Another Ad Hoc Experience

As I mentioned before, our hotel was located almost next to Ad Hoc in Yountville so after we had slept off the big meals of the previous day, we tromped through the rain to brunch at Ad Hoc late Sunday morning.

The last time I was here, I loved Ad Hoc - this time, I just liked it. I guess it really depends what's on the menu for the day. I was so hoping for a repeat of the fried chicken we had last time.

The first change was that there was no longer a basket of Bouchon Bakery pastries :( Instead regular bread was served. Don't get me wrong - it was nice bread. I just had high expectations from last time...

We started with a salad of frisee and smoked red trout, which was really good - even for someone who's not usually a fan of smoked fish and salad. This, like all dishes here, is served family-style - so we cleaned the plate very quickly between the four of us.

The main course was smoked beef shortribs with homemade tagliatelle. The beef was delicious and cooked just right. And the tagliatelle was really good - thin and flavorful and tossed with some great mushrooms. This was served with some broccoli rabe - the photo on the right is after I had served myself a good sized portion.







I had been disappointed to see Rum Baba as the dessert of the day. I'm not one for liquor in my desserts. In my mind, there's nothing worse than biting into a delicious looking dark chocolate truffle only to find a liquer-filled center. All things considered, the Rum Baba wasn't bad. Especially if you slathered it with the accompanying chantilly.


The first photo is of the special $25 bottle of Blue Ribbon Ale that is only available at Thomas Keller restaurants. See last post for the back story.

All in all, not quite as stellar as my first experience, but still an excellent value - and the service was as good as always. Wish this place was closer to where I live...

Fancy Vegetables at Ubuntu

A few short hours after we rolled ourselves out of the French Laundry, we found ourselves in downtown Napa (which had an awful lot going on) at the entrance of Ubuntu.

Now if you've not heard of Ubuntu, it was probably one of the biggest restaurant openings last year. Jeremy Fox, who was sous chef at Manresa, has been very well-reviewed and Ubuntu came very highly recommended. I was told that I wouldn't look at vegetables in the same way once I dined there.

The space was more industrial than I had expected with stairs that led up to the yoga studio (apparently, there are lots of mat-toting passers-by if you dine here at lunch). And the menu was very interesting, with many, many terms I was not familiar with.

Our server told us that many of the menu items came from the restaurant's bio-dynamic 2 acre garden. Yeah, we had to ask what exactly that meant...

We started with the set of three bites - olives marinated in pesto, marcona almonds with lavender sugar and sea salt, and the chickpea fries. I loved the almonds with their unusual finish and the chickpea fries because, well, they were fried.

We had a harder time deciding on the dishes, so we went with the waiter's recommendation and did "the cycle". It was a fancy name for "bring us one of everything on the menu, please". That's 13 dishes. For the 4 of us. After 10+ courses at the French Laundry. Hmmm...

Artichoke, Arugula and Parmesan Salad
This was my favorite dish of the entire meal. It was an amazing salad. The artichokes were a revelation - I don't usually like artichokes. The juices left at the bottom of the dish were even great mopped up with bread.





Crunchy radishes with chevre and nori
This was a pretty dish but just ok for me as I'm not a big radish fan. Hubby really liked it though.

Today's Leaves & Things
Dressed lightly with olive oil, this was a great light green salad.





Beet Tartare with Pistachio "dirt"
This was probably the most impressive presentation - and the "dirt" was delicious. I'm not much of a beet fan but it was served with grapefruit wedges, peppers and lettuce, and was quite good.

Mustard greens, truffled pecorino with rosemary cracker
Again, beautiful presentation. Delicious but a little hard to eat. Everything fell apart when you served yourself, so you had to put together each bite by piling everything back ontop of the cracker.

Warm sunchoke carpaccio with black trumpet mushrooms, shaved fennel
Did you know that a sunchoke (also known as a Jerusalem artichoke) is not related to the artichoke at all?! This is what you can learn during a meal when one or more of your party wields the iPhone.

Rustic "yellow eye" bean stew
I'm not usually a bean fan but this stew was terrific.


Carrot gnocchetti
This looked a lot like mac 'n cheese. But it was little mini carrot gnocchi. It was good, but very rich.

Fregola in spinach broth with broccoli rabe
Fregola is a pasta, in case you didn't know - I didn't. I think I liked this dish, but also think I might have been filling up so that my food appreciation ability was beginning to be seriously compromised.

Yellow corn grits smoked with hickory, with fried brussels sprouts and apple sticks
I liked the brussels sprouts - they were fried.

