Title: Cafe Beaujolais (dinner)
Author: GCS
Last saved by: ENU

Cafe Beaujolais in Mendocino, CA – update, dinner
http://www.cafebeaujolais.com/menu.html 
Review date: May 2013

We were looking forward to dining here again. Cafe Beaujolais is within a short walk of MacCallum House, where we're staying.  After a long day of enjoying the Mendocino Botanical Gardens and a cliffside hike, we strolled down the street for dinner. 

We enjoy Cafe Beaujolais so much, on our last trip we ate here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. Both times were excellent, with lunch actually better. It is French in philosophy – rich but not heavy, with skillful sauces and creative combinations. David LaMonica has been the owner-chef since purchasing the restaurant in 2006.

MacCallum House was full of guests and they all seem to be eating at the hotel, so we were surprised how empty Cafe Beaujolais was. A few more people came in while we were eating, but at least two-thirds the tables remained empty for a Wednesday evening.

The menu had several fusion choices, none of which interested us. Carlos chose the Burgundy Escargot Gratin, with polenta crisps and roasted garlic. This used plenty of Plugra butter, and topping the snails with crispy breadcrumbs ensured all that butter got soaked up. Carlos loved the roasted garlic, which was already squeezed out into a small ramekin. He liked the polenta crisps, which were actually little patties of a creamy herbed polenta, breaded and lightly deep-fried to a golden brown. Although good, he admitted it was over-the-top rich.

I loved the polenta – I had a single, slightly larger version of those same crisps. It topped a soft goat cheese and microgreens, over overlapping slices of sweet yellow and red beets. A sweetened tarragon vinaigrette underpinned the dish, and the dish was very good. I might have enjoyed this beet salad more if Bravas Tapas/Healdsburg hadn't blown us away with their incredible beet-cinnamon-walnut dish yesterday!

I also had a bowl of the soup of the day, which was a corn chowder with fresh diced tomatoes. Unlike many places which go overboard emphasizing the sweetness of white corn, this soup had a goodly amount of fresh tomato purée added in addition to the good-sized dice of tomatoes. This cut the sweetness and gave a refreshing lift of acidity. It's hard to make a bad corn chowder, but this was very well done with excellent balance. It was rich, however, and I would have preferred an option for a cup instead of a bowl.

Carlos opted for the duck, which was a sliced roasted breast and leg confit, with wilted kale, caramelized onion buttermilk spaetzle, and a huckleberry sauce. The breast was rare and on point, but the sauce was a touch sweet. We like our fruit sauces more on the savory side, so this was only a difference of style. But the spaetzle was also sweet, even the acidity of the buttermilk not quite cutting the onion jam enough. 

Sadly, the leg confit wasn't rinsed well at all. This was sloppy technique, and I was surprised to see Cafe Beaujolais making the same mistake that Bouchon/Napa did last year. At least they didn't overcook the leg when they pan-fried it, but it was a close call – I'd say it was in the pan about 30-45 seconds too long.

I was looking for something light, so I ordered the sturgeon. It was listed with "truffle emulsion sauce", so I was thinking it would be a simple sauce that would show off the fish. My mistake! Or rather, the kitchen's excess was a mistake I wasn't expecting. A good-sized piece of fish which wasn't super fresh, although acceptable, swam in a virtual ocean of melted Plugra, cream, quartered shiitakes and mushroom juices. Housemade tagliatelle was very good, but even with some capers (well washed of salt) couldn't make a dent in all that sauce.

It was a tasty sauce, but there was just too much of it. The way the plate was composed, one couldn't avoid, either. It was overly rich to be used with such abandon. Also, the vegetables used didn't seem to go well with the rest of the dish: diced golden beets and sugar snap peas. Neither one added anything to the other ingredients, nor was enhanced by the sauce. Indeed, they seemed jarring together. The beets tasted a little bitter against all that fatty creaminess and the grassiness of the snap peas was just plain wrong.

We shared a tiramisu. We received a flat round ramekin, of the type usually used for a crème brulee. A tiny pitcher contained, the waitress explained, a coffee syrup which should be poured over the center. Which, btw, was already filled by a sprig of mint(!) and three chocolate-covered coffee beans, another interesting variant.

Interesting...but not successful. The tiramisu started with a thin airy spongecake, not ladyfingers. It was soaked in what tasted more like coffee, not espresso as we prefer. The mascarpone/whipped cream filling was stupendous, but instead of multiple alternating layers of cake, coffee and cream, the thin layer of filling was smothered under a heavy dusting of unsweetened cocoa. 

The coffee syrup was again, coffee and not espresso, well sweetened and creamy. If you wanted to drink one of Starbucks' lattes, it was fine. As an addition to a good tiramisu, it sucked. 

