Yelpers raved about the cheese platters, so we ordered "The Works", which came with a choice of 3 cheeses along with cured meats, olives, fruit and fig delicacies (of course), accompanied by a fresh baguette. You can choose from cow, goat, or sheep's milk cheese.
We were going to have sheep's milk cheese for dinner, so we selected from cow and goat. So yummy! The platter doesn't look big in the picture, but it was plenty. The cheese was very rich, and the mustards were very delicious. The fig salad was tasty. The fig cake was chewy like an energy bar.
Sheri selected an arugula and fig salad for her entree and I got the mussels and frites. The salad was very good, though the arugula was not as young and fresh as the salad at Farmstead. I've had better mussels elsewhere, so I wouldn't order them again. The frites were odd, like they were the leftovers at the bottom of a basket of fries. They were entirely crunchy, with no soft middle. The dipping sauce paired with the frites was very thick, like mayo, which was not up my alley.
Since the food wasn't super exciting, we decided to skip on dessert. If I was looking to have some cheese, I'd return here.
We headed to Kunde Family Estate. Sheri had been here before and liked it a lot. The grounds were beautiful. We noticed that there were a ton of people all around...turned out it was "Crush weekend" in Sonoma and for a flat $45, you could buy a bracelet that included wine tasting at participating wineries. That would be a great deal, but you'd definitely need a designated driver.
Once I pulled the car up to the parking lot, I was so excited to see chardonnay grapes on the vine! I had only been spotting the red grapes. I suppose the green grapes were always there, but camouflaged. As hard as it was, I managed to refrain from tasting a grape. We walked around the winery, but we were still too full to attempt a tasting. Sheri and I ended up getting back in the car and headed over to Benziger Winery. It was hard to find a parking space here as the winery was also part of the Crush. The winery is very expansive, and offered tours of the vineyard. We decided to do some tasting here. The gentleman that poured our wines was very generous with the servings and also gave us more varieties than we paid for! I'm sure if we asked him for more, he would keep pouring, but we could only drink so much. Sheri ended up buying a bottle of Solstice, which was very good and was also on sale!
We then headed over to Domaine Chandon, which was very close to Ad Hoc, our dinner-time restaurant. It had been a very long time since I had visited this place; I hardly remembered it at all. There were a ton of people here too, but not because of Crush. The place was just popular, period.
Sheri got a glass of rose champagne, and I got a glass of red sparkling wine. Delicious, though the red sparkling wine doesn't compare to the "Magicale" wine that I had during the Sweet Sundays dessert demonstration during Disney's Food and Wine Festival at California Adventure this April. We relaxed in the patio until it was getting close to dinner time. Ad Hoc, here we come!
Ad Hoc is one of three Thomas Keller restaurants in the area, the other two being The French Laundry and Bouchon. The restaurant looked like it was inside a house. There was only one four-course meal offered, served family-style. You don't know until that day what you'll be eating, though Yelpers have reported that every other Monday is "fried chicken night" that cannot be missed. Maybe one day. Today's entree was pork. With only one set menu, the server's job was easy: asked what we wanted to drink, if we had any food allergies, brought the food, refilled drinks, provided fresh utensils and dishes, and removed empty plates.
The food was brought out family style. I believe the dishes were meant to serve four people, though Sheri and I managed to do a lot of damage. Yelpers have written that if there wasn't enough food (ie. if you had four people to share the dish), the servers would bring a bit more, so that is good to know. We didn't have that problem of course.
The iceberg lettuce salad was very fresh and light. We pretty much ate the entire thing between the two of us.
The pork porterhouse was tender and delicious. It was laid on a bed of fresh cooked corn (which I only had one kernel of, as my skin doesn't react kindly to corn) and vegetables which Sheri enjoyed a lot. The meat didn't need any additional salt or pepper (not that there were any condiments on the table!) and you could taste the pork flavor. I wanted to gnaw on the bone, but it wouldn't have been lady-like. We compromised by slicing off the fat and bits of meat off the bone. The pork was accompanied by roasted potatoes. There were several different kinds, including a purple potato! (though I still prefer sweet purple yams)
The cheese course was a hard sheep's milk cheese called Dante. It was accompanied by a pot of warm honey and almonds. The cheese tasted really good with the honey. I wanted to drink it down.
Lastly for dessert, we had individual servings of vanilla pound cake with ice cream and plums. A simple dessert, but it hit the spot.
I was slightly underwhelmed by the menu, but all the food was cooked very well. I would come here again to try "fried chicken night". Yesterday's menu (10/04/10) had it:
The Dinner Menu for Monday October 4th
Panzanella Salad
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Cana de Cabra
Raspberry & Buttemilk Sorbet
$49
Panzanella Salad
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Cana de Cabra
Raspberry & Buttemilk Sorbet
$49
After dinner, we picked up Sheri's car (left in a Napa residential area the night before) and we drove back to our homes with tummies satisfied. Time to resume dieting!
What is next on the horizon? My group at work decided to have an overnight teambuilder...details to come.
