Arcadia 2007:
In keeping with this issue’s theme of exploring “hidden” wonders of the North Bay, we offer with a flourish our short-list of fabulous overlooked spots that offer surprising outdoor appeal, are locals-only, morph from one vibe to the next or simply shouldn’t be missed. Contributing are Brett Ascarelli, Gretchen Giles, Patricia Lynn Henley and Amanda Yskamp.
Sonoma
Rocker Oysterfellers
“Tell me again where Valley Ford is,” my husband doggedly demands. A Brit who’s lived in Sonoma County for 11 years, reads a map like it’s Dostoevsky and knows that Montana abuts Idaho (a revelation to me), Valley Ford has somehow remained a Valhalla of mystery to him. I impatiently remind that it’s on Highway 1 between Petaluma and Bodega Bay, that the town’s post office is a glory of Running Fence memorabilia and that there’s that super little restaurant with the awkward name smack amid the blink-and-you-miss-it and that he’s to be there by 6pm. Located in the old Valley Ford Hotel, Rocker Oysterfellers is a revelation, a great eatery with a fabulous outdoor space that plays host each Sunday in good weather to free live music. A split-level wooden deck allows visitors to either sit facing the band or enjoy being tucked away behind the speaker’s blast and actually converse. Local oysters certainly abound, but the menu also includes marvelous preparations of wild salmon, Sonoma lamb and pulled pork, the wine list is heavy on North Bay boutiques and the mixed drinks are a steal. The kind of out-of-the-way spot you think you’re sneaking into, Rocker Oysterfellers is very much a place where half your friends are already in the bar when you do sneak in. “You came the long way,” my husband smugly announces when I arrive at 6. “I’ll show you the fast way back.” Rocker Oysterfellers, 14415 Hwy. 1, Valley Ford. 707.876.1983. –G.G.
Stella’s Cafe
Those who go looking for Stella’s Cafe in its former location next to Mom’s Pies on Sebastopol’s Gravenstein Highway will stare into the windows of a vacant building, beholding a reflection of their own disappointment. But don’t be so sad, Stella’s isn’t gone. Not at all. It’s just picked itself up and moved not even a mile down the road. The new digs, on the grounds of the Russian River Vineyards, former site of Topolos, allow Stella’s to stretch its sizeable limbs and achieve a kind of landed-gentry grace it aspired to on that cute but puny outdoor veranda but never quite could.
The new patio is simply splendid, on several levels, some parts shaded by wisteria, others by vast, green market umbrellas, with heat lamps for cooler evenings. What hasn’t changed are Stella’s offerings and the good eye the restaurant has for local wines. Chef and owner Gregory Hallihan continues to blend flavors from Asia, the Middle East, New Orleans and Europe, using the freshest ingredients to please both those who have sought the restaurant out for the first time and those who keep coming back. Stella’s Cafe, 5700 Gravenstein Hwy. N. Forestville. 707.887.1562.–A.Y.
Marin
Drakes Beach Cafe
Although it’s not necessary to circumnavigate the globe, skirmish with hostile natives or brave Pacific storms as namesake Sir Francis Drake did on his Golden Hinde, a trip to Drakes Beach Cafe is sure to be an adventure. Travel over a fog-draped wash through historic ranch land into the Point Reyes National Seashore park to what is arguably the nicest beach on Point Reyes, backed by a stretch of cliffs (so resembling the white cliffs of Sussex that Drake named this place Nova Albion or New Britain).
The food, however, didn’t have to travel so far. Jane Kennedy and Ben Angulo, the young local couple who’ve recently taken on the venture, are dedicated to keeping their offerings organic and local. Their front window bears testimony to their efforts, showing an aerial photograph of where they get their delicious handcrafted bread (Brickmaiden Bakery), organic ice cream (Straus Organic Dairy), oysters and grass-fed beef (Lunny Farm), and fresh produce (Star Route Farms)–all within a few miles of the beach. Bring your own booty of wine along, though; they have no liquor license. Housed in a weathered wood structure adjoining the visitor center and with a view of the ocean that rivals some ships, Drakes Beach Cafe is unlike any other National Park food counter, making it a New World discovery worth seeking out. Drake’s Beach Cafe, 1 Drakes Beach Road, Point Reyes National Seashore. Reservations necessary. 415.669.1297.–A.Y.
Headlands Center for the Arts (Or: Make my Mother’s Day, Punk)
During my mom’s first visit to California, she exhaustively worked her way through two Moon travel guides and one Frommer’s. As Mother’s Day approached, so did her second visit. How to fete her? A discussion on composting toilet art was the best I could offer.
The talk was being sponsored by Sausalito’s Headlands Center for the Arts, practically the only attraction she hadn’t seen yet. We’d go in time for dinner, as I’d heard that the Headlands serves a famously mouth-watering buffet before all of the artist talks there.
Flushed with the impending embarrassment of the night’s conversation topic, we first found our way to the Mess Hall and lined up at the kitchen counter. Wriggling into a couple of empty seats at a long, wooden table, we set in on sesame noodles, greens with a savory dressing, tender chicken and tumblers of wine.
It was awkward at first–even for my mom, who is a social Charlemagne. To one side of us sat a clique of punks, faces drooping with metal, skin besmirched with ink. My mother’s inner conqueror finally emerged when she miraculously found a conversational in with them. The slight young man seated to her left with coarse peroxide locks that protruded from his otherwise shaved scalp, admitted to residing in her native New York.
“Are you an artist-in-residence here?” she asked.
“Well, they pay me to be here,” he sneered, hardly looking up from his fork.
Unfazed, my mom continued to chat with him.
Meanwhile, I turned to the other side, where the diners looked less intimidating. Hoping for warmer reception, I struck up conversation with a clean-cut twenty-something wearing a cowboy shirt who turned out to be Nat Keefe, the guitarist and vocalist for the bluegrass band, Hot Buttered Rum.
The band typically spend about 180 days a year touring in a 40-foot bus that runs on vegetable oil. On a break, Keefe had come to the Headlands to visit the assistant chef, an old high school buddy. Trying to feel out whether it would be bad form to leave the Headlands directly after dinner, thereby sparing my mom the WC-inspired portion of the evening, I asked Keefe if he would attend the composting-art lecture.
He wasn’t sure. He had a party to go to that night elsewhere, but he encouraged us to go; the last Headland’s lecture he attended was mind-blowing.
Meanwhile, my mom was still chatting up the punk. I overheard something about Vegas nuptials for him and his pink-haired companion.
When she asked what media he did, someone piped up that he did paintings and drawings with watercolor. He quickly corrected, “I don’t think I’ve ever done a fucking watercolor in my life!” He uses acrylics and ink.
“His work must be pretty hot shit if they’re paying him to be here,” I later said, making sure he was in earshot.
“Actually, I think everyone gets a stipend to be here,” he conceded.
We said goodbye to our new friends and walked into the salty wind. “That was fun!” mom said. “When would I ever in my life have talked to someone who looked like he did?”
Because this is how life goes, the young punk was Zak Smith, the Yale-educated artist whose work was honored at the 2004 Whitney Biennial before he was 30. Not only is he an artist, but under the name Zak Sabbath, he is also a porn star.
“What!” my mom exclaimed. “And here I was asking him, ‘So, how do you like Brooklyn?'” Headlands Center for the Arts, 944 Ft. Barry, Sausalito. Mess Hall open in conjunction with any artist talk at 6pm. $15. 415.331.2787.–B.A.