Cauliflower in a cast iron pot
This is the dish that all the reviewers raved about. It comes out mouth-burningly hot but I didn't quite see what all the fuss was about. See last comment about compromised food appreciation due to severe over-indulgence.

Finally we had two pizzas - a nice margherita with super ingredients and a sauerkraut and emmental pizza, which so scared me that I was only able to muster a single bite.

Phew. 13 courses plus 3 bites at the start. We were exhausted. But we rallied for the dessert course. Which was (dare I say it) way better than the French Laundry's. I had the meyer lemon and white chocolate parfait, served with rose geranium meringue. Just look at this dessert! It was sooo pretty I almost didn't want to eat it. But then I did anyway. It was great. I'd come back just for this.

Their signature dessert is the cheesecake in a jar - so we ordered that as well. Vanilla bean "cheesecake" in a jar with sour cherries and a lovely nut crumble on top. It would have been great with another fruit. I am not a sour cherry fan. But it almost worked, it was that good.

And so I came to the end of yet another meal and trotted back to collapse in bed with visions of meyer lemon parfaits dancing in my head.

My third time at the French Laundry

After last year's FL experience, I realized I much preferred having lunch there rather than a heavy dinner that ended around 10 pm. So when I was making other restaurant ressies on OpenTable in January, I idly searched for a weekend lunch slot at FL. Much to my surprise, there was availability for 4 on Sat Feb 28 at noon. I've subsequently read an article that mentioned that FL ressies are easier to get these days with the economic malaise. No matter what the reason, we were in!

We all ordered the 9 course chef's tasting menu, although there are really way more than 9 courses offered. Our amuse was the usual smoked salmon cones, with a little creme fraiche and minced chive buried within the cone providing a lovely little burst of richness when first biting into it.





The first course was a White Truffle Custard with a ragout of Perigord truffles. The truffle flavor wasn't too overwhelming, and this was a nice mellow start to the meal and served in a cute eggshell. Hubby, who is not a truffle fan, requested the first course from the vegetarian tasting menu called "Bloody Mary". It was described as tomato pickle, celery branch, horseradish, brioche croutons and smoke. And smoke it did - the bowl you see on the left was covered by a glass lid and smoke was swirling around inside when it was brought to the table. When the lid was lifted up, the smoke swirled up and out, and a delicious applewood smoky smell permeated the air for a few short moments. I have no idea what it tasted like (although it seemed to vanish quite quickly) but the presentation was fabulous.




Somewhere around here, we were each brought a lovely warm roll with a very specific name which I cannot recall. We were served two kinds of butter - an unsalted, almost cheese-like butter from Andante Dairy that was very yellow, and a pale yellow salted butter from Vermont. I loved the latter!

Next up was sauteed foie gras. The standard preparation on the menu was "foie gras au torchon", which is a cold service that makes the foie gras taste a little too much like the pate de campagne you can buy from Trader Joe's. They were kind enough to switch the preparation to the warm sauteed foie gras for us. Which was small, but packed a wallop. It was delicious served with toasted brioche (which oddly enough, I had to request). The foie gras also came with a selection of fancy salts which I remember from last year - the jurassic salt from Montana, the french sel gris and a Hawaiian salt.





The other choice for this course was a salad of FL garden turnips, which looked perfectly composed on the plate. I was much happier with the foie gras, needless to say...









My next course was a confit of Columbia River sturgeon, served with some diced yukon gold potatoes and english cucumbers. The sturgeon was a great petite piece of fish. The other choice was a Japanese Bluefin Tuna tartare served with asparagus, tomato compote, olives and Jidori hen egg emulsion. Although the tuna presentation won the day, I think my sturgeon was the better dish.



We moved on to Maine lobster tail lightly poached in butter which I got so excited about that I forgot to take the requisite photo. Trust me, it was a pretty dish. And yummy.







Next up was a choice between Salmon Creek Farms pork belly or Wolfe Ranch white quail. The pork belly looked good but the quail was fabulous - the skin nicely crisped up.












And finally, the Elysian Fields lamb rib-eye served with black trumpet mushroom ravioli, carrots and spring garlic. A small and deliciously tender piece of lamb and a great finish to the savory courses of the meal.

By the way, all the servings are quite small, lest you think that we've stuffed ourselves with 6 mega courses so far. Thomas Keller's philosophy is the "three bite" approach; the palate is never as stimulated as it is in the first three bites.

We next had a cheese course of Zamorano, a Spanish sheep's milk hard cheese, served with an extensive choice of breads. This was followed by a palate cleansing course of Andante Dairy yogurt sorbet which was delicious but not quite tart enough to cleanse the palate. Also forgot to take a photo of these two courses.

