The Widow, the Spinster, and the Missus take on Disneyland - A little OT Interlude in Napa The Wrap Up 5/3

[jedijill]

We were staying at a Hampton Inn (on points because hotels are incredibly expensive here), so we got complimentary breakfast. I had my usual waffle, and it just wasn’t as good as they usually are. Neither were the potatoes or sausage.

Breakfast was...not good but unlike everything else in Napa, Free!

Well, the only way you can get to the top of the Mountain is if one person purchases a $55 wine tasting. A second person can accompany them for $20 without the tasting. But you don’t get to ride the tram unless someone purchases a tasting. Oh well, it would have been fun. Here’s a look at the tram.

These guys are letting a profit gold mine go by not letting non-drinkers ride the tram up. Dumb move!

Ok, let’s see what else we can do before our 11:30 tasting.

Very Game of Thrones!

At the front counter they started us off with a taste of this very special Sauvignon Blanc. It was REALLY good and a bit pricey. In the end, Jill and I each bought a couple of bottles to be shipped home. I still have both of mine.

This was delicious and I ordered 3 bottles....Alison we should crack one open when you are here in June!

This little appetizer of popcorn was Ah-mazing. It was topped with Meyer Lemon and Parmesan, it was soooo good!

It was soooo good! I found the recipe online so we can try to recreate it!

Near the end of our tasting I needed a bio break. You can see Jill sitting at our table. We had a lovely view of the vineyards from where we were sitting.

Cakebread was stunning and I love the open tasting lounge better than the BV cellar. It was so relaxing and the gentleman pouring was really personable.

I have recently come to really enjoy their Merlot. I brought a bottle over to Jenny and Michael’s house when he cooked dinner and the Merlot was really tasty! I also realized that I was definitely cellarring my wines a little too long. Not that they are going bad, but they are ready to drink a lot sooner than I originally thought. So I need folks to come help me catch up on my Red Wines!

I'll be there in 2 weeks to help!

This was the residence that the Senior Beringer built, we decided to go tour that.

The house and grounds were gorgeous and the weather was absolutely perfect! We missed the rain....this trip was right in the middle of all the huge rainstorms California was getting!

But first a wine selfie!

I actually look decent for once!

Jill in CO

 

[DnA2010]

Thanks for adding, I find this useful

Maybe sometime when you visit, we will have a gondola like this at our ski hill to ride, not currently, but I think in the longer term plans

felt special now!

Very nice!

Super cute! Did I show you our fancy blue bottle? I think it's base shaped, but will have to check

Spelt correct, yay!

Decent pours, always appreciate when they aren't stingy

Aww cute guys

This was the main entrance way / foyer in the house.

Wowzas, so pretty!

Onwards!

 

[franandaj]

Then maybe some day I’ll make a point of going.

You should, it's really a nice place....in January.

I remember booking a hotel on points… only to find that another city was way more $$$… but I could book for the same number of points. I canceled and rebooked. Saved some cash.

Yeah, you gotta do your homework. Not everything is a good deal. Unless you have oodles of points.

Those sausages look… not great.

They tasted....not great.

Must remember this.

Nope! That’s just… for a tram ride???

Yeah, $75 so you could split a tasting. Not a deal.

Well you are!

I can see why.

Yes, it took us a very long time to crack the bottle and drink it, but it was still pretty good!

White! I’m in.

You can usually tell them your preferences and they'll stick to that. Some wineries though it doesn't make sense because BV really on has one or two whites. As you can see from the Cakebread menu they had a few more options for just white tasting.

I wouldn’t expect to hear you say that about popcorn!

Neither would I! But it was fabulous!

Looks like a lovely room.

Not bad. I’d do that.

It was a pretty decent deal and allowed us to kill an hour or so.

Annnnnd… more white!

Again, wine of your choice, we were keeping it light since we had a big dinner that night.

Nice shot of you both.

Thanks!

 

[franandaj]

Breakfast was...not good but unlike everything else in Napa, Free!

Yeah! But you get what you pay for!

These guys are letting a profit gold mine go by not letting non-drinkers ride the tram up. Dumb move!

I know! They could probably get $25-35pp for non drinkers just to ride the skyway up there. I probably might have paid $25 for a hour or so to walk around.