Napa
C.C. Blue
By day, St. Helena’s swanky sushi joint C.C. Blue metes out Godzilla rolls like nobody’s business. But on Fridays and Saturdays after dinner service is eighty-sixed, chef Remington Cox and his staff prepare for a quick-change act that they brag is now down to 15 minutes. Hauling out the chairs and tables, they race to a carless hot-rod trailer that Remington leaves parked out back. This is where he stores a second set of furniture. After a few heave-ho’s, along with mood lighting and music, C.C. Blue becomes an octopus’ garden nightscape. Happy, hungry fishies who’ve swum in to chill can devour cold sushi and wildly creative desserts from a special late-night menu. Making do without a liquor license, the staff fill glassware with saketinis and fruit purées, but drinking like a fish is discouraged. This is the only lounge we know of that’s open so late in St. Helena–and possibly the entire Napa Valley. But please don’t tell anyone. The chef isn’t advertising it. C.C. Blue, 1148 Main St., St. Helena. Late-night service from 11pm to 2am-ish, Friday and Saturday. 707.967.9100.–B.A.
étoile
Gen X-ers and Y-ers aren’t usually equated with the middle-aged Napa Valley landscape. But surprisingly, a healthy number of them burrow there, toiling away for the county’s ever-hungry service industry. From time to time, comparative herds of them gather, shedding the stress of side work and wine-spieling. But where to party in an area where nightlife is scarcer than cork taint?
Domaine Chandon, that’s where. Come evening, the Yountville winery and restaurant exhales into a lounge, étoile–a name that successfully attracts Francophiles (and perhaps the occasional e.e. cummings buff?).
As a DJ spun dance-pop one recent night, youthful, glitzy patrons gathered by heat-lamps on the deck and poured bottles of effervescent rosé into flutes for each other.
Naturally, étoile doesn’t have a hard-liquor license, though it can serve any grape-based liquor on the property. So the lounge relies on Chandon’s sparkling productions to fuel the stress discharge. (As a subsidiary of the luxury brand LVMH, the lounge also stocks a glamorous selection of wine from its sister companies, from St. Helena’s Newton Vineyards to New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay.)
Wine cocktails also abound. The California Sunshine, for example, mixes blood orange, vanilla syrup, red brandy and sparkling wine. Noshy minglers can indulge in serious appetizers, like lobster beignets with chipotle mayo ($12), or homey desserts, like a chocolate “gooey” cake ($15, a price which had better include the whole damn cake), while sophisticates whirl brandy snifters and nose cigars. étoile (Wine Lounge at Domaine Chandon), 1 California Drive, Yountville. Nightly from now until November, 6pm to last call. Bubble (happy) hour from 6pm to 7pm. 707.204.7529.–B.A.
Highway 29 Cafe
If it weren’t for its location, Highway 29 Cafe would be nothing special. It’s just an ordinary greasy spoon, where red-aproned waitresses greet most of their patrons by name and call the few they don’t know “honey.” It’s the kind of place where the mugs are all mismatched and where the menu simply offers a choice between Chardonnay and Cabernet. But the cafe–more of a diner, really, considering its reliance on eggs and stacks–carries out its humble business in Napa Valley, and that makes it damned special. Somehow, the cafe has managed to hang on to its small-town feel, despite the valley’s pervasive tourist upscaling.
During a lull one recent morning, “Rhiannon” plays on the radio and a middle-aged man drinks coffee out of a Tigger mug. Nearby, a young woman with a hearts mug plows into a cheese omelet, which has come with some very generously buttered rye toast.
The waitresses take turns eating their breakfast at the end of the bar, hopping up at intervals to check on their customers. One of the waitresses flips through the Napa Valley Register and remarks, “So-and-so got a 4.0!” For a minute or so, they discuss whether or not the student will be able to maintain her grade point average. They hope so.
Then their attention is pulled away by something happening outside. One of their regulars is parking his truck. Badly. He takes several passes, and in the final attempt flattens a large patch of shrubbery. They giggle. Highway 29 Cafe, 101 Cafe Court (off of Highway 29), American Canyon. Open daily for breakfast and lunch. 707.224.6303.–B.A.
Quick dining snapshots by Bohemian staffers.
Winery news and reviews.
Food-related comings and goings, openings and closings, and other essays for those who love the kitchen and what it produces.
Recipes for food that you can actually make.
Ask Sydney
Dear Sydney, any suggestions for someone who is a hopeless prude in the bedroom? It seems like I’m surrounded by sexual go-getters, and this makes me feel like even more of Boring Betty. I feel pretty content with what would seem to others to be a pretty boring sex life, but maybe I just don’t know what I’m missing. Just the idea of doing anything off the beaten path makes me get freaked out. Recently, my girlfriend brought home a sex toy, and it felt like she’d brought a rattlesnake into the room. I kept waiting for it to jump off the table and attack me. Is there any hope for me, or should I just go get one of those Catholic sheets with the hole in the middle and start advertising for a new girlfriend, one who is both sexually conservative and queer. Is there such a thing? And is it possible to be a sexual prude and still be cool? What if my friends find out?–Surrounded by Sex Fiends
Dear Surrounded: You think you’re a prude? Who says? Who defines prudery? You’re looking at things backwards. If you’re surrounded by people who are into far-out sexual exploits (or so they claim; seeing is believing, I always say), and yet you remain petrified of inanimate sexual apparatuses, then maybe you are the one who is far out. Try switching the scale around. On the super-hardcore sex-fiend side put you: a queer, hands on/lights out kind of girl. See, you’re already on fire. On the far end, put whatever your sex-rocking friends allege that they are doing. Then write down on a scale–from least threatening to most threatening to hell-no-I-don’t-think-so–a list of things you think other people do that you don’t do; be sure to include the things that you do. Remember, what may seem benign to you could be utterly horrifying to someone else. There’s no point in belittling your own sexual exploits. You’re a girl who’s into girls. That’s far out. You don’t really even have to do anything else beside that. You’re a revolutionary. But still, try some things on your list, just for fun. Have your goal be to make it somewhere between hardcore you and prudeville everyone else. And in the mean time, I would hold out on that whole Catholic sheet advertisement idea; it sounds pretty kinky.
Dear Sydney, I was reading the paper the other day and saw that China had recently executed a high official. It was the Chinese equivalent of the person in charge of the FDA. This guy took bribes from drug companies and factories and let fake drugs onto the market, as well as allowing dangerous and sometimes deadly ingredients to be used in food products. So I was reading this and thinking that it seemed too horrible, but also maybe not so bad, considering the fact that in this country we kill people for comparably small infractions, and yet someone more powerful, like the president, for instance, can be responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and in no way be held accountable. So I’m wondering, who is barbaric? The Chinese, for executing a high official for doing what almost all politicians do, or Americans, for executing their poor and insane, and allowing their rich and powerful to do whatever the hell they want.–Pissed Off
Dear Pissed: Zheng Xiaoyu, head of the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration, was executed, as you say, for taking bribes. When I read this in the paper, two thoughts flashed across my mind: Is it still safe to eat those little orange rice candies with the edible wrapper that I love from the Asian market? And, wow, so that’s how they deal with corrupt politicians over there! I wonder if it helps cut back on the problem?
People who disregard human life in favor of money are barbaric, and it’s difficult to find a way of dealing with them that is not equally so. If the United States observed a full ban on the death penalty, then I would have to grant us, for once, the higher moral ground. But the fact that we’re willing to execute our poor and oppressed and yet allow ass wipes like George W. Bush to imperil every living member of his constituency while simultaneously killing and maiming our bravest and blowing up an entire country along with its occupants is pretty low. I say, hats off to the Chinese! If you’re going to execute anyone, you might as well try and be fair about it. And in this context, they were certainly fairer than we are.
