view flavor-wise.

So, what happens? The owner converts it back to Tuscany, “serving steaks, ribs and Italian specialties.” (Yeesh. Ain’t too many of those here…) Meanwhile, the two brothers will be running a taqueria in Oxbow to replace Rotisario who decided to not renew their lease.

Anyway, here are some pics from the place that I never got a chance to post on the site properly. I guess that’s what happens when you wait 8 months before talking about it…

Uva is one of the many Italian restaurants in the Napa Valley area. Even not counting the restaurants that have Italian dishes, you still have Bistro Don Giovanni, Fabrizio, Villa Romano, Allegria, the once closed and newly re-opened Tuscany, and Pasta Prego within the city of Napa. And then Bottega in Yountville. Cook in St. Helena. Tra Vigne in St. Helena. And probably a few more that I’ve forgotten. It’s our primary local back-up plan for Italian because we live close to downtown Napa.

The nice thing about Uva is that it has half-plates of Italian mainstays; each one is probably large enough for a decent lunch. But if you’re sort of in a mood for more of an Italian smorgasbord, then Uva’s a good place to check out. Anyway, here’s the Uva review, and here are some pics.

Just in case any of you want to do your own restaurant review site for the rest of the Internet to share in…write up your review after you eat. You’ll still be jazzed (or not) about where and what you ate. You’ll be in the mood to tweak those pictures. You’ll be more interested in the background story of the restaurant.

Conversely, if you wait a few weeks or months like me, you look at these images and think “what the heck was this?”

According to the SF Gate Inside Scoop , Jeremy and Deanie Fox and a good chunk of their staff  have left Ubuntu. If this is true, that’d be pretty sad because Ubuntu is easily the most creative restaurant in the city of Napa and one of the top in the whole region. I’m a certified carnivore, and Ubuntu with their “we’re a vegetable restaurant, not a vegetarian one” attitude is one of my favorite restaurants in the area. Is there even an Ubuntu restaurant without Jeremy Fox?

Even Ubuntu  suffered with the Great Recession and got rid of their formal tasting menu last year which was a real shame. I wonder how bad the situation had to deteriorate either at a personal or financial level that the chefs and staff just walk out abruptly on the owner

Crap, I was just thinking about going in next week. Where the heck am I going to get my cheesecake in a jar and cauliflower in a cast-iron pot now? Some entertaining speculation from the folks at Chowhound.

The French Laundry is coming up fairly soon for us. It’s our second time, but it’s our first time just with the two of us. The first time we went a few years ago was awesome (as was the bill $750 for the two of us as our dinner party went a little nuts with the wine). I’m stoked about going back for a second trip. The interesting thing is that the French Laundry is notoriously difficult to get reservations for. When we went the first time, we had one of us calling all the time, and the first opening we got, we all moved everything out of the way to go. We’d heard that if you’re pretty flexible about the time, it was easier to get a reservation, and since we live in the area, time was on our side. But still, it was a pain in the butt.

But today? I don’t know if it’s the recession or if this has always been available, but we booked it through OpenTable without that much lead time. Not exactly a reservation story for the ages that you tell your envious friends (which is why I plan to just flat outright lie…)

The Napa Valley Register had a great recap of the Napa Valley restaurant changes in the last 10 years last month. It’s definitely worth reading even if you don’t live here to get a feel for how often restaurants turn over in the area. It’s a tough business. Even Piccolino’s, which had been around for more than a decade, had to shut their doors because of a combination of the recession and downtown changes. Was Piccolino’s great eats? Well, no. But most restaurants don’t survive 10 years in areas with such brutal competition. The foodies will look down on Piccolino’s, but it did have a good amount of local support which you can tell by the comments in the article discussing its closing.

We’ve been in Napa for about 5.5 years now. I guess we’re not new to the area anymore. So, it’s interesting to read this article and remember the restaurants that came and went. Not every restaurant was/is great, but you’re reminded of how tough it is to keep open for a while. It’s also interesting how easily you can remember conversations or experiences with these restaurants which I took for granted. For instance, while reading the article, there’s a flood of memories that come up with each restaurant even though I haven’t thought of them much since they left. I don’t remember every detail of every meal, but I do remember something about each of these restaurants fairly vividly. Maybe it’s the food, the conversation, the people watching, the service, and so on. It’s funny because there are so many things in my life that I’ve forgotten, and yet, I remember so many unimportant details of these experiences just because they were tied to the sights, flavors, sounds, etc. of a meal.