Very Game of Thrones!

I just thought it was a nice driveway!

This was delicious and I ordered 3 bottles....Alison we should crack one open when you are here in June!

Twist my arm! We should plan something tasty to accompany it!

It was soooo good! I found the recipe online so we can try to recreate it!

That can be our hors d'oeuvres!

Cakebread was stunning and I love the open tasting lounge better than the BV cellar. It was so relaxing and the gentleman pouring was really personable.

Yes, I definitely enjoyed that tasting room more than the other. I'm glad we did them in the order that we did.

I'll be there in 2 weeks to help!

Yay! We should be able to polish off a couple bottles when we grill Roll Ups!

The house and grounds were gorgeous and the weather was absolutely perfect! We missed the rain....this trip was right in the middle of all the huge rainstorms California was getting!

Yes, the rain was coming down until Thursday, even some on Friday morning, but by the time we arrived, it was all gone!

I actually look decent for once!

You always look great!



OK, maybe the Space Mountain Ride photos need a little work!

 

[franandaj]

Thanks for adding, I find this useful

I thought people might. Most people are not familiar with the Napa Valley geography.

Maybe sometime when you visit, we will have a gondola like this at our ski hill to ride, not currently, but I think in the longer term plans

Well, I will be back, you're easy to visit. I just might not be able to fly 1st class much longer.

Super cute! Did I show you our fancy blue bottle? I think it's base shaped, but will have to check

No, you did not, sounds nice.

Spelt correct, yay!

Always important for those of us with a name that sounds like Alison!

Decent pours, always appreciate when they aren't stingy

I think the rest weren't as generous, but they weren't stingy.

Aww cute guys

Thanks!

Wowzas, so pretty!

That house was pretty amazing!

Onwards!

Very soon!

 

[pkondz]

You should, it's really a nice place....in January.

Its nice here in January too…


If you enjoy shivering as a hobby.

Yeah, $75 so you could split a tasting. Not a deal.

You can usually tell them your preferences and they'll stick to that. Some wineries though it doesn't make sense because BV really on has one or two whites. As you can see from the Cakebread menu they had a few more options for just white tasting.

Ah! Good to know.

 

[franandaj]

We had just killed some time at Beringer Winery and now we were on our way to our first paid tasting reservation. We picked Domaine Carneros for two reasons: 1) it was one of the few wineries offering a tasting for less than $50 and 2) Jill could taste bubbles while I tasted Pinot Noir (no bubbles).

It was a beautiful French Style Winery on top of a hill with commanding views. We realized that it would be better to look for a parking place up top rather than walk up all those stairs.

We checked in and this was by far the busiest winery that we had been to. They had a very large portrait of Madame de Pompadour hanging in the center of the salon entrance. While on the Dream I learned that she invented the “split” of champagne because she wanted a bottle of champagne that would fit in her pocket. They called her the “original Party Girl”. I tried to take a picture but I couldn’t get a good one, so I stole this off the interwebs.

Even though we were a little early, we were pretty much going to be seated at 3:30 which was our reservation, so we took a few photos while we waited. Here’s a panoramic view of the valley.

Eventually we were seated at the edge of this room.

Here’s the menu:

We placed our order and I took a few snaps of our view from the table.

Once we were served our flights, our waiter took our picture.

Here is my flight of Pinot Noirs.

And here is Jill’s flight of champagne.

While we were at Cakebread, we meant to order their Charcuterie plate. Go back and look, it’s at the top of the wine menu. But I guess we were so excited about the popcorn and just drinking the wine, that we forgot. So by now we were starving, not hangry, just ravenous. So we ordered the Cheese and Charcuterie plate that was on the menu here.

Neither of us like olives, so we left those on the table, but I’m pretty sure that we finished off most everything there. I ended up eating the rest of the sausages, and I think Jill ate the Brie, but I don’t remember, needless to say the pit in our tummies wasn’t hollow anymore, but we were still ready to eat our big dinner.

We were very excited! Our dinner was scheduled at La Toque and it had received high marks. We were hoping that it lived up to its reputation.