Dear Sydney, I’m hoping you can settle an argument between my father and me. As baseball fans, we have been following the Barry Bonds scandal closely. My father thinks that anyone taking steroids should be kicked out of sports. I think, who cares? They all do it. Why make such a big deal about the inevitable? Now they make performance-enhancing drugs that can’t be traced anyway, making it all the more difficult to prove. If this is what it takes to compete, then I don’t see that it’s for us to judge one way or the other. My father, on the other hand, will no longer attend Giants games with me, so offended is he by the idea that someone he once revered could be a drug user. What’s your take on the steroids thing?–Bonds Fan
Dear Fan: Sport games are constructed around a series of rules, and each of these rules is, or should be, rigorously enforced. Otherwise you wouldn’t be playing a game, you’d just be having fun. No rule-breaking allowed in sports. It’s in a book, and there’s a referee; there’s no room for interpretation. At this point, it’s against the rules for a baseball player to use performance-enhancing drugs. If an athlete uses them, then he or she is cheating. Maybe this is an outdated rule, one that doesn’t confront the reality of what professional sports has become, what the audience expects to see and the performance level that is demanded.
We want to see Barry Bonds hit a home run! We don’t care if he has to snort five lines of cocaine before the game, as long as he hits it out of the park. But the rules haven’t been changed, so in this context, your father is right. If the rules say no steroids, that means no steroids. If athletes want to have the right to take performance-enhancing drugs–if they believe this is a necessary aspect to the game–then they should lobby to change the rules. Let the players take the initiative.
‘Ask Sydney’ is penned by a Sonoma County resident. There is no question too big, too small or too off-the-wall. Inquire at www.asksydney.com or write as*******@*on.net.
No question too big, too small or too off-the-wall.
VinoFile
Arcadia 2007:
Compiled by Gretchen Giles and Sophie Linder
Constancy, humidity, chill. Such ideal aging conditions are just some of the reasons that Napa and Sonoma counties boast the largest concentration of wine caves in the world. Many wineries now strive to encompass their entire operations under the stealth of the earth, letting the vines grow above them. But caves are also beautiful, mysterious, scented of angel’s share and marvelous places to visit and throw parties. Here are some of the more secret subterranean spots in the North Bay.
Napa
Atlas Peak Not open to the public, Atlas Peak is in the Mt. Veeder AVA and is known for its Cabernet. 3700 Soda Canyon Road, Napa. 707.252.7971. www.atlaspeak.com.
Baldacci Family Vineyards Open to the public daily, from 10am to 4pm. 6236 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.944.9261. www.baldaccivineyards.com.
Beringer Vineyards This historic winery offers some seven daily tours for nominal fees, most of which end gratefully with a glass and take a spin through the underground wine-aging tunnels. Open daily, 10am to 6pm (summer hours). 2000 Main St., Napa. 707.963.7115. www.beringer.com.
Brown Estate Vineyards Brown Estate Vineyards completed the construction of a 6,500-square foot subterranean wine cave in 2005. Visitors are currently limited to wine-club members by appointment only. 3233 Sage Canyon Road, Napa. 707.963.2435. www.brownestate.com.
Chateau Boswell Winery This small, boutique winery is open by appointment only, selling most its wine directly via post to club members. 3468 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.963.5472. www.chateauboswell.com.
Clos Pegase Clos Pegase’s 2,800 square foot “cave theater” plays frequent host to parties, dinners, live entertainment and more. Free guided tours of the grounds are offered twice daily at 11am and 2pm. 1060 Dunaweal Lane, Napa. 707.942.4981. www.clospegase.com.
Constant Boutique Specializing in the kind of Cabernet that makes the Wine Spectator drool. The owners’ former private residence, a historically protected building, is available to let. One assumes that a $16,000 monthly rent would allow occasional access to the caves. 2121 Diamond Mountain Road, Napa. 707.942.0707.www.constantwine.com.
Cuvaison Estate Wines Producing some 65 percent of its product as Chardonnay, Cuvaison has a 22,000 square foot cave, the Carneros Dining Room, that is available for parties. 4550 Silverado Trail North, Napa. 707.942.6266. www.cuvaison.com.
Del Dotto Vineyards Proud to boast some of the first caves in the Napa Valley, Del Dotto’s were hand-dug in 1885 and restored in 1997. Del Dotto currently hosts candle-lit tastings, replete with cheese and chocolate, Friday-Sunday. Opera resonates until 4pm; rock rules after 4pm. Sounds like fun! The full cave experience with barrel tasting is $40 per person and reservations are required. A new tasting room is planned for St. Helena, currently held up by CalTrans work. 1055 Atlas Peak Road, Napa. 707.963.2134. www.deldottovineyards.com.
Eagle & Rose Estate Tours of this small winery are led either by the winery owner or the winemaker himself. Eagle & Rose will customize tours to suit, including lunch if desired. Call for details; by appointment only. 3000 St. Helena Highway North, Napa. 707.965.9463. www.eagleandrose.com.
Fantesca Estate & Winery Set on land that was the dowry gift when Charles Krug marred in 1860, this estate winery specializing in Cabernet features a wine-aging cave built right into the side of Spring Mountain. Open to the public by appointment. 2920 Spring Mountain Road, Napa. 707.968.9229. www.fantesca.com.
Far Niente This winery boasts the first modern-built wine caves in North America. Built in 1980, the cave area now totals 40,000 square feet and is part of the active tours that the winery encourages visitors to take. 1350 Acacia Drive, Napa. Open to the public by appointment. 707.944.2861. www.farniente.com.
Flora Springs Winery and Vineyards Open to the public by appointment, this small, family-owned winery takes visitors on a “VIP” tour through its hillside caves for barrel tastings by appointment. $20. 1978 W. Zinfandel Lane, St. Helena. 707.963.5711. Their tasting room, open to the public daily, is at 677 S. St. Helena Hwy., next to Dean & DeLuca on Highway 29 in St. Helena. www.florasprings.com.
Frazier Host to the Wine Country Film Festival July 26-29 this year, Frazier offers two cave experiences for visitors. A sit-down tasting of four releases is $20; a tour and tasting, complete with cheese and chocolate pairing, is $30 per person. They suggest reserving a week in advance. 70 Rapp Lane, Napa. 707.255.3444. www.frazierwinery.com.
Hall With two tasting rooms, things can get confusing. Hall Wines has an outlet in St. Helena but the wine caves are at the tasting room in Rutherford. Winery co-owner Kathryn Hall is the former U. S. ambassador to Austria and the 14,000 square foot caves show her love for her adopted country, lined as they are with handmade antique bricks, some of which are marked with an H, for the Hapsburg family. 56 Auberge Road, Rutherford. 800.688.4255. www.hallwines.com.
Hartwell Vineyards Open to the public generally Monday-Friday, Hartwell hosts tours of its caves and surroundings Wednesday-Saturday at 11am and 2pm. $45 includes a sit-down tasting in the cave with food and reserve wine pairings. 5795 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.255.4269. www.hartwellvineyards.com.
Ladera Vineyards Meaning “hillside” or “slope,” Ladera’s original buildings date back to the 1880s. The winery hosts tours Monday-Saturday that wind through the estate and include the quarter-mile of underground aging cellar still in use. 150 White Cottage Road S., Napa. 707.965.2445. www.laderavineyards.com.
Long Meadow Ranch One of the only local wineries to combine olive oil production with its vinting practices, LMR is also a full-scale sustainable farm raising its own grass-fed beef and selling its produce. The rammed-earth tasting room was made from the dirt displaced when building the wine caves. Tours can be extra lavish, including a chef meal and library reserve wines. 1775 Whitehall Lane, Napa. 707.963.4555. www.longmeadowranch.com.
Miner Family Vineyards This family winery offers a seated private “Grand Cru” tasting, replete with food and wine pairings, in its caves. 7850 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.944.9500. www.minerwines.com.
Newton Vineyard Newton is open to the public for tours of its property and cave as well as tastings, Thursday-Monday at 11am by appointment only. 2555 Madrona Avenue, Napa. 707.963.9000. www.newtonvineyard.com.
