Bottega in Yountville, update lunch
Review date: November 2011

As we were ending our Napa trip, we faced a conundrum. Having started with Mustards on a so-so note and then gotten better meals at Oenotri, Bouchon (although not by much) and then a superb dinner at La Toque….

…did we really want to have our final meal at Cindy Pawclyn's Brassica?

We like to try new places, but we just weren't pleased enough by Mustards to risk its sibling. But that left us on late Thursday evening, trying to find lunch on a holiday Friday, where the crowds would be heavier than usual due to the three-day weekend.

Struggling with the B&B's wimpy wireless network, always an issue in these places, I used OpenTable to see what was available and read the menus for lunch. Most just weren't interesting enough, or too limited compared to the dinner menus, so I settled on Bottega again.

Then I noticed the name of the Chef de cuisine at the bottom of the menu page, which didn't seem the same as when we ate at Bottega originally in May 2010. So I checked my blogsite for my original review, and sure enough, Nick Ritchie is gone, replaced by Robert Hohmann, who has been working at Bottega for about eight months.

Now it made sense for us to return to Bottega – a chef change can be a major shift. We had really liked Ritchie's cooking. Had the change upset the kitchen? How was Bottega handling not only the higher costs of food but also success? With Bouchon giving us an up-and-down experience the day before, we couldn't be sure what to expect.

We're glad to report there's no need to worry. Hohmann seems to be doing a fine job, and although there were a few slips they were very minor ones. The spirit of Michael Chiarello's generous, satisfying Cal-Italian cuisine remains intact. That they can keep this up, especially in view of the steady crowds and heavy event catering Bottega does, is remarkable.

The bread they bring is very crusty, with a soft crumb. We're not much in love with overcrusted bread, but it was super-fresh, which was yummy with the spread they brought. Different than the one we had last year, this was tiny nubs of Parmesan (think: old-fashioned Mouli grater) barely suspended by EVOO, mixed with chives and a good dose of red chile flakes for a warm tingle on the palate. Since the weather had turned cold and rainy overnight, this was a great beginning.

I chose three starters, while Carlos picked just an entrée. The waiter asked if we wanted to share starters or have them served as courses, so I confirmed the latter.

The salad would have been better with fresher greens. I remarked to Carlos that unfortunately starting out at Mustards with the single thing they did well – the three greens/bleu cheese dressing salad – made everyone else's salad second-best. I liked the combination: mixed baby greens, finely grated asiago, toasted hazelnuts and golden raisins plumped in sweet balsamic, with lots of black pepper in the EVOO/verjus vinaigrette. But the tired greens undermined the concept.

The soup of the day was a porcini mushroom-onion soup with cheese-crusted croutons. A tiny fried egg with a runny yolk added a little thickening to the broth. Carlos thought it was just okay, but I found the mild flavor soothing after a few too many over-salted sauces on this trip. It was a generous bowlful and especially with the cold weather, a satisfying course.

My third starter served as my entrée. It was modest but amazing. Ground U.S. lamb in three small meatballs, served over a small heap of baby greens with pine nuts and  agrodolce raisins. Despite this sounding similar to my first-course salad, it tasted quite different, lacking the hot spike of black pepper my salad had. There were also three fat wedges of very ripe Fuyu persimmon, a tasty and colorful touch.

The meatballs were wonderful. There were more pine nuts in them, but I couldn't discern any filler, at least not in any appreciable amount. Despite this, they were remarkably tender, which means the ground meat was handled very gently so it wouldn't compact into toughness. The flavor was rich without the slightest gaminess that so many people dislike. If lamb always tasted like this, more people would be demanding it, LOL.

The only curious thing – I don't know if it was an error or deliberate – was that the smear of butternut squash puree on the plate was cold. Not lukewarm, but cold. The puree was tasty, but the combination just seemed as if the puree should have at least been room temp.

Room temp, BTW, is pretty warm in Bottega. It's one of the reasons we think winter and spring are a lot more pleasant in here than summer. The entire restaurant is ablaze with halogen floods, and they throw off some serious heat.

Carlos' order was the skirt steak with roasted red pepper sauce. The sides were absolutely amazing, as was the steak itself. For some reason Carlos loathes fajitas, but serve him skirt steak on a plate by itself and he loves that rich, beefy flavor. This steak was nicely sized (not large; skirt steak is a smaller cut) and perfectly cooked: caramelized brown crust and juicily rare inside. The sauce was simple – just red peppers and cream, not a romescu – and complemented the steak nicely. 

His side salad of baby arugula was so remarkable Carlos insisted I had to try it. It is listed as just 'greens with sherry vinegar dressing', but we agreed there was definitely some puréed fruit added to it. It was surprisingly sweet, which combined very well with the mild bite of the arugula. The potatoes were 1" wide paper-thin shreds, deep fried and then very lightly salted to create a house version of the potato chip, only better. Needless to say, he cleaned his plate and said he finds Bottega's food very soul-satisfying – homey and comforting.

I opted for the panna cotta again, although this was the traditional cow's milk and not the marvelous goat's milk version I'd had before. But the thin layer of pineapple jelly on was delightful with it, as were the macerated strawberries on the bottom. I appreciate that Bottega's panna cotta is not over-stiffened with gelatin and also not overly rich. It is as it should be, fresh-tasting and a refreshing way to end a good meal.