We tried the dessert first without, then with the coffee syrup. All we could taste was dusty cocoa with a little creaminess. The current mania for turning a liqueur-spiked coffee trifle into a chocolate cream cake is disturbing to those of us who see nothing wrong with a mocha whipped cream cake. But we don't want it to be called a tiramisu when it's really nothing of the sort.

The coffee was mixed: the regular was very good, the decaf a bit more acidic and since it wasn't that fresh, a little tired as well.

This wasn't a bad meal. But like MacCallum House, it was well below what we have received on our previous visits. The prices have gone down, but the concept and execution faltered tonight even though the ingredients are still very good quality. 

What Cafe Beaujolais gave us tonight was the Cal-French equivalent of what Oenotri gave us in Napa for Cal-Italian – food not for gourmets, but for diners who are judging the meal by the size of the portions and the over-the-top seasoning. 

This time Cafe Beaujolais didn't display that fine sense of balance and subtlety which  marked our previous meals here. As Carlos remarked, one or two things wrong, we can excuse. Three big mistakes, however, force us to drop their ranking down. Before this dinner we considered Cafe Beaujolais a destination restaurant, worth going out of our way for. 

We no longer can recommend them wholeheartedly. It's possible we just hit them on a bad night, but so many missteps can't be ignored. It's not a bad place, and if you're in the area it's worth a visit. But this meal was no better than Redd or Lucy in Napa Valley – whereas previously in our experiences, Cafe Beaujolais was up in the more rarefied ranks of Auberge and La Toque (when La Toque is at its best, which it isn't always).

They took the tiramisu off the bill, as we had advised the waitress about the excessive saltiness of the duck confit. 

Two people, dinner: three starters, two entrees, (one dessert comped) two beverages, with tip was $127.

Cafe Beaujolais, update dinner October 2010
(previous review appended below)
http://www.cafebeaujolais.com/menu.html

We loved our first dinner at Beaujolais in May 2010, so it was a must to try them again during a return visit on our way back from our Pacific NW trip. 

We weren't terribly hungry so Carlos skipped the appetizer, ordering the duck which was prepared two ways – pan-fried crisp-skinned breast and leg confit. Served with caramelized onion spaetzle, wilted kale, and a wild huckleberry sauce with plenty of duck au jus to give it a savory edge, it was a complete rebuke to the sloppy, poor-quality duck served by Carter House/Eureka the previous night.

I got the beet salad, which had a light mustard-tarragon vinaigrette over golden and red beets. Microgreens were scattered over the top, hiding a small dab of formaggio cheese. A tiny thimble-sized round of crispy-fried polenta was on the side, a delightful textural and taste contrast.

For my entrée I chose the special of Alaskan halibut, served over mushroom risotto with garlic cabbage and a tomato vinaigrette that was a trifle acidic but good. We were way too full for dessert, and finished with cappuccinos. 

Sadly, the perfection of our first trip in March 2010 wasn't repeated. On our first visit they were perfect - “dry”, meaning very little milk, with an exceptionally fine foam on top. This time both the regular and decaf were too milky with an average foam.

The food was very good, but we were not quite as wowed this time. One starter, two entrees, two beverages, with tip came to $121. 

Cafe Beaujolais, update lunch October 2010

Two days after having dinner, we came for a Sunday lunch here. Although dinner had pleased but not excited us, we were glad to discover that lunch showed the kitchen still capable of reaching the heights.

Beaujolais' ranking for us as the best restaurant in Mendocino lies in their consistency and refinement. They are never erratic in execution on anything, showing a care for precision that other kitchens would do well to emulate. Our second dinner, although not as breathtaking as our first experience, was still extremely good. Lunch showed their genius for taking simple food and bringing it to perfection.

Carlos doesn't really like butternut squash soup, but I got a cup for myself. Served with a swirl of brown butter, I gave him a taste and he thought it was wonderful. He ordered a baby spinach salad, which came with beets, candied walnuts and an excellent bleu cheese crumbled on top. Dressed with a tarragon vinaigrette, it was a substantial and wonderful starter.

He had the prawn fettucine, which was a very light entree of a small heap of housemade fettucine, large sweet prawns and a spectacular sauce that resembled a Newburg. I ordered the bacon and mushroom quiche, which is almost identical to the type of quiche I used to make. A butter pastry dough with towering 3-inch high sides holds a very soft custard, barely set, holding the mushrooms, bacon and just enough Gruyere to flavor the quiche without making the filling too heavy.

The wedge was massive, and served with a small mixed green salad it was a perfect brunch entree.

We both got tea, which I'd forgotten was French-pressed. The quality of the Earl Gray was outstanding, but there was an overdose of leaves in it, making it bitter. This is probably the single most egregious error waitstaff makes with high-quality tea; this isn't the only place I've run into this problem.