Pine Ridge Winery The “Cabernet Cave” at Pine Ridge is some 130 feet underground and some 300 feet into the hillside. The winery hosts corporate parties in the cave, but for the non-incorporated, a daily barrel-to-bottle Cab tasting is available for $35, including an artisanal cheese pairing. 5901 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.253.7500. www.pineridgewinery.com.
Quintessa Situated the Rutherford Appellation off the Silverado Trail, Quintessa takes visitors on a short hike through the vineyards before leading them into the underground caves for a sit-down tasting. Tours are at 11am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm and are by appointment. $35. Given the curious restraints of Napa’s quaint zoning laws, picnicking is strictly verboten. 1601 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.967.1601. www.quintessa.com.
Reverie on Diamond Mountain One of the smallest Napa wineries, Reverie is also one of the mightiest, causing the storied French Laundry to bid mightily on a recent lot of Reverie Malbec at auction. For small groups, the by-appointment tours have no charge; rather than sit-down tastings and tours as touted at other places, Reverie prides itself on its “walk-around” tours, which inevitably end with a surprise of great natural beauty. 1520 Diamond Mountain Road, Napa. 707.942.6800. www.reveriewine.com.
Rombauer Vineyards While Rombauer’s extensive cave system is mostly a workhorse for aging their wine, staffers will gladly lead a tour of the caves by appointment and at no extra cost. Tasting fee, $10. 3522 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.963.5170. www.rombauervineyards.com.
Rubicon Estate Rubicon aims to educate and to that end offers a two hour “Elevage Experience” in which visitors learn about winemaking from field to cellar. The tour includes a swing through the caves as well as a barrel tasting and Cabernets with cheese. 1pm daily. $50. 1991 St. Helena Highway, Napa. 707.968.1100. www.rubiconestate.com.
Rudd Now encompassing the Dean & DeLuca gourmet food market in his empire, winery owner Leslie Rudd offers a comprehensive two-hour estate tour that ends with a sit-down tasting pairing Rudd wines with treats prepared by the executive chef at D & D. $60. 500 Oakville Cross Road, Napa. 707.944.8577. www.ruddwines.com.
Rutherford Hill Winery Nearly a mile of tunnels comprise the wine-aging caves at Rutherford. Daily tours at 11:30am, 1:3pm and 3:30pm include tasting and are just $15. 200 Rutherford Hill Road, Napa. 707.963.1871. www.rutherfordhill.com.
Sawyer Cellars Proud that all of their wine is estate-grown, Sawyer uses gravity feed to craft its wines, and dug its library and cellars into the ground under and behind an existing barn that the owners have meticulously preserved. Tours and tastings available Monday-Friday by appointment. $10-$15. 8350 St. Helena Hwy., Napa. 707.963.1980. www.sawyercellars.com.
Schramsberg Vineyards This sparkling-wine mecca boasts the oldest caves in the Napa Valley, hand-dug by Chinese laborers in 1880. Again, due to Napa’s curious permitting, Schramsberg tours must be couched in education, which is all the better for the visitor. Four general tours a day are available as well as a special food and wine pairing. July hours are different due to construction. $25-$50. 1400 Schramsberg Road at Peterson Drive, Napa. 707.942.6668. www.schramsberg.com.
Shafer Vineyards Up to 10 visitors are welcomed by appointment daily for a sit-down tasting and tour of the cellar and cave. $35. 6154 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.944.2877. www.shafervineyards.com.
Spring Mountain Vineyard This 1885 estate is open by appointment only for tours, tastings and a visit to the cellars. $25. 2805 Spring Mountain Road, Napa. 707.967.4188. www.springmountainvineyard.com.
Staglin Family Vineyard Known for its extensive modern art collection and for providing the setting for the remake of The Parent Trap, Staglin is proud that its entire winery is underground in the vast cave system completed this decade. Tours by appointment only. 1570 Bella Oaks Lane, Napa. 707.944.0477. www.staglinfamily.com.
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars With caves some 100 feet underground designed to host parties, Stag’s Leap is open to the public daily and offers private tours by appointment. $40. 5766 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.944.2020. www.cask23.com.
Storybook Mountain Vineyards Caves dug over a century ago by the founding brothers Grimm are open to those who wish to sip Zinfandel. An open house with the winery family is slated in the caves for Sept. 1. 3835 Highway 128, Napa. 707.942.5310. www.storybookwines.com.
Truchard Vineyards Open to the public by appointment only. 3234 Old Sonoma Road, Napa. 707.253.7153. www.truchardvineyards.com.
Viader Vineyards & Winery Tours are by appointment only; closed Sunday. 1120 Deer Park Road, Napa. 707.963.3816. www.viader.com.
Vineyard 29 Tours by appointment lead through Vineyard 29’s vast warren of state-of-the-art caves, replete with sensor-detection lighting and music. $50. 2929 St. Helena Highway North, Napa. 707.963.9292. www.vineyard29.com.
Von Strasser Winery Tours and tastings by appointment. 1510 Diamond Mountain Road, Napa. 707.942.0930. www.vonstrasser.com.
Sonoma
Benziger Family Winery The biodynamic vineyard tram tour (read: a tractor hauls a tram) takes visitors through the vineyards and into the caves. $10. 1883 London Ranch Road, Sonoma. 888.490.2739. www.benziger.com.
Bella Vineyards This tiny family winery welcomes visitors to its extensive new cave system, replete with room for entertaining. 9711 West Dry Creek Road, Sonoma. 866.572.3552. www.bellawinery.com.
Favero Vineyards & Winery Tours of the cave are by appointment only. 3939 Lovall Valley Road, Sonoma. 707.935.3939. www.faverovineyards.com.
Gloria Ferrer Champagne Caves Méthode Champenoise revealed; tours daily. 23555 Carneros Hwy. (121), Sonoma. 707.933.1917. www.gloriaferrer.com.
Gundlach Bundschu Winery Boasting the longest wine cave in California, this fun family winery is emphatically open to the public. 2000 Denmark Street, Sonoma. 707.939.3015. www.gunbun.com.
Kunde Estate Winery & Vineyards Guided tours of the caves are available for free without appointment Friday-Sunday. 10155 Sonoma Highway, Sonoma. 707.833.5501. www. kunde.com.
Nicholson Ranch Caves and “great room” for entertaining completed this century. 4200 Napa Road, Sonoma. 707.938.8822. www.nicholsonranch.com.
Robert Young Estate Winery Caves available to host private parties. 4960 Red Winery Road, Sonoma. 707.431.4811. www.ryew.com.
Schug Carneros Estate Winery No fee for tasting. 602 Bonneau Road, Sonoma. 800.966.9365. www.schugwinery.com.
Lady Sings the Blues
By Gabe Meline
The last single Frank Sinatra recorded for Capitol Records was “I’ve Got a Right to Sing the Blues,” which is a fairly laughable boast considering that at the time, in 1962, Sinatra was the country’s highest-paid entertainer. Contrast that against the life of 50-year-old grandmother and blues singer Janiva Magness, whose childhood was spent bouncing around Detroit foster homes after suicide took both of her parents, and Sinatra’s sentiment seems downright insulting.
At 16, Magness was an emancipated minor struggling with chemical dependencies and giving her child up for adoption, but she had also discovered what would be her eventual salvation. While hitchhiking across Minneapolis one winter’s night, she wound up at a bar, paid $2 to get in, and watched Otis Rush transform her life forever. “He just blew my mind,” Magness says. “He made me feel things I didn’t know what to do with. It opened up some other place in me, like letting oxygen into a sealed crypt for the first time.” Thoroughly baptized, Magness poured her whole soul into becoming the strong, sultry singer she is today; the record shows she took the blows and did it her way.