My decaf coffee was decent, not as strong as I like, and the cappuccino was very good, just a touch too much grounds but a nice foam and properly dry.

Bottega remains as Michael Chiarello intended. It is not a "great" restaurant unless you are defining "great" to mean "satisfying, interesting food at an excellent price point"…but that is, more often than not, what many diners, including us, are looking for. 

We love that unlike Michael Mina, Chiarello doesn't allow the food to be oversalted. Despite the change in chefs, there is a continuity to the food that infers the owner has a strong vision and is determined to stick to it.

This is the kind of comfort-food restaurant that Mustards is competing with, albeit Bottega has its Cal-Italian bent instead of Mustards' updated diner shtick. But despite the size of Bottega – it's one of the largest restaurants in the Valley – there is no question that Bottega generally executes better. They don't overwhelm their ingredients, which is the one commonality among really good restaurants. Places like Va de Vi/Walnut Creek, Willi's Seafood/Healdsburg, and Mustards, among a slew of others, need to learn restraint. Discipline in cooking is an enabler, not a disadvantage.

Two people: Three starters, one entrée, one dessert, three beverages, with tip was $106.

Bottega Napa Valley (lunch)
6525 Washington St., Napa
www.botteganapavalley.com  
Review date:  May 2010

Food Network Star Michael Chiarello decided to go back into the restaurant business and opened Bottega in 2009. We ended our CA Delta cruise and drove to Napa to eat at Bottega.

Set in the Vintage 1870 center, Bottega is a beautiful old-fashioned space with a good mix of large and small tables inside, as well as a tented outdoor patio for summer dining. You're served a few slices of very fresh bread (one of the best things about Napa are the marvelous baked goods) with a dynamite spread of EVOO thickened with lots of Parmesan-Reggiano and flat-leaf parsley.

We started with the Brussel Sprout Salad and the Wood-grilled Octopus. The salad was actually a slaw, with the raw sprouts shredded finely on a mandoline, then mixed with a plentiful quantity of chopped Marcona almonds, finely grated Pecorino and a lemony citrus vinaigrette. I loved it, but you'd have to like all three ingredients a lot - if I was iffy about a lot of nuts, for example, it wouldn't have worked at all. 

Carlos' octopus was amazing. Braised potato slices were hidden underneath a pile of perfect baby arugula and pickled red onions, dressed with a beautiful salsa verde. The octopus had been boiled until tender, then grilled for a rich smoky flavor, and cut into thick slices ringing the salad. It is even better than LuLu's grilled baby octopus appetizer. Carlos mopped up every drop of the salsa verde, and this is usually not his favorite sauce.

The taglierini with clams and Calabrese sausage was very good, but Carlos has decided he doesn't care for clams with strongly-flavored sausage. To him it obscures the flavor of the clams, and these clams were particularly plump and sweet. The sauce also contained white wine, garlic, parsley and basil, but no cheese. I liked the forkful I tried, but Carlos doesn't really like al dente pasta, so this probably wasn't the best choice of entree for him.

I picked short ribs with lemon spinach. As there was no starch in this dish, I asked the waiter if the kitchen could do a half-order of the crispy gnocchi with spring vegetables. They obliged with a plate of what looked like virtually a full-size order of gnocchi (the table next to us had the full-sized gnocchi order and ours really didn't look any different). It was sensational - big fluffy gnocchi with the proper fold to hold a luscious white wine-butter sauce.

The short rib was a long, thick, meltingly tender hunk of beef that was perfectly complimented by a hefty pile of sauteed fresh spinach leaves topped with finely diced preserved lemon rind. The tannin in the spinach and the muted acidity of the preserved lemon cut the richness of the short rib meat. It was a dish of simple ingredients, conceived and executed with both skill and thought.

Serving sizes are generous at Bottega, but after this meal I couldn't resist trying the goat cheese panna cotta. A saffron kumquat marmalieta turned out to be a bottom layer of finely shredded stewed fruit underneath a panna cotta that had the delicate consistency of custard.  Atop was a clear kumquat gelée that was perfect with the light tang of the goat cheese. A chewy sugar cookie and passionfruit gelée (think: thin Turkish Delight with a granulated sugar coating instead of powdered sugar) accompanied the panna cotta but certainly weren't needed.

The decaf coffee was mellow and served in a porcelain cup that didn't cool it off the way stoneware cups do. Carlos' cappuccino was excellent and also a generous double serving size.

Bottega impressed us, and the portion size is really generous enough that any one dish could easily be shared by two people, to permit trying two starters and one entree, for example, along with sharing a dessert. The half-portion of gnocchi was a mere $9! Note that in the height of summer when the tourist crowds are thick, I wouldn't assume the kitchen would be so obliging to do this. Here in a mid-spring, late-hour lunch when the place was only one-quarter full, they agreed readily.

The chef de cuisine is Nick Ritchie, and he deserves applause for running a consistent, well-trained kitchen. This is definitely a place we want to return to. It isn't haute cuisine, just hearty, generous food - what you feel you'd get if Chiarello had invited you to come to his home for a casual and yummy meal. 

Two starters, one half-size entree, two entrees, one dessert, three beverages, with tip cost us $124. And seriously, we were so stuffed, it was very hard to eat dinner six hours later. But that was alright, because next was Solbar, a spa restaurant with a suitably light menu.