Went to Grace’s Table recently, and it was an interesting find. The first thing that hits you is the spanish, french, and italian dishes on the menu and some menu items which are a combination of flavors. And then the second thing that you see is that the prices aren’t too bad for these types of dishes. They’ve been open for about 1.5 months now, taking over from Elements who came and went within a year, in Pizza Azzurro’s old spot. So, it’ll be really interesting to see how things turn out. Our dining experience wasn’t as solid as it could’ve been (I’ll write it off to new restaurant kinks), but it was promising enough that we’ll probably go back. I think if they can level things out, their pricing and location can give them a strong local’s base. It looks like they’re off to a fairly good start because they were re fairly full on a rainy cold weekday in January. Here’s a pic of their kabocha squash gnocchi.

It’s taken us at at least a year, but we finally made our way to the Black Bear Diner. Humongous portions at pretty good prices. The food quality is just ok. In some ways, it was worse than ok, when I saw how they mangled our sausage patties. Who cares if it’s homemade if it it has this charred lining that prevents you from getting to the meat? The breakfast was a bit lukewarm. They ran out of biscuits which is supposedly one of their strengths by 9:00 am. Meh. Well, at least we got two portions out of it.

The Black Bear Diner took the space that was vacated by Baker’s Square whose food and service were pretty bad. So, given that basically one diner was replacing the other, it’s interesting to note how much more business the Black Bear Diner is doing than Baker’s Square. The price points and large servings size are a big attraction for Napans. People overlook the fact that Napa isn’t a rich city. The Napa median household income is about $52K according to Wikipedia. So, that’s 50% above and 50% below that amount. You see a lot of locals grousing at how there aren’t many middle level restaurants around for people who live and work here. Just a bunch of overpriced, higher-end places catering to tourists. The Black Bear Diner isn’t my cup of tea, but judging by its parking lot, it does appeal to a lot of the locals. Anyway, here’s the Black Bear Diner review.

I started NapaEats just to fool around with Plone and Wordpress in a way that I thought others might find useful. So, the only thing I could think of is one couple’s view of the restaurants in the area even if we’re not gourmet foodies or whatever. But one thing that surprised me is how much work it is to crank this stuff out. Those who do this like every week or even month must really love what they do. We’ve eaten at more restaurants here than we’ve reviewed, but it’s just hard to get it up to write a full review, futz with the images (and you know, it’s hard work to take this many blurry, poorly lit, tragic coloring, etc. images!), dig up the restaurant info, reviews with lots of typos and dubious grammar, etc after every time we eat out.

And so months pass before I ever update the site. Restaurants that we’ve eaten at have opened and even closed before I ever get around to writing something up. We’ve eaten at Uva multiple times, but is there a review up there? Nah. We don’t have any legible pictures; do it next time we eat there and remember to take a picture (next time passes) No, the next next time. Um, no wait…(6 months passes) So, I think I’m just going to aim for shorter reviews to just get up some initial thoughts and pictures. And then maybe expand on them later (yeah, right) in the hopes that I can make it feel like just a fun thing to do rather than something more work like.

I’ve always been crying for more ethnic food in Napa, and Mini Mango’s opening in early December is a welcome surprise. The Thai food is pretty solid (although the Thai “purists” are already coming out saying how they don’t use Thai peppers, not hot enough, blah blah), and its prices at $9-$12 are pretty good for those looking for a little more in their meal. Annalien’s prices are annoyingly high for what you get. I’ve complained about Neela’s dinner menu prices as well. But the Napa locals, who are constantly annoyed at the high prices of even the slightly more upscale restaurants in the area, are really warming up to Mini Mango. Its repeat business is already pretty good for a restaurant that dares to open in a wet December and whose service is still trying to work out the kinks.

In a way, it’s a good lesson for other restaurants who are suffering in the Great Recession. Decent portions at tolerable prices in Napa mean that the locals will get you through the tough times. If you want to charge premium prices for just somewhat ok  and above food, tourists will make or break you and that can be an iffy bet during bad economic times. Anyway, pictured below is their double drunken wide noodles.