Magness is a featured attraction at this year’s Sonoma County Blues Festival, which also boasts John Lee Hooker Jr., Michael Burks, Volker Strifler and David Jacobs-Strain. The cherry on this already rich sundae is Patrick Sweany, whose appearance earlier this year at a KRSH 95.9-FM listener’s party was the talk of the town, and whose new album, Every Hour Is a Dollar Gone, is his best work yet. Aided by the fuzzed-out ’70s approach of the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach at the production controls (and at the apparent source of Sweany’s songwriting inspiration), Sweany is rawer and earthier than ever. Is it too late to put in a request for a Sweany/Strifler duet of all Willie Dixon songs?
The Sonoma County Blues Festival sizzles on Saturday, July 28, in the Redwood Theater at the Sonoma County Fair, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa. The festival is free with $7 adult fair admission; getting there early and staking out a spot is recommended. 2pm to 9pm. For more information, see www.sonomacountyfair.com.
Bull’s Eye!
Arcadia 2007:
Steve Carlin is a family man in a hardhat. After selling the Oakville Grocery, which he ran for some 20 years, he moved his brood in 2000 to a town outside of Florence, Italy. As romantic as that sounds, a spate of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in Europe had Carlin—not to mention the Italian government—worried. Therefore, once a week, he drove the hour all the way to Panzano, where there was a local butcher whom he trusted to sell his family clean meat.
For cold cuts, however, Carlin patronized a local salumeria, or deli. There, the retailer would ask him detailed questions, the likes of which no Safeway deli counter has likely ever been privy. For example, before slicing prosciutto, the meat cutter wanted to know when Carlin was planning to serve it: that morning, later that day or tomorrow?
“It made me understand,” says Carlin on a recent morning in Napa, “why the experience of getting to know local merchants is so important. There’s a lot about food we don’t know, but there are a lot of people who do.”
Fresh from this revelation, Carlin returned to the United States, and that’s when he got a well-timed call from the developers of San Francisco’s as-then-unrealized Ferry Building Marketplace. He agreed to be the project’s manager, and since the renovated Ferry Building opened in 2003, Carlin has become something of a public-market visionary. He created Oxbow Management LLC in 2004 to bring this vision to urban areas that may one day include Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square. Last fall, he broke ground on his company’s flagship project: Napa’s Oxbow Public Market, which will feature restaurants, a wine bar, a permanent farmers market and other goods.
At nine in the morning, it’s no surprise that the construction site is already abuzz, but so is the neighboring COPIA parking lot, often so quiet. Impatient drivers scan for spots, so they can head to the farmers market underway across the street. Could all this activity portend new energy for the area?
Whirring noisily, heavy machinery fills the Oxbow Public Market’s foundation, which is raised several feet above ground level to avoid flooding. Atop this platform, a metal skeleton structure soars into a pitch overhead. Eventually, this will be the main marketplace, a glass and brick affair done in the shape of a barn. At roughly 40,000 square feet, the whole complex will cost some $10 million to construct.
Stepping over stray bits of rebar, it’s hard to believe that the market is slated to open in just a few months. Instead of giving an actual finish date, Carlin demurs, “We just use the generic ‘fall’ term.” He says there are a lot of things beyond his control, like the whims of some 20 merchants and restaurateurs, plus farm-stand operators, who will soon inhabit the space.
Although the market will only be about one-third the size of the Ferry Building, it shares such commonalities as wine and cheese merchants, as well as the Fatted Calf charcuterie.
Smartly, Carlin has lined up some local businesses, Taylor’s Automatic Refresher, for one. The chefs from Napa’s neighborhood Bistro Don Giovanni plan a new, casual joint, Ria, there. Pica-Pica adds Venezuelan cuisine to the mix. Other purveyors include San Rafael’s Three Twins Organic Ice Cream, Sonoma’s Olive Press, St. Helena’s Model Bakery and Long Meadow Ranch, the Bay Area’s roving Roli Roti rotisserie, Petaluma’s Whole Spice shop, North Bay vendors Tillerman Tea, North Bay photographer Steven Rothfeld’s Kitchen Library and Napa’s Anette’s Chocolate Factory. Ten permanent stalls are being constructed to ensure a daily farmers market in the building.
Convincing merchants to lease space wasn’t easy, especially at first. As this paper has reported, Napa Valley’s prestige hasn’t yet transferred to the actual city of Napa, which has struggled to poise itself as a destination in the shadow of tourism behemoths St. Helena and Yountville. “There was,” says Carlin, “a lot of interest in coming to the Napa Valley, but there was trepidation about coming to Napa and next to COPIA—it’s no secret they haven’t performed to their expectations yet.” But Carlin, who believes that both COPIA and Napa will turn themselves around, comes from a line of visionaries. His father was in the motion picture industry in New York and shopped Gone with the Wind around to some 22 different studios before one decided to risk it.
Grimacing, a construction worker struggles to lay a cement curb between the main hall and the future wine and cheese pavilion. Carlin plants his feet on the gravel nearby and says, “Imagine we’re at the bull’s eye.” Pointing his arm like a compass needle, he gestures in each of the cardinal directions. Eastward lies COPIA and the future home of the planned 351-room Ritz Carlton (if it gets approval). Southward lies Oxbow School, the farmers market and the Napa fairgrounds. Downtown is just a short walk to the west, as are the Napa Valley Wine Train and Westin Verasa condo-hotel to the north. Finally, across the river, the 12-acre Oxbow Preserve nature park is planned. Carlin’s compass routine must be pretty effective: his market is now 95 percent spoken for, with only two spots remaining.
But the real question is whether the Oxbow market will succeed.
Before the Ferry Building project was completed, Carlin says that almost all of the comments he heard came from naysayers. There wouldn’t be any parking, would there? And pedestrians wouldn’t be willing to cross six lanes of traffic to get there, would they?
And indeed, the Ferry Building wasn’t an overnight success. Carlin says it took about two years before it made the list of important San Francisco destinations. Similarly, with the Oxbow market, Carlin says it’s only a question of when, not if.
Right now, Carlin’s biggest challenge is spatial finesse. “This isn’t a traditional retail shopping center,” he says. “There’s a substantial amount of transparency—literally, but merchants expect a high level of privacy. We want it to be a seamless transition from one merchant to the next.”
Carlin expects at least 1 million visitors annually, but thinks that Oxbow could easily draw double or triple that figure. The target audience includes three groups: Napa locals, some of whom Carlin hopes will come daily; neighbors from the region stretching from Calistoga to Vallejo and from Fairfield to Sonoma; and, of course, a share of Napa Valley’s some 5 million tourists. But can tourists be expected to stock up on food and perishables? Apparently, yes. Seattle’s famous public market, Pike Place, ships half of the fish it sells, according to Carlin.
Some North Bay locals have complained that shopping at the Ferry Building for food, much of which is practically sourced from their own backyards, is too expensive. But Carlin thinks that the reverse will be true at Oxbow. Why? There won’t be a middle man, and locals will be able to voice their input (read: bargain) to shopkeepers directly. Therefore, he wouldn’t be surprised if goods actually cost less at Oxbow than at the grocery store. (Considering that a basket of underripe figs were recently going for the dear price of $4 a basket at the Sonoma Farmer’s Market, some are skeptical.)
COPIA, which owns Oxbow’s land, will also provide parking for shoppers in its existing lot. Judging by today’s crowd, it may not be enough. But Carlin is ever cheery. “There’s never enough parking,” he laughs, adding that visitors can park downtown and hoof it to Oxbow. “We don’t want big parking fields here. We want to encourage people to park once and walk around.
“We’re trying to change the way people shop on a daily basis,” Carlin says, underscoring that he wants his markets to become community-gathering places. “It’s all about knowing where your food comes from. Here, you can talk to the people who grew it.”