Our next course was a little freebie that is usually available on request - "coffee and doughnuts" used to always be on the menu but they've moved on to other desserts these days. But this is one of my favorites - a hot donut, topped with a donut hole, served with a coffee semifreddo. Do ask for it if you're there, they don't charge extra for this bonus course.





I have to admit that I've not been wild about their desserts (aside from "coffee and doughtnuts"). I had the parfait au citron which was composed of various lemony items and it was light but just ok. The other choice was a chocolate mousse served with some toasted cashews and a wonderful banana ice cream.



Then we had a mignardises course, which is a choice of all sorts of miniature candies, chocolates and cookies. Served in a three tier rotating canister. I got too excited about this as well and my camera was left sitting in my purse. I had a nice apricot pate de fruit, a calisson and an orange chocolate almond thing that was delicious.

Finally, some chocolate covered macadamia nuts and homemade chocolates which were extremely fresh tasting. I had the salted caramel, the key lime and the peanut butter. The caramel was exceptional and the peanut butter was very good. Meh on the key lime.

Along with a nice coffee and tea service, plus a packet of shortbread cookies for us to take home, we rolled out 4 hours later, happy, satisfied and ready for a nap.

A Weekend of Gluttony

Of all the seven deadly sins, I'm afraid that gluttony might be my biggest weakness. Well ok, maybe pride as well.

We were in Napa for a food-filled weekend - Sat lunch at French Laundry, Sat dinner at Ubuntu and Sunday brunch at Ad Hoc. With a few hours in between to digest while lying in a stupor on a very comfortable bed.

We stayed at the Yountville Inn, which is in walking distance to FL, Bouchon and Ad Hoc, were it not pouring most of the time we were there. It was a good deal at $175 for a king deluxe room with vaulted ceilings and a fireplace, and most importantly, no 2-night minimum for a Saturday night. The continental breakfast featured pastries from Bouchon Bakery, and some very nice french bread served with brie.

Now, on to the catalog of meals!

Mother's Day Brunch at Ad Hoc

We had a lovely brunch yesterday at Ad Hoc - I'm not sure if there was really anything special for Mother's Day but they did serve their famous fried chicken, which was an unexpected treat!

We started with a plate of mini pastries from Bouchon Bakery, then a smoked trout salad with romaine leaves, apple cubes and walnuts. The dressing was light and very nice - the smoked trout was really good. Then we had the fried chicken, served with nice crisp waffles. Plus a side of sauteed spinach, Hobbs bacon and eggs that had been slowly steamed (?) for 90 mins, then placed into simmering water for another minute. This resulted in almost custardy eggs that were great on top of the waffles. Finally we finished with fresh strawberries served with a creamy marscapone-based sauce and a warm sugar cookie.

The drink service was also impressive - nicely brewed pots of tea (good tea selection), and a special bottle of Blue Apron Ale from the Brooklyn Brewery ($25 bottle of beer!). The story goes that each of TK's restaurants gives him a gift for Christmas and they spend a lot of time trying to figure out a good gift for him. Ad Hoc gave him a basket of NY-themed foods, including a small bottle of ale from the Brooklyn Brewery. He liked it so much that he asked the brewery to brew a special version for his restaurants. Now they ship this special ale across the country for his Napa places and the $25 per bottle is pretty much the cost. It's a big bottle and for you beer aficianados, I was told it was like a much better version of Chimay. And you can only get it at his restaurants, including Per Se in NYC.

My companions also loved their espressos - we asked for details and they use Illy pods (not beans!), but their machine is "tuned" on a weekly basis for optimal performance. It's a much tested process - they tried out 30 different water filters before they settled on their current standard.

And I have to say that the service staff at Ad Hoc was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly - and honestly, just so happy to be working there. It was impressive!

Oxbow Public Market - Napa

Our over-indulgent weekend continued at the new Oxbow Public Market in Napa, a much-needed short walk away from our hotel.

The market is quite small and very manageable, which was a nice change from the sometimes overwhelming Ferry Building in SF. We wandered through and bought a picnic from the Fatted Calf (beef jerky), Model Bakery (lemon bars, bacon bread - yum!, baguette), Rotisario (roast chicken, asparagus salad), Three Twins Ice Cream (meyer lemon sorbet), Oxbow Cheese Merchant (bean salad, olives, gruyere, Eclipse goat cheese, Bleu D'Auvergne blue cheese). We also stopped at the Olive Press (some very nice Arbequina oil) and the Whole Spice Company (Zhug - a nice melange of hot spices).

We returned to our hotel and ate by the Napa River.

Is the French Laundry worth it?