I think I ended up finishing off some of Jill’s champagne because she wanted to be able to drink the wine pairings with dinner. Regardless, we finished up, paid the bill and went back to the hotel room to chill and get ready.

We called an Uber to take us to the restaurant because we both wanted to enjoy the wine pairings and didn’t want to risk driving. When we arrived we were seated at a table off to the side of the main dining room and given menus. They were printed on a piece of pretty regular 8 ½ x 11” paper, and not sure if we took them with us.

Now I do have to say that going into this meal, we had read it online and everything sounded pretty good. We really had no idea what was going into the presentation, but we figured if one of the courses, or even two were off, we could deal with it because there were so many.

We were served the Amuse Bouche and they put these first two components down right after we were seated. This is the Tumeric Potato Espum and the Good Luck Daikon Cake.

The Potato Espum was a little weird, but we both ate it (I think). The Daikon Cake was definitely weird, I probably ate all of mine, but I don’t think Jill did.

About five minutes later we were served the Beef Chiccarone with Braised Beef Cheeks. As far as I know this was pretty good. We were OK, with the idea of crispy fried beef skin with beef cheeks.

We were seated off to the side, as I mentioned before. There was this lovely display of wine bottles from Napa next to our table.

Once we finished the Amuse Bouche, bread was served, this was barely three minutes after we started the Amuse Bouche..

And barely 30 seconds after the bread was set down, the next course arrived along with the wine pairing. It was the San Francisco Dungeness Crab Salad, Green Apple, Radish, Blood Orange, and Perfection Mandarin.

This was OK, the crab part was tasty, and there were some definite complex flavors going on, but neither of us loved it. Less than 10 minutes after we finished our plates we were served the Crispy Scaled Atlantic Black Bass, Broken Buttermilk, and Dill.

Now I found this one pretty tasty. Here’s a zoomed in shot of the crispiness of the fish. However, we had just eaten a pretty hearty Amuse Bouche, a crab salad, and now this fish, I was getting super full, super fast. What was up with the pacing for the meal? Twenty minutes into the meal and we were already on our third course? Huh?

I don’t know if it was during this course or after this course that we spoke to our server and told him that things were coming out way too fast! We wanted a bit of breathing room.

Well they came back saying that our fourth course had already been plated, and basically we just had to “suck it up”. They didn’t use those words, but that’s exactly what they meant. We were served Quadratti with Brillat Savarin, Taramasso Egg Gel and Fresh, Black Truffle. And at least they must have waited about 15 minutes before serving it, but that also could have been because Jill and I had both really slowed down since they were ramming the food down our throats.

To add insult to injury, the chef came to our table with a black truffle and a shaver, and assumed that both of us wanted our dishes smothered in black truffles. To be honest, neither Jill nor I are huge fans of black truffles, I know flame us if you want! But to us it was like smothering the little pasta pillows in dirty gym socks.

I actually thought the little pasta pillows were pretty tasty, once I picked off all the sweaty gym socks. I do think I finished those off.

So we asked for a pause in the serving. Well they waited over 40 minutes to bring us the next course! That’s not a pause, that’s just bad service. Our main course was Medallion of New Zealand Venison “a la plancha”, Cabbage and Wild Mushroom Crepinette, Wild Rice Späetzle Sauce Royale. It wasn’t a bad plate of food, but it certainly wasn’t anything to write home about. It was pretty mediocre. Neither of us finished, but they sort of insisted on packaging it up for us to take home. Both of us were expecting more flavor-wise.

Less than 20 minutes after giving up on our mains, (I only know this because the next course came 22 minutes after we were served the main), the cheese course rapidly appeared. It was Vacherin Fribourgeois, Pumpernickel Crisps, Tigertail Quince Condiment.

This was awful! If the truffles smelled like gym socks, this smelled like I could only imagine that a football players J**k S***p might be like after a rigorous game. It was disgusting and even the staff was saying (as they removed our barely touched pieces of cheese) that the chef had some “unusual” choices for the cheese.

Our dessert was served less than 10 minutes after our cheese course. Even if we had wanted to eat it, that’s not enough time. The dessert was Meyer Lemon Cheesecake, Lemon Thyme Ice Cream, Elderberry Sauce. We were being served our final course within two hours of being seated. A Seven Course meal in less than two hours!!!!! That’s practically criminal!

