NapaEats Blog

Morimoto Napa review up

HeSaid — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:15:31 +0000

Here’s the Morimoto Napa review. Ah yes, Iron Chef Morimoto comes to Napa. Most Americans get exposure to Japanese food through some sort of sushi restaurant. Americanized rolls and nigiri and then bento-fare like sashimi, teriyaki, tempura, etc. But presumably there’s a ton more to Japanese cuisine than this. So given Japanese food’s lack of exposure, it’s interesting that Morimoto picks downtown Napa as his first West Coast presence. It’s not like Napa Valley is particularly known for anything beyond Italian, French, American, some fusion elements here and there from Latin or Asian influences. San Francisco would surely be the better pick? What about trendy LA? Nope, downtown Napa. Right across Soscol and the Napa river from the auto shops and car dealerships.

Well, thank you Morimoto because your restaurant is awesome. The food is absolutely gorgeous, and it tastes fantastic. One of the best tasting menus (omakase) we’ve had since we’ve lived here. Anyway, here are some pics.

Toro starter for omakase

Some pieces of some maki sushi whose name completely escapes me. But that's some pretty stuff!

Maybe he can get Chen Kenichi and Hiroyuki Sakai to take the other spots in the Waterfront property, and then we could have an Iron Chef row…

Bistro Sabor review up

HeSaid — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 01:25:14 +0000

Well, here’s the Bistro Sabor review. My initial impression is that they wanted to be C-Casa, but C-Casa beat them to the punch (and the Jacinto brothers punch a lot harder). So, they fell short of that goal, but they don’t rank that well against the better low-end taco places either. In fact, being right next to Tres Hermanos is going to be tough for them. I suggest they differentiate their menu from Tres Hermanos or up their taco game substantially because Tres Hermanos’ tacos are a lot better and a lot cheaper, especially the pork-related ones (carnitas, pastor, etc.). It doesn’t try to be upscale like Bistro Sabor, but then again, Mexican families actually eat at Tres Hermanos. Taco Michoacan is also significantly better if you’re talking about cheap eats too.

One interesting thing about Bistro Sabor is its using a lot of Internet marketing to get the word out. Active Facebook engagement, Twitter monitoring, responding to negative reviews on Yelp, YouTube videos, etc. The owner, Ariel Ceja, tries to engage in those discussions. Interesting to see more restaurants move into this kind of marketing (as they should).

Some of it works; some of it doesn’t. For instance, there aren’t a lot of reviews on Yelp yet, and new businesses are always a little apprehensive about getting beaten up by bad reviews at the start. In fact, some cynics say that Yelp informally…uh…encourages those bad review to get businesses to pony up for paid ad package s. I was checking on the Yelp Bistro Sabor page, and one person gives it a bad review. What’s the response from the owner?

Thanks for checking out our spot two times. I find it interesting that you’ve written only one review and that your profile picture is that of a beautiful meadow to hide your sneaky identity but c’est la vie…

Ah…that’s probably NOT how you want to engage in those social discussions. Other people are going to have similar complaints too. Best to figure out how to adapt rather than attack.

Anyway, Bistro Sabor’s only been open for a few weeks so they still have time to figure out what they want to be. A picture of Bistro Sabor’s pupusas with chicken.

Bistor Sabor pupusas

La Toque review is up

HeSaid — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:12:58 +0000

Here’s the La Toque review. We’ve eaten there twice. Ken Frank, the head chef, used to have La Toque in a different location, but I guess the Westin wanted to get a big local name to be the big name restaurant in its hotel and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The first year looked a little rough for Frank, particularly in the first fall and winter. We went once when it was practically empty on a weekday during the winter. But good for him, when we went during the spring as tourist season picked up, it was fairly packed. I wonder what the fall and winter will look like afterwards. It’s hard to make fancy multi-course tasting menus work as a standalone restaurant in Napa, and La Toque only offers multi-course menus and expensive ones at that. But it’s also probably the best high-end restaurant in the city of Napa for those who want more of the super high-end experience. Anyway, here’s a pic of the white asparagus fettucine which we thought was the most interesting dish of our 7 course tasting menu.

Villa Romano review is up

HeSaid — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:01:30 +0000

Here’s the Villa Romano review. Villa Romano isn’t one of the best Italian restaurants in the area. The cuisine doesn’t stand out much vs. a lot of the other “me too” Italian restaurants in the area. The food is similar to Allegria’s in downtown Napa. Stronger, heavier, creamier. The owner and head chef of Villa Romano has a pretty interesting story. If I remember it correctly, he basically worked his way up from basically bus boy at other restaurants to chef and then struck out on his own with Villa Romano by his late 20s. With the economy taking such a hit as well as the stronger competition from the newer restaurants in the area (in combination with his isolated location), I wonder if he can hold out until better times come by. It’s been around for a while. Probably like around 10 years?

We still eat there every now and then because it does have a homey feel to it. I think the restaurant is a family-run business. Kind of mom-and-pop, everything from the location to the food to the service to the decor. It’s sort of quiet and subdued and never that full. Pretty unpretentious and the prices aren’t bad for the food either. Here’s the tortellini con formaccio which is a three cheese tortellini with pancetta, tomatoes, mushrooms, artichokes in a light garlic cream sauce.

C-Casa review is up

HeSaid — Sun, 30 May 2010 21:33:55 +0000

Well, here’s the C-Casa review. I think they were only open for about two weeks when we came in. Food overall is fine (maybe a touch pricey) if you like your tacos more tricked out or “artisan.” I know the Jacinto brothers have this cooking pedigree from Cindy Pawlcyn, but kind of like like some of my complaints with Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen and Border, the food sounds a bit more interesting than it actually tastes. Maybe that’s just me. Oh well, here’s a picture of some tacos. This is the skirt steak taco (lower left). The upper right taco is buffalo.

Oenotri review is up

HeSaid — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 08:08:22 +0000

Oenotri review is up. So, I wasn’t that thrilled to hear that another Italian restaurant was opening up in downtown Napa. We have too many Italian restaurants in Napa (never mind Napa Valley). But Oenotri was a very pleasant surprise. For us, it’s probably #2 in the the entire area for us behind Bottega and probably ahead of Bistro Don Giovanni. It’s definitely the best Italian restaurant in downtown Napa easily. The pizzas are terrific. The pastas as strong. The second courses are very good. The menu in each is a little limited, but you’ll definitely find something you like between the 3. Oneotri makes their pasta and cured meats in house. They’re interesting in that they don’t have much of an appetizer list outside of salads. No calamari (for a while I thought having a calamari appetizer was a pre-requisite to opening a restaurant in Napa), arancinis, roasted eggplant, etc. Instead, they have a very extensive salumi list with their in-house salumi. That + some cheese + some bread is a lunch of its own. Norman Rose was the sexiest place in downtown Napa until Oenotri opened up a week ago. The place is jumping. They’re going to do very well there.

Norman Rose Tavern review up

HeSaid — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:05:24 +0000

Finally got around to writing the Norman Rose Tavern review. The place has been packed for a while since opening. It helps to have the local connections and rep of the Gyetvan owners who are also behind Azzurro which has been a local favorite for years as well as being right across from the new Avia hotel. But right now, it’s probably the hot spot of downtown Napa. At the start, there were lines out the door. As for the food itself, it seemed pricey for what it was billing as tavern food and burgers, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped people from packing it in. Anyway, here are a few pics:

Goodbye First Squeeze; hello Bistro Sabor.

HeSaid — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:42:57 +0000

Well, I guess First Squeeze is no more. Apparently, it closed down in mid-March as we found out when we were looking to grab a lunch on a Sunday afternoon. That’s a pity. Napa is sort of lacking mid-tier, lunch-type places and First Squeeze was one of them. The Napa Valley Register has an article on how the original owner, Chino Yip, came back to own the restaurant after the new one wanted to become an emergency medical technician. You can read the comments section and see how people admired the original owner and were really happy to see him come back. Alas, he threw in the towel as well just after 8 months which is covered here and from one person’s personal perspective, here.

It kind of sounds like it was a combination of being burned out and tough economic times.

“Working three jobs, I was not able to put 100 percent of my energy into the restaurant,” he admitted. “I wasn’t creating new dishes. It got to be kind of redundant.”

While his breakfast business remained steady, lunch at First Squeeze lagged, he said. The economy and competition from the Subway sandwich shop at the other end of First Street hurt business. “It was difficult to maintain day-to-day operations,” he said.

Wow. 3 jobs including a restaurant in a terrible depression. That’s a lot of work. The other curious comment is the Subway sandwich one. I guess that shows how tight times are. I’ve eaten at Subway plenty and still do when I just want something cheap, light, and fast. But I don’t particularly enjoy it you know (it also doubled as punishment for not working out)? The food is bland *at best*. Lunch at First Squeeze would run about $18-$20 with tax and tip and maybe a cup of coffee for two people. Two six-inch sandwiches with 2 bags of chips at Subway will run you about $11 at Subway (no tip). The food at First Squeeze was easily twice as good, tasted much fresher and filling in a good way, and there was more of it.Here are some pics taken a while ago (yet another review that took so long that the business went under before I could write anything about it)

In its place is Bistro Sabor which is still under construction which is owned by the Ceja winery family.

He described the concept as “fast casual,” with orders taken at a counter but delivered to the table. Ceja plans to begin by offering lunch and dinner. Later, they may offer a brunch, he said.

In addition, “We’ll have a bar area with TV. It will be a lively ambiance with salsa music, and be a hangout spot but good for families.”

That’s interesting. First Squeeze was fairly small inside. I wonder how they’ll fit it in. I also wonder how it’ll do with Tres Hermanos almost right next door that actually has, you know, actual Mexicans eating there and whose food is pretty good for the price.

Taylor’s Refresher no more. Now it’s Gott’s Roadside Tray Gourmet.

HeSaid — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 07:16:51 +0000

We walked into Taylor’s Refresher recently and was like…uh….where’s Taylor’s?

In what looks like a rather ugly split, Taylor’s Refresher has been renamed er…Gott’s Roadside Tray Gourmet. Apparently, the owners, Joel and Duncan Gott, got into a legal spat with the Taylor daughters about trademarking the name Taylor’s Automatic Refresher with the Taylors who own the trademark of Taylor’s Refresher. Since the Gott’s likely have more expansion ideas in their heads and they can’t expand with something they can’t trademark, they changed the names of their Napa, St. Helena, and San Francisco locations. Now, the Taylors are raising a big stink about changing the name and how it hurts the legacy of the name. Meanwhile, the Gott’s don’t own the St. Helena property; they just lease it from…the Taylors.

It will be interesting to see what happens when that lease expires. I’m going to take a wild guess that the Gotts want to expand Taylors into a chain of sorts, but the Taylor’s wanted more say (or money) and blocked the trademark. The Gott’s probably thought that they were more behind the success of Taylor’s (they did buy the failing St.Helena location in the late 90s and turned it around) rather than the name and didn’t like being blocked like this so why not just cut the name? It’ll be interesting to see if they’re right. There’s a tremendous amount of value regionally (and possibly nationally for the people who visited from out of state) in that Taylor brand.

We were talking to some people at Taylor’s, and apparently, the Gott’s bused staff in from the Napa and St. Helena locations last week to San Francisco to let them in on the news (odd they didn’t buss the SF staff up to North Bay…) where decked out in a new Gott uniform, they told everyone that all Taylor stuff in all the restaurants had to be replaced ASAP. Pity.

Apparently out of like 100 names, Gott’s Roadside Tray Gourmet, was the winner. Yech. I’d hate to see what the other 99 were. We went there recently, and it looked pretty packed to me.

Anyway, if you want the gory details:

San Francisco Chronicle’s spin on things
Napa Valley Register talk about the name change and the Taylor’s family response to it.

Nuts. Guess I have to copy the Taylor’s review over to a Gott version and do a find and replace…

Downtown Joe’s review up

HeSaid — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:26:11 +0000

Going through the long list of half-finished reviews that I really should get off my butt and do before I forget what I ate, here’s the Downtown Joe’s review. I know Downtown Joe’s has its fans, but its service is wobbly enough that it’s one of the main reasons we don’t go (and therefore, it has its detractors…). The food is ok in spots, but sort of feels overpriced for what you get. I’m not a brewery guy so that doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t like eating in loud bars, and sometimes, that’s what Downtown Joe’s can feel like depending on the crowd. Oh well, to each his own.