Lunch was simple food that was perfectly prepared the way you'd do it at home, assuming you were a really good cook with a fair amount of time to prep. We love La Petit Rive, Rendezvous, and MacCallum House, but Cafe Beaujolais remains at the top. If you could only eat at one place in Mendocino, this is still the place to pick.

Two starters, two brunch entrees, two beverages, with tip was $54, for what we both agreed was the perfect lunch we were looking for.

Cafe Beaujolais (dinner)
955 Ukiah Street, Mendocino
www.cafebeaujolais.com 
Review date:  May 2010

This was the first true foodie restaurant to garner attention from the Bay Area food critics - specifically, Patricia Unterman, the powerful predecessor to Michael Bauer as the SF Chronicle Food Critic. Their organic emphasis and production of the classic European dessert known as panforte, made them virtually a household name even for those like us, who hadn't been back to Mendocino in decades but mentally kept Cafe Beaujolais on a checklist for some vague future visit.

Gerald and Ellen Pitzenbarger opened Cafe Beaujolais in 1969. It's gone through several ownership changes, and since 2006 it's been run by Chef David LaMonica and co-owner Kristy Bishop. Now that almost everyone here has followed the trail the Pitzenbargers blazed in the area and have gone over to organic, locally sourced foodstuffs, CB has focused on French-inspired cooking. Somehow the focus is a little different than Rendezvous in Ft. Bragg, and the service is both more relaxed and professional. 

Carlos started with the nettle soup, with crab and pesto oil on top. The nettle soup was very rich with cream, so of course he loved it! The crab was sweet and fresh, and the pesto oil pungently delicious. It was yummy, and he ate it all with gusto. 

Then he had the beet salad. We've had so many beet salads that were good - okay, we're admittedly suckers for fresh sweet beets and goat cheese - and this was one of the best ever. Red and golden sliced beets were amazingly sweet, and the generous amount of micro-greens was a pleasant surprise. The Meyer lemon dressing was sweet and creamy, and the goat cheese was even milder than most. The surprise was a tiny round of creamy polenta that was coated with breadcrumbs and deep-fried to a golden brown. Carlos doesn't care for polenta - corn isn't one of his favorite vegetables, oddly enough - but he couldn't stop exclaiming how good this polenta cake was.

We split the special of filet mignon tartare. It was really much too large for one person to eat as a starter - at least a full cup of filet cut into small shreds. Pre-mixed with capers, parsley and shallots, a raw egg yolk was on top and perfectly toasted baguette slices surrounded it. When I say perfectly toasted, I mean precisely that. Although thinly sliced, the bread was still tender in the middle and the crust edges weren't rock-hard. My only complaint was that there was a bit too much harsh raw onion taste to it. I like onions, but raw in any form goes a very long way. The surprise addition was shavings of an excellent Spanish Manchego cheese.

Carlos' entree was the filet mignon (no surprise) with truffled mashed potatoes and broccolini in a gravy that mixed a cab reduction with a Pt Reyes bleu cheese sauce. Unlike the rather strange bleu cheese ice cream that Rendezvous attempted, this sauce had the acidity from the wine to cut the rich saltiness of the cheese. 

I ordered the duck, which came in a rare sliced sauteed breast, and a duck leg confit over kale and mashed potatoes with a local huckleberry sauce. Duck confit is everywhere nowadays, but Cafe Beaujolais' version is the tastiest, most tender, and definitive duck confit so far. The sauce went beyond Rendezvous' excellent version of fruit with duck, so the only word I can use is 'superb.' It had a robust meaty flavor (and color) with the huckleberries giving just a hint of sweetness to the finish.

We would have loved to have dessert but just couldn't find the room. We finished with cappuccino for Carlos and Vanilla Bourbon tea for me. The cappuccino was surprisingly high in acid and bitter, with little milk but fine creamy foam which made it all work nicely together. The tea was perfect; loose leaf in a 2-cup press. I have no idea why more fine restaurants don't use a press for tea - I don't really care for it for coffee (we use Melitta woven filters and a cone drip at home) but I've always thought it makes excellent loose leaf tea, provided one doesn't overmeasure the leaves.

Three starters, two entrees, two beverages, with tip came to a mere $141. Carlos and I now have Cafe Beaujolais/Mendocino, Rendezvous/Ft Bragg, Bottega/Yountville and Estate/Sonoma in a dead heat as our top favorites so far. They're all very different from one another, and in a perfect world you'd be able to eat at each one of the four every couple of months or so. Life not being ideal or even close to it, we'll do our best to return at least once every couple of years, and hope  if they too try these places, our friends/family will be as pleased as we were.