To learn more about the burgeoning Oxbow Public Market, go to www.oxbowpublicmarket.com.
Quick dining snapshots by Bohemian staffers.
Winery news and reviews.
Food-related comings and goings, openings and closings, and other essays for those who love the kitchen and what it produces.
Recipes for food that you can actually make.
First Bite
I had heard a lot about Le Bistro in Petaluma. After all, the restaurant, sitting unobtrusively on Petaluma Boulevard South a few blocks from downtown, has been there for 19 years. When people talk about Le Bistro, they mention owner and chef Corey Basso. Many call Basso a first-class chef, even a genius, but note that he is particular about how Le Bistro is run. One woman on the reviewing website Yelp compared him to the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. It all sounded a little intimidating, like I was going to a restaurant run by some sort of brilliant culinary dictator.
Imagine my surprise, then, at how pleasant Le Bistro is on the inside. The tiny restaurant has only 10 tables, but it feels far from crowded. In fact, there is enough space that you don’t even feel like other diners are eavesdropping on your conversation. The atmosphere is peaceful, with a calming blue-and-white décor and the sounds of soft music and a fan whirring somewhere in the background.
Le Bistro’s menu is simple: one soup and a list of salads and entrées. The prices are reasonable–$16 to $19 for a main course–and the portions are big enough to fill you up. I ordered the pork medallions, and my companion ordered the Dijon-crusted halibut. Both dishes came with the same vegetables, green beans, carrots and young asparagus spears fanned out on the plate. Only the potatoes varied; my companion’s potatoes were mashed while mine were stacked in a small pile.
My three pork medallions sat in a well-developed red wine sauce. It was rich and clear with flavors of garlic, shallots and meat. The pork, however, was on the dry side. Although the medallions were not inedible, I found myself dipping them in the sauce to add missing moisture as much as flavor.
Without a doubt, my companion had the better dish. The halibut steak came sitting on a bed of mashed potatoes and floating in butter sauce. In the hands of a lesser chef, this dish could have been nauseatingly heavy, but this was beautifully blended, from the butter sauce tinged with the bite of capers to the smooth texture of the fish to the crunch of the mustard crust. I eyed his plate jealously as I dipped my pork in my sauce.
For dessert, I asked the waitress for a recommendation. She suggested the pecan walnut tart, which Basso has been making since the beginning. I was not disappointed. Like the halibut, the tart was perfectly balanced. The nuts retained their nutty flavor without being too raw or too syrupy. Underneath was a bed of sugary goodness and a flaky crust. It was topped with a whip cream almost lighter than air.
My companion tried the chocolate dessert, which was a chocolate port mousse with raspberries. The waitress told us the chef had recently started making the chocolate desserts in-house. Good decision; the mousse was delicious. Although I didn’t taste any port, there were entire raspberries at the bottom of the mousse, which was an unexpected and lovely surprise.
Given the excellence of the entire meal, the dryness of my pork may have been an anomaly. In any case, Le Bistro is worth a visit. It offers well-rounded French-style food without a trace of pretension and–a rarity around here these days–a reasonable price.
Le Bistro, 312 Petaluma Blvd.S., Petaluma. Open for dinner,Wednesday-Sunday. 707.762.8292.
Quick-and-dirty dashes through North Bay restaurants. These aren’t your standard “bring five friends and order everything on the menu” dining reviews.
Doin’ the Pigeon
By Gabe Meline
Don’t let his MySpace headline (“I’m Going to Kill You”) fool you–Pigeon John is one of the gentlest, most gracious MCs in all of hip-hop, an anti-thug whose personality is reflected in the absolute nonaggression of his vocal delivery. On the cover of his 2003 album, Pigeon John Is Dating Your Sister, he holds flowers at the gate of a white-picket fence with a hopeful look in his eye that says, “I am here to please your parents.” His music is melodic, bouncy and fun; he rarely, if ever, swears; his general lyrical stance is that he probably isn’t good enough to win you, girl, but he’s sure gonna try to talk you into it. And if that’s not enough for mom and dad, then shouting out to the Black Eyed Peas in his verses should probably do the trick.
None of this should scare any hip-hop fan away from seeing Pigeon John live, which remains one of the most welcome surprises I’ve ever had. Drenched in charisma, Pigeon John worked the stage like a trampoline, using his Chuck Taylors for their original purpose in a gymnastic display of showmanship. He’s one of the few rappers I’ve seen who explains his songs in detail beforehand, and he repeatedly thanked the crowd for showing their love.
Near the end, off to the side, the stage manager pointed to the clock and made the universal throat-cutting signal for “your time is up.” Most rappers would have milked it for one, maybe even two more songs, but Pigeon John turned to the house and exclaimed, “All right y’all, that’s my time, I gotta go, thanks!” While the crowd roared, he bounced off the stage, doing what the best performers always do: leaving them wanting more.
Pigeon John, who seems to have had a falling out of sorts with your sister, performs this Saturday, July 28 at 19 Broadway, 19 Broadway, Fairfax. $12-$15. 415.459.1091. For more info, cue up www.pigeonjohn.com.
Busting at the Seams
By David Sason
Rufus Wainwright has it all: teen-idol good looks; an astounding vocal range; formidable songs with catchy hooks; and certainly the proper rock pedigree (his parents are renowned folk artists Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle). He’s been hailed as the greatest songwriter of his generation by NME and the best on the planet by Elton John. He’s also been in many high-profile films, either onscreen (The Aviator) or on the soundtrack (Brokeback Mountain). So why–five critically acclaimed albums and a decade into his career–is he still not a household name?
Perhaps it’s the elaborate nature of Wainwright’s music, often described as “baroque pop” or “popera” (pop opera). Many of the 34-year-old’s compositions are densely packed, dizzying amalgams of strings, horns, operatic choruses, ragtime rhythms and his own distinctively warm vocal timbre. After all, how many Top 40 musicians list “Papa Verdi” as an influence on their MySpace page?
Nevertheless, it’s hard to refute the accolades, especially USA Today‘s recent assertion that he is “his generation’s answer to Morrissey.” Like the British singer, who also recently performed at the Wells Fargo Center, where Wainwright holds court Aug. 2, Wainwright has an insanely dogmatic legion of fans (affectionately known as “Rufophants”), a lyrical penchant for mixing high art and clever colloquialisms, a gift for dark humor set against sunny melodies, a disdain for the establishment, a penchant for Miltonic dissertations on divine tyranny and deep esteem for classic Hollywood figures.
But like all cultural torch-passing, Wainwright’s bolder in all respects. In the piano stroll “Going to a Town,” off his new album Release the Stars, his first self-produced effort, he equates the current United States with no less than Nazi Germany during its own bid for diabolical world domination. Like all his intensely personal albums, Stars brings us Rufus the man, in all his foibles and contradictions. Not only is he writing an opera for the Metropolitan, in September he’s bringing his acclaimed Judy Garland re-creation to the Hollywood Bowl, just as he did for her famous 1961 Carnegie Hall shows back in June (a CD and DVD are released the same month). On his last album, he heralded the arrival of a “Gay Messiah,” who’ll be “wearing tube socks with style and such an innocent smile.” Judging from his recent stint on the True Colors Tour, not to mention the green lederhosen in Release the Stars‘ liner notes, Rufus may be it.
Rufus Wainwright and band dominate the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday, Aug. 2. Sean Lennon and A Fine Frenzy open. 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa. 8pm. $39.50-$45. 707.546.3600.
Triple Play

Arcadia 2007:
Summer is in full swing, and gardens across the North Bay are bursting with goodness–beautiful basil, cucumber, garlic, green beans and the first tomatoes of the season, just to name a few. Such a cornucopia is just one of the many reasons we live in this magical place.
