Sonoma / Russian River Valley Recs

Wild Poppy Cafe outisde of Sebastopol was good. I could swear I took photos but they don’t seem to exist. Excellent desserts including Atlantic Beach Pie, which I’d been curious to try.

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Psychic Pie in Sebastopol. Very good, will go back for sure. Line for takeout but plenty of seats for dine-in at peak dinner hour on Saturday. Nice selection of wines.

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Happy hour at Khom Loi in Sebastopol, conveniently located a block from Piala.

Kanum guichai tod / fried chive dumplings: I never had anything like this before. Really good, worth a visit to try them. That “Thai peanut crack” is good too.

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Anyone ever try Maison Porcella in Windsor?

They have squab!

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Pretty hard to find squab in LA! It’s so good :slight_smile:

The squab at Kali in L.A. is amazing. Kevin knows how to age and cook it.

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psychic pie is phenomenal. crust is perfect. soft serve is worldclass

Excited to check it out @burritoking - better than my current Sonoma pizza favorite, Diavola in Geyserville?

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Totally different style.

Ramen Gaijin: good. Downscale. I liked the focus on quality ingredients.

Dry Creek Kitchen: good. Upscale comfort food. Think Rustic Canyon.

Khom Loi. W: very good. Some of the best Thai food I’ve ever eaten. P: didn’t like much.

WM Cofield Cheesemakers. A good stop to sample local cheeses.

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Cyrus. Fancy place in Geyserville. We agree with Michelin one star food. Also one star service, but the setting is three stars.

Acre Pizza. Pizza place in Sebastopol. Meh. Didn’t really like NY style or thick crust. Doughy.

Sarmentine. Bakery / patisserie in Sebastopol. Good croissant (beats upscale French hotel croissants from recent trip) and the best coffee I tried in the area (beating three specialized coffee roasters).

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You mean Acre? Psychic Pie is the place to go in Sebastopol.

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Santa Rosa. Good French classics from the Willi’s / Grossman’s group. Named for Auguste Escoffier. I wish there were someplace like this in the Berkeley-Oakland area.

Great pate. Plenty of good baguettes throughout.

Omelettes “Ludo” weren’t quite as good as Petit Trois’s but that’s a high bar.

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Edited to Acre.

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Cyrus Sonoma Steak. Set three-course menu, no substitutions, $135 plus 20% service charge and tax = $177. One communal table for 12, 5:00 pm, Thursday through Saturday.

No drinks except those few and the wine list. I thought tart vodka would mean a lot of citrus but it was not tart at all. Old Fashioned was also very boozy, like almost straight bourbon, couldn’t taste the shoyu or seaweed.

Photo of the two salads disappeared. You can see a part of it in the back, wedge lettuce (half of a small head) and tomatoes, both excellent. Parker House rolls were not rich and buttery.

Shrimp cocktail with horseradish panna cotta and tomato reduction. Different texture but pretty traditional flavor overall.

Since we were in Geyserville, splurged on this old Ridge. Good, classic, not over the hill, though not as great as these old Zinfandel blends sometimes are. Wine list is mostly insanely expensive bottles, this was at the cheaper end. Reasonably priced at $225 given that the only bottle I can find retail is $137.

Mini-rosti, really good. In retrospect I might have gotten the $65 house caviar add-on, when they offered it I didnt know we’d be getting rosti, seemed weird with steak.

Akaushi tenderloin before and after addition of gochujang demiglace. Broccoli, caramelized eggplant, the daubs of black goo are reduced? and pureed baba ganoush.

Spareribs, 42-hour sous vide, then seared on the plancha. Much more flavorful than the filet (no surprise).

Yuzu? hollandaise, creamed corn, creme fraiche with chives. All very good.. Corn was surprisingly sweet, probably a supersweet variety.

Some kinda fancy knife.

Brownie with hot fudge and malted? vanilla ice cream. Good.

Overall very good meal, but I think we could do better for the price.

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Troubadour Bread & Bistro, bread bakery / sandwich shop by day, tasting menu at night.

Chicken sandwich was qood though twice as much food as we needed. I guess they want to make it worth $20. Should have split one. Lots of black pepper plus some peppery arugula. Excellent bread. Made another sandwich with leftover filling and fresh bread the next day. I’d go back. Seemed odd they had no pastries, but it’s an eccentric place.

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The Matheson, Healdsburg. I generally avoid brunch menus, but it was hot and we were hungry.

The Verde Maria’s ingredients sounded more like salsa than a cocktail (there was also tequila), so out of curiosity I tried it. I expected something like a Bloody Mary, but it was more like a green health juice with booze. Nice spice but needed more salt and acid.

Wedge salad. Good.

Watermelon and tomato with feta cream, very good except for those cracker-looking things, which were sheep’s cheese meringue, not crunchy but chewy and sweet like candy. Bizarre. Nice that they’re comfortable experimenting but I don’t know that this should have made it to the table. Anyway the salad didn’t need them.

Salmon plate, substituted focaccia for “everything” brioche as I hate “everything” spice. Very good salmon.

Lobster omelette, sunflower seeds were a great touch. Excellent potatoes.

Mini-cheesecake with blueberry compote, good.

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Ended up at Pizzando in Healdsburg because Diavola was closed due to plumbing problems. Surprisingly reasonable prices and big portions given that the hotel it’s connected to starts at over $500 a night. Drank a nice $42 Falanghina.

Roman-style artichokes, good though way greasier than they should be. Did not need aioli. Huge portion.

Caponata bruschetta, really good, classic flavors. Didn’t need the greens.

Cacio e pepe, not al dente, needed more pepper. Still pretty tasty.

“Roman-style” hot coppa pizza, not very Roman but good.

Ricotta donuts, good.

Cannoli, piped to order, crisp, good ricotta, better than most places. Impressive.

Nice sidewalk / parklet seating on a warm night, friendly service. Surprisingly good QPR for such a bougie-touristy town.

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The Chef did a great Carte Blanche dinner with Bell’s earlier this year. I’ve wanted to make it up for dinner and do their private table. They had a t shirt with God Save the Kouign-amann at Quail and Condor a few years back :joy: :guitar: