Napa Food Part One

Ah, such a simple title for this blog post - but that’s exactly what we’re talking about today: the food I ate in Napa and Sonoma.

I’m not counting the food we had in Yosemite, because let’s be honest - chicken tenders, fries, and a heavy-handed margarita from the hotel restaurant (which did help me forget about the dead scorpion in our room) don’t exactly qualify as “culinary highlights.”

My husband and I aren’t really “three square meals a day” people. We’ll usually have a big breakfast/lunch and then dinner, or just snack our way through the day until dinner. My parents were the same way when I was growing up, and I never understood it. How could my dad survive on a palmful of pistachios and three cups of coffee? Now I get it.

Thankfully, we’re not three-meal-a-day people - because Napa is expensive. Sheesh.

Our first restaurant stop was Bottega, and it was fantastic. The service was great, and the food was delicious. Either we’re getting old or the time change really did us in, because our 8:00 p.m. reservation was not happening. We walked up at 5:30 (yes, 5:30) and thankfully they were able to seat us. I’m pretty sure I would’ve been asleep by 8:00 otherwise.

We started with one of our go-to cocktails - a negroni, served alongside freshly baked sourdough bread with a parmesan dip.

Then came the Calamari - Crispy arborio rice crusted Monterey squid with a grilled meyer lemon,and aioli nero (black garlic).  It was good but probably our least favorite dish of the night.

Next up was the Bistecca alla tartara - Prime round steak tartare, mustard, capers, shallots and bone marrow canoe with fresno chile gremolata.  I'm sure this was my husband's favorite.  He loves bone marrow and steak!

Our pasta course was Carbonara al Carbone - Activated charcoal chitarra pasta, with guanciale, Parmigiano Reggiano, and farm hen egg yolk.  I keep thinking about the texture of the pasta.  So good.

For our final dish, we had the Costolette di Manzo - Smoked and braised short rib in espresso agro-dolce, creamy ancient grain polenta with Calabrian peperonata.  I think this was our favorite course of the night.  

Since it was our anniversary, the staff sent out a little dessert plate.  I was way too stuffed by then, but I did manage a bite of everything.  

We had a wonderful time at Bottega, and it felt special to visit the late Chef Michael Chiarello’s restaurant. I remember watching him on the Food Network years ago - so it was a full-circle moment in the best way.