The dessert was decent, probably one of the better parts of the meal. The staff was already receiving a 20% tip regardless of their service, so obviously they didn’t care. The food was mediocre at best. Now perhaps I am biased because I have been lucky enough to dine at Club 33 quite a few times in the last couple months. However, if you want to really be considered on the fine dining scene, you need to teach your wait staff how to pace a meal, and the chef needs to realize that not everyone wants their meal doused in truffles.

We took our Uber back to the hotel and checked out the next morning. I dropped Jill off at the Oakland airport and both of us arrived at our homes (me at my parent’s) to watch the Chiefs win the Superbowl, yet again.

It was a great weekend, and we will definitely do it again, but now we know some tips and tricks to get the dining reservations that we want!

 

[franandaj]

Its nice here in January too…


If you enjoy shivering as a hobby.

Yeah, no thanks. I bet their winters are like your summers. I'll let you know.....

 

[jedijill]

It was a beautiful French Style Winery on top of a hill with commanding views. We realized that it would be better to look for a parking place up top rather than walk up all those stairs.

This place was absolutely stunning and had incredible views!

Even though we were a little early, we were pretty much going to be seated at 3:30 which was our reservation, so we took a few photos while we waited. Here’s a panoramic view of the valley.

So pretty!

And here is Jill’s flight of champagne.

So yummy!

So we ordered the Cheese and Charcuterie plate that was on the menu here.

This was a great variety and hit the spot! everything was fantastic.

Now I found this one pretty tasty. Here’s a zoomed in shot of the crispiness of the fish. However, we had just eaten a pretty hearty Amuse Bouche, a crab salad, and now this fish, I was getting super full, super fast. What was up with the pacing for the meal? Twenty minutes into the meal and we were already on our third course? Huh?

The pacing and service was criminal! I was so disappointed and the food wasn't that great. I can forgive some service issues if the food is amazing but they failed on that too.

I don’t know if it was during this course or after this course that we spoke to our server and told him that things were coming out way too fast! We wanted a bit of breathing room.

This was where we told the server to slow it down.

This was awful! If the truffles smelled like gym socks, this smelled like I could only imagine that a football players J**k S***p might be like after a rigorous game. It was disgusting and even the staff was saying (as they removed our barely touched pieces of cheese) that the chef had some “unusual” choices for the cheese.

He ruined a decent dish. Maybe he was used to trying to impress Silicon Valley "bros" who have more money than taste but I have more taste than money and I was not impressed.

Our dessert was served less than 10 minutes after our cheese course. Even if we had wanted to eat it, that’s not enough time. The dessert was Meyer Lemon Cheesecake, Lemon Thyme Ice Cream, Elderberry Sauce. We were being served our final course within two hours of being seated. A Seven Course meal in less than two hours!!!!! That’s practically criminal!

This was probably the best course of the night but we were both just over the whole experience.

We took our Uber back to the hotel and checked out the next morning. I dropped Jill off at the Oakland airport and both of us arrived at our homes (me at my parent’s) to watch the Chiefs win the Superbowl, yet again.

So Alison dropped me off pretty early because we had intended to have brunch at a local place but we got there and it was SCARY so we noped out of there really fast! There weren't really any other options so we decided just to go to the airport.

So this was Superbowl Sunday and I'm a HUGE Chiefs fan....well, who were we playing? The San Francisco 49'ers so the Oakland airport was full of SF fans headed to Vegas for the game. I found a bar in the airport and had some lunch and watched pre-game. I finally boarded my flight to Denver and watched more pre-game and then kick off happened just as we were landing. I watched/listened to the first half on my phone as I picked up my dogs and drove home. Luckily the best part of the game was the second half and OT. I was thrilled with a back to back victory!!! What a perfect way to cap off an amazing weekend! Can't wait to go to Napa again and hopefully we can score French Laundry reservations next time.

Jill in CO

 

[pkondz]

1) it was one of the few wineries offering a tasting for less than $50

and 2) Jill could taste bubbles while I tasted Pinot Noir (no bubbles).

I'm with Jill!

It was a beautiful French Style Winery

Really does look like it was plucked from France and plopped down in California.