Another reason we call the North Bay home is that we’ve got so many talented chefs to guide us on what to do with this grandeur. Chefs who grow their own ingredients obsessively source out the best of everything from salt to olive oil and know how to put them together in such inspired style that even the most simple dish sings.
We asked three of our great chefs to share their favorite recipes of the moment, within just a few basic parameters. One, the ingredients should be the stars–no foam or froufrou. Two, that preparations be something a normal person (not that chefs aren’t normal, of course) could do. And three, that the results would be light (no heating up the kitchen, please), lively, and so delicious we would want to prepare them again and again.
Chef Bruce Hill
Picco, 320 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. 415.924.0300. Pizzeria Picco, 320 Magnolia Ave., Larkspur. 415.945.8900. Bix, 56 Gold St., San Francisco. 415.433.6300.
Picco chef-owner Bruce Hill has worked at some of America’s most impressive restaurants and now owns three of his own in the Bay Area. He caught our eye at the recent Golden Glass event in San Francisco (go, Slow Food!) and with his commitment to using locally grown organic produce whenever possible.
Hill also favors the Asian twist. He’s spent time in Japan, and in October is heading back for a tour as San Francisco’s culinary ambassador. This dish is inspired by that country’s cooking, he says, “where the simple combinations often add up to deep flavors.”
Hill prefers Mariquita Farm (Watsonville) tomatoes, especially the Early Girls, hailing them as “the benchmark of tomato flavor.” Pair this salad with a lush, fruity Daiginjo sake.
Heirloom Tomato Salad with Arugula & Toasted Garlic Miso Vinaigrette
Serves 4
20 slices (1/2-inch thick) best quality heirloom tomatoes
4 c. organic arugula
1/4 c. basil oil (or torn basil leaves, 12 per salad)
toasted garlic miso vinaigrette (recipe below)
sea salt and fresh pepper
Toasted Garlic Miso Vinaigrette
1 c. chopped garlic, rinsed in cold water
2 c. pure olive oil (not extra virgin)
1 c. mirin (sweet rice wine)
1/2 c. white miso
1/2 c. rice vinegar
Sauté the garlic in olive oil over medium heat (10-15 minutes), watching carefully so it doesn’t burn. As soon as the garlic turns golden brown, add the mirin (it will bubble and boil). Remove from heat, add the miso and rice vinegar, whisk until smooth.
Lightly dress the arugula with toasted garlic miso vinaigrette, and mound evenly in the center of 4 plates. Season the tomato slices with salt and pepper and arrange around the arugula. Drizzle some vinaigrette on each of the tomato slices and garnish with basil oil or torn basil leaves.
Chef Mark Malicki
Cafe St. Rose, 463 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa. 707.546.2459.
Cafe St. Rose owner Mark Malicki isn’t hung up on pretension. His tiny shop opened late last year on an unlikely residential/commercial street in downtown Santa Rosa. There are only about 15 seats in his shabby-chic space, and the bare bones menu changes daily, reflecting what’s good in the market plus, well, whatever Malicki feels like serving that night. Usually, it’s prix fixe; sometimes there are choices on courses, and sometimes not.
One thing is certain: the dishes will be out of the ordinary, with surprisingly effective out-of-the-hat combinations and casual, almost careless respect for “cuisine.”
Not surprisingly then, Malicki veered a bit from one of the constraints we put on him; local just wasn’t his bag that day. But simple? Check. And luscious? Check, check, check.
Malicki’s recipe comes from a fishing trip he took last year in Redding. He caught some brown trout and turned it into breakfast, though it turns toward dinner with a suggested pairing of a fennel and radish salad. The ham he likes lately is Smithfield from Virginia, the salt is Halen Môn 100 percent natural smoky Welsh sea salt, and the olive oil is Spanish because, as Malicki says, “To be frank, Spanish oil has lots of similarities [in quality] to Italian, but it’s priced a lot better.”
Trout with Serrano Ham
Serves 4
4 trout
4 slices jamon Serrano (or Smithfield ham)
pinch of salt
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Cut the head and tail off the trout. Stuff fish with ham, and season with salt inside and out. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat, add the fish and cook for three minutes. Carefully flip the fish over with a spatula and cook for two more minutes. Remove from pan and serve immediately.
Chef Victor Scargle
Go Fish, 641 Main St., St. Helena. 707.963.0700.
With three talented chefs in the Go Fish kitchen, it might be challenging to come up with one simple, stunning recipe everyone can agree on. The big names partnering here include Cindy Pawlcyn (Mustards Grill and Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen), Victor Scargle (lured away from COPIA’s Julia’s Kitchen last winter) and Ken Tominaga (owner of Hana Japanese Restaurant in Rohnert Park).
Ultimately, they let Mother Nature name the dance, then leave it up to executive chef Scargle to choreograph.
“Here in Napa, we take advantage of the seasons,” Scargle says. “Right now we’ve got so many beautiful fresh beans, herbs and cucumbers.” He plucks his own from the organic garden behind the restaurant. Key to the recipe is the grapeseed oil verjus, from Napa grapes. “It’s different from vinegar and has a nice acid,” Scargle explains.
Alaskan Halibut with Summer Beans Verjus Vinaigrette & Salute Chardonnay Grapeseed Oil
Serves 6
6 Alaskan halibut fillets (5 ounces each)
1/4 pound yellow wax beans, cut in thirds on a bias
1/4 pound Bluelake beans, cut in thirds on a bias
1/4 pound haricot vert, cut in thirds on a bias
1/4 pound purple dragon beans, cut in thirds on a bias
1 stalk fennel, diced small and placed in water
6 stems chives, chopped fine, stems reserved
12 sprigs chervil, chopped fine, stems reserved
12 sprigs parsley, chopped fine, stems reserved
24 Tarragon leaves, chopped fine, stems reserved
kosher salt
white pepper
2 quarts Salute Chardonnay grapeseed oil (for poaching) plus 1 tbsp. to finish plate
1 tsp. coriander seed
1 tsp. fennel seed
Vinaigrette
1/2 c. red verjus
1/2 c. Salute grapeseed oil
1 medium shallot, minced
kosher salt
white pepper
Mix verjus, shallots and 1/2 c. of grapeseed oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Method: Bring heavily salted water to a boil, and cook beans in separate batches for four minutes each. Remove and blanch in ice water. Drain and pat dry.
Place herb stems, coriander seed and fennel seed in a cheese cloth and place in a saucepan with 2 quarts of grapeseed oil and bring to a simmer. Add diced fennel. Simmer for 15 minutes, strain fennel out and keep warm.
Season halibut with salt all over, white pepper on the skin side. Return grapeseed oil blend to heat, but do not let boil. Add fish and cook 8 to 10 minutes depending on thickness.
While fish is cooking, heat vinaigrette. Add beans and simmer until slightly tender, then add reserved fennel. Add chopped chives, chervil, parsley and tarragon.
Remove beans from vinaigrette with a slotted spoon, and place on center of plate. Remove fish from oil and lightly blot on paper towel. Season fish to taste with salt, and place on top of beans. Finish with a grapeseed oil drizzle around the plate.
Quick dining snapshots by Bohemian staffers.
Winery news and reviews.
Food-related comings and goings, openings and closings, and other essays for those who love the kitchen and what it produces.
Recipes for food that you can actually make.
Hidden in Plain Sight
Arcadia 2007:
Lawd knows there’s more to it all than eating and drinking and taking some silly quizzes about North Bay towns. There’s also that wild elixir known as fresh air. Here are some of our favorite lesser-known haunts. Getting out and about are Brett Ascarelli, Gretchen Giles and Patricia Lynn Henley.