We were fortunate enough to be invited to join some good friends for lunch at the French Laundry this past Saturday - the 9 course prix fixe is $240, service included. I also sprung for the foie gras upgrade for an additional $30.







The meal was just sublime. All but one of the courses was out of this world - the one course was good, just not transcendental. And I inquired about the fact that "coffee and donuts" was missing from the menu, and they served it to us (all four of us) at no additional charge. Plus the price included tea/coffee and bottled water.

I say it's well worth it - of course, I didn't have to invest the time in obtaining the reservations, so I got off lucky! Get your reservations now!

Lunch at French Laundry - Chowhound post

This was my second time dining at FL - my first dinner was 8-9 years ago. And somehow luckily for me, both the reservations were procured by someone else!

We arrived a few minutes early and walked around their pretty demonstration garden across the street - they had orange cauliflower and large purple plants that were labeled brussels sprouts. Plus numerous other interesting vegetables.

At 11:15 a.m. our party of 4 was led upstairs to a window table. All four of us picked the Chef's Tasting ($240 including service) and since only 2 of our group were drinking, we asked our waiter to set up a wine pairing (which turned out to be 3 half bottles over the course of the meal - $275).

We started with small cheese gougeres - could have definitely had a whole basket of these. The next amuse was smoked salmon and creme fraiche, served in a small cone. Again, very yummy.

Our first course was caviar in a cauliflower panna cotta - I couldn't really taste the cauliflower, but since I like caviar, this was a nice little dish but not out-of-this world. The second course was a choice between a Hawaiian hearts of peach palm salad and a foie gras torchon ($30 additional). Two of our group had the salad which was petite and tasty and the other two had the foie gras. This was a generous serving, served with warm brioche toast and little balls of bananas (interestingly good). Funnily enough, less than a minute after the first plate of toast arrived (still warm), they substituted it for another plate - saying that the chef wanted to make sure we had warm toast!

We were also served a selection of salts that were unusual - a lighter salt from Maine, a sel gris (which is apparently the lower layer under fleur de sel) and a reddish salt they called Jurassic salt (which was the strongest of the 3). The salts were great on the creamy local butter that they served. They also served a seasoned butter that was nice. We completely finished both tubs of butter!

The third course was a choice of black bass fillet or tuna tartare with whipped fava beans. Tuna was good but the bass was transcendental - perfectly sauteed and served with tiny fresh english peas. Next was a nice poached Maine lobster tail - again, very nicely done, served with very tender asparagus.

The fifth course was a choice of white quail or a jambonette of rabbit. Both were remarkable. The quail was served with small white meat and dark meat portions with some truffle jus and very sweet corn. It was crisp and tender. I could have eaten twice the portion without blinking. The jambonette was an unusual preparation - shredded rabbit meat that was seasoned and moist, panko breaded and fried, served like a lollipop. This wasn't my pick but I did taste it and it was surprisingly delicious. I had a second taste ;)

The sixth course was a lamb ribeye - I was most looking forward to this, since I love lamb. And it was ok - would have been rated good at any other place but it just wasn't anything particularly special. The small fried artichokes on the side were really good (and I don't like artichokes).

The seventh course was the cheese course - Mrs. Quicke's Cheddar from the UK served with broccoli florettes and mushrooms. This was just ok for me. The cheese didn't seem special enough.

The eighth course was a buttermilk sherbet, very unusual and good for palate cleansing. Then we had a surprise course of "coffee and donuts". We had this the last time I was there and I had asked about it when we ordered. Our waiter told me the chef could prepare it for us - and it arrived for all 4 of us, as a special, additional course. No extra charge. It was delicious - a small sugared donut, served with the hole sitting on top (cute) plus a coffee semifreddo in an espresso cup on the side. Plus it was free! That made me happy.

The dessert course was a choice between "milkduds and popcorn" and a pistachio layer dessert served with strawberry sorbet. The former was an intense bar of chocolate dessert with layers of mousse, chocolate malt etc with a popcorn sorbet. I think I was too full to appreciate this. The second dessert seemed a little bland but the sorbet was excellent.

Finally, for the "mignardises", the ladies were served two deliciously small portions of vanilla bean creme brulee. And for the life of me, neither my husband nor I can recall what the two men were served (this wasn't listed on the menu). Whatever it was, it was good.

We finished up with coffee and tea - really good espresso and proper tea service. Plus little orange biscotti and chocolate covered macadamia nuts.

We were given bags of shortbread cookies as a parting gift, copies of the day's menus in a nice folder and rolled out of there around 3 pm.

Overall, I think I liked having lunch better because I didn't have to go to bed so full.