They had a very large portrait of Madame de Pompadour

Going all out with the French theme!

While on the Dream I learned that she invented the “split” of champagne because she wanted a bottle of champagne that would fit in her pocket. They called her the “original Party Girl”.

Party on Madame Pompadour! (To the tune of "Party on Wayne. Party on Garth."

Eventually we were seated at the edge of this room.

Another nice room.

Once we were served our flights, our waiter took our picture.

And another nice photo of the two of you.

Here is my flight of Pinot Noirs.

Nope.

And here is Jill’s flight of champagne.

Yep!

we ordered the Cheese and Charcuterie plate that was on the menu here.

Exactly what I would have ordered as well.

Our dinner was scheduled at La Toque

We called an Uber to take us to the restaurant because we both wanted to enjoy the wine pairings and didn’t want to risk driving.

Smart call.

They were printed on a piece of pretty regular 8 ½ x 11” paper

Really? For the price (and reviews you read), I'd expect better.
Perhaps this was foreshadowing.

This is the Tumeric Potato Espum and the Good Luck Daikon Cake.

The espum looks okay, but the daikon cake looks... dull and uninspired.

About five minutes later we were served the Beef Chiccarone with Braised Beef Cheeks.

5 minutes?? And the presentation leaves much to be desired.

Once we finished the Amuse Bouche, bread was served, this was barely three minutes after we started the Amuse Bouche..

3 minutes... umm...

And barely 30 seconds after the bread was set down, the next course arrived

Was this advertised as the foodie equivalent of speed dating??

It was the San Francisco Dungeness Crab Salad,

Again... presentation... meh.

Well they came back saying that our fourth course had already been plated, and basically we just had to “suck it up”.

"I'm sorry, I need to send this back. It's cold now since I couldn't ram it in my face as fast as you tried to make me eat it."

To be honest, neither Jill nor I are huge fans of black truffles, I know flame us if you want! But to us it was like smothering the little pasta pillows in dirty gym socks.

I'm not a huge fan either. I mean... just because something is expensive, doesn't automatically equate to it being good. At least not in my opinion.

And... I like garlic... it doesn't mean I want 20 cloves of it in my dish.

So we asked for a pause in the serving. Well they waited over 40 minutes to bring us the next course! That’s not a pause, that’s just bad service.

More to say on that in a bit...

Our main course was Medallion of New Zealand Venison “a la plancha”, Cabbage and Wild Mushroom Crepinette, Wild Rice Späetzle Sauce Royale. It wasn’t a bad plate of food, but it certainly wasn’t anything to write home about.

Too bad. It was one of the few items on the menu that actually sounded palatable.

the cheese course rapidly appeared. It was Vacherin Fribourgeois, Pumpernickel Crisps, Tigertail Quince Condiment.

That sounded... ominous...

This was awful!

...and was apparently as bad as it sounded.

this smelled like I could only imagine that a football players J**k S***p might be like after a rigorous game.

Jerk Shrimp?

A Seven Course meal in less than two hours!!!!! That’s practically criminal!

Hurry!!! Eaaaaatttt!!!! Faster!

The dessert was decent, probably one of the better parts of the meal.

That did sound (and look) good.

The staff was already receiving a 20% tip regardless of their service, so obviously they didn’t care.

Yeah... this.
I noticed that right off the bat when you posted the photo of the menu. I understand, I guess, that some people out there won't tip on an expensive meal, since it strains the pocketbook... but I loathe this practice. I generally tip over 20% (unless the service is really poor), but when I see this? I automatically don't tip a penny more. You want to force me to pay for "good" service... that may or may not happen? Fine. Then that's what you get. The second I see a "forced" tip exceeding 20%, I'm leaving. Even 20% is pretty cheeky, IMHO. From what I read in this update... you got royally ripped off. Unimpressed!

 

[pkondz]

The pacing and service was criminal! I was so disappointed and the food wasn't that great. I can forgive some service issues if the food is amazing but they failed on that too.

And you tipped a very generous 20% for the "excellent" food and service!

we had intended to have brunch at a local place but we got there and it was SCARY

Scary how??

hopefully we can score French Laundry reservations next time.

OOOOHHHHH!!!!!!!