Sonoma
Sonoma Overlook Trail
A stroll with a view. That’s the Sonoma Overlook Trail, which winds its way up a hillside on the edge of the picturesque town of Sonoma. Most of the path makes its way through oaks and brush, giving a sense of relaxed exploration. At the top the trees and other foliage give way to open meadows, providing fantastic views of the surrounding region. On a clear day you can see the north end of San Pablo Bay as well as the streets of Sonoma spread out below.
Returning back down the trail, there’s an alternative route to the upper trailhead located inside the tree-shaded Mountain Cemetery, where Sonoma’s pioneer families were laid to rest. The round trip, including a loop at the top, is slightly less than three miles, and the hike is a gradual one, never more than a 7 percent grade. It’s estimated that the entire trip, including walking from Sonoma Plaza to the trailhead and back again, requires less than an hour and a half for most brisk walkers. Many hardy locals use this well-maintained trial for jogging.
The trail was created after a 1990s corporate attempt to turn the property into a $2,000-a-night exclusive resort. Angered by this proposed use of publicly owned land, locals rallied and passed a ballot measure preserving the property as permanent open space. Volunteers built the trail, with financing from individuals, civic groups and local businesses. This year, the lower trailhead’s parking lot was realigned and an informational kiosk installed. Low stone walls that will also serve as benches and landscaping using drought-resistant native plants will be added by early next year, making an already appealing trail even more enticing.
The lower trailhead is at the entrance of Sonoma’s Mountain Cemetery, just north of the Sonoma Valley Veterans Memorial Building, 178 First St. W., Sonoma. For those who like to know what foliage they’re seeing as they walk, the Sonoma Ecology Center offers free docent-led hikes. Trail is open dawn to dusk daily; no pets, horses or bicycles allowed. 707.833.6900. —P.L.H.
Short List: Sebastopol Super Playground Great fun for little ones (corner of Pleasant Hill Avenue North and Valentine Avenue). Shiloh Park Lovely hiking trails, unexpected pond stocked with plenty of noisy frogs at the top of the ridge (5750 Faught Road, Windsor). Cloverdale River Park A super place to launch kayaks and canoes into the Russian River (31820 McCray Road, Cloverdale).
Marin
Robson-Harrington Park
Travel back, if you will, to the magical world of Marin, circa 1972. The family car is a convertible VW bug. The family home is a Ross Victorian that rents for $175. The family roach clip is affixed to a ghastly marble sculpture from San Francisco’s tony Gump’s department store. And in the summer, every Thursday, the family pastime is meeting other families in San Anselmo’s Robson-Harrington Park to drink Annie Green Springs and play volleyball.
At least, that’s what the adults did, whooping it up and pretending to like sport, when the real pleasure probably came from lying on the grass panting, drinking pop wine and sneaking the roach clip around.
Meanwhile, we kids had all of Robson-Harrington to explore. There was that ghostly, lovely old home with its many terraced gardens and its mysterious corners and curious nooks. There were the terrifying rumors that someone still lived there, or was it a ghost? There were the heavy, scented, fruit trees aching with summer’s growth; the full lush grass of the front garden; the low walls ringing the entire property; the fig trees to climb; the brick remains of another house to hide behind. What a large, overwhelming playground of the imagination is Robson-Harrington Park!
Surely, it must have shrunk.
At less than three acres, Robson-Harrington can’t sustain the grandiose memories of childhood, but it’s still a lovely place to stroll, climb, picnic, loll, hide and wonder.
Built as the family home for a lumber baron in 1906, the house passed into real estate magnate Kernan Robson’s hands in 1923. He later named it in honor of his father and mother, whose maiden name had been Harrington. Old photos show the home, which once boasted an adjacent carriage house and the requisite out-of-place palm tree, alone on its haughty hill, where now it is crowded by residences on all sides just two blocks from San Anselmo’s main street.
Kernan and his wife, Geraldine, lived in the home for decades, childless but devoted to their garden and the community. After Kernan’s death in 1956, Geraldine stayed on with her housekeeper until her death in 1967. The town of San Anselmo took the property on in 1968 and the housekeeper lived on until her own demise in 1990, which explains a lot about that childhood sensation of being watched shimmying down trees and making mild mischief in the gardens.
Renovated as a Marin Showcase Home in 1979 and until just recently under the care of the Robson-Harrington House Association, which disbanded in 2005, leaving the property to the town’s recreation department, Robson-Harrington is now a marvelous experiment in community gardening. Geraldine Robson’s dear terraced gardens are rented out as individual plots for area residents to use in raising their own food and flowers. A recent Saturday afternoon visit found the beds thick with the scent of basil and that particular cat-pee-but-pleasant smell that hot tomato leaves emit in the sun.
The lawn that once hosted volleyball every Thursday could use some water, but the Italian ceramics that adorn the brick walls all throughout the property are a marvel in this age of Ikea. Robson-Harrington remains a magical place for the family to spend hot summer nights, even circa 2007. Robson-Harrington Park, 237 Crescent Road, San Anselmo. 415.258.4650.–G.G.
Short list: McNear’s Beach Park On San Pablo Bay with a swimming pool, this park provides the best of both worlds, including a snack bar and fishing pier (201 Cantera Way, San Rafael; $8 parking, $4 pool fee). Paradise Beach Park allows just anyone to enjoy Tiburon, too. Horseshoes, beach, picnic areas and fishing (3450 Paradise Drive, Tiburon; $8 parking).
Napa
Kennedy Park
Tucked discreetly beside Napa Valley College, the 350-acre John F. Kennedy Memorial Park is normally bypassed by visitors who are flooring it to make their winery appointments farther north. For locals, this is a good thing: they like having it to themselves. It’s one of those parks where those in the know go almost every day, stopping every now and then to carouse with the other regulars and their canines.
But as for the rest of you–well, you’re missing out. For the lite outdoorsman, the park offers sand volleyball, a sports green, a playground, a golf course and a driving range. Five picnic areas with barbecue stations fan out across the grass and are available to rent. There’s even an asphalt pad for launching model planes.
Best of all, the park runs alongside the Napa River and boasts a small boat-launch facility for starboard-savvy day-trippers. But for those whose pleasure craft is still several years on the horizon, a river trail provides the perfect alternative. Eventually, the river trail will lead all the way up to Trancas Road, about five miles north of the park, but for now, it’s roughly two miles long (at press time, the city of Napa Parks and Recreation Department could not confirm exactly how long the trail was, since a new section had just been added).
Although planes flying in and out of the nearby airport make the occasional, jarring din, the river trail usually floods with more pleasant sounds: foxtails rustling and bicolored blackbirds twittering.
One Tuesday morning, a local who’s preparing to move away laments having just discovered the park. While she walks, small, white butterflies flit prettily in and out of a wire fence that the Army Corps of Engineers has erected to foster riverbank plant growth. The air smells clean, too, like cedar and fennel. In the distance, traffic silently tootles over the corridor which will soon shuttle her away from Napa and to the South Bay. Kennedy Park, Streblow Drive off of Highway 221, Napa. 707.257.9529.–B.A.
Short List: Pioneer Park An old-fashioned, grassy and shaded neighborhood spot replete with small gazebo. This is a charming place for an evening picnic (on Cedar Street just a block off of Lincoln Avenue, Calistoga; 707.942.2838). Cuttings Wharf A two-lane boat launch on the Napa River, adjacent to Moore’s Resort, Cuttings is a small world of its own, perfect for fishing and culture hawking (take the Cuttings Wharf Road exit off of Highway 121). Bale Grist Mill State Park Also contained within its grounds is the first church in the Napa Valley, as well as the old “pioneer” cemetery and the 1846 water-powered mill that was once the center of Napa’s social life. Trails adjoin to nearby Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. (3369 N. Hwy. 29; 707.942.4575).
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