Cafe Lucia
235 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, CA
http://cafelucia.net/portuguese-food.html#lunch
Review date: May 2013

We have gone twice to La Salette, the Brazilian-Portuguese restaurant just off Sonoma Square. Cafe Lucia has been mentioned favorably on the Chowhound boards, so we were intrigued when we discovered that the family that owns La Salette are the owners of Cafe Lucia.

We came for lunch, discovering a distinctly contemporary space, quite different from sibling La Salette's Old World charm. Sadly, the expensively leather-covered, deep-cushioned sofa modules scattered everywhere are grossly uncomfortable. They look wonderful, but Carlos at close to 6' said his one-person module was too big and deep for him, with absolutely no lumbar support. He was so uncomfortable he went outside to take a quick walk between the starters and the entrees.

Even more unfortunately, I didn't check out the menu beforehand. When we were seated and looking over the menus, we found that the menu for Cafe Lucia seems almost identical to La Salette's. This was disappointing. We didn't want to rehash getting the same dishes we'd gotten over in Sonoma Square, but nothing else besides the charcuterie and bacalhao (salted dried cod) interested us that day.

Carlos ordered three of the charcuterie: the morela (blood sausage), octopus, and Serrano ham. It came with thin slices of a walnut whole wheat baguette, and piri-piri toasted whole almonds.

The morela was sliced, with a reasonably crisp thin casing. It was very soft inside, almost as soft as the fine Pacific Gourmet brand of boudin noir we first tried at Bistro Jeanty/Yountville. Despite the thick slices, it tends to fall apart when you try to pick it up with your fork. Carlos loves blood sausage and ate it all, but said he had forgotten how rich it was, and that a half might have been better since he was the only one eating it.

Both of us agreed after a taste that the octopus was adequate but not especially remarkable. It was small baby octopus with good flavor and herbal seasoning, which were then poached and marinated in a slightly tart wine vinaigrette. We tend to prefer our octopus roasted or grilled. If it must be in soup or ceviche, we like the bigger slices (which usually must be pressure cooked or sous vide to be tender). 

Carlos loved the Serrano ham, however. I've always liked it better than prosciutto as it's less salty and with less external fat. He says (with tongue only slightly in cheek) that it will be necessary to do a taste test side-by-side when we get home! Bread was fine, the seasoned almonds very crisp and tasty.

Caesar salad being obligatory on every menu in CA, Café Lucia's version, called simply Salad of Romaine Hearts, is too large. Like most restaurants, it's big enough to share. The romaine is chopped, the dressing is lemon-based, the cheese is a tasty shredded São Jorge, and the thin croutons are just right for the size of the lettuce. For an additional charge you can get anchovies, and it's worth it if they're always like this: four fresh little filets, lightly salted and pickled. They were delightful. But despite the many tasty flavors, there was something ordinary about this salad. It was good, but not inspired.

We both chose bacalhao dishes for entrees, but I picked the starter of codfish fritters (bolinhos de bacalhau) with cilantro aioli, cilantro oil, and Moroccan black olive coulis. This is identical to La Salette's excellent version, which we consider the best of the many we've tried. The aioli could be dropped; the salty coulis is a better accompaniment.

Carlos chose a dish that only a Portuguese or Spaniard would love. It's bacalhau no forno: bacalhao with sliced potatoes, pan-fried in olive oil with crispy edges. That's all: just salt cod, potatoes and oil. Lots of oil! There's no way to make good crispy brown potatoes without oil or fat. 

However, it's not necessary to leave 1/2" of EVOO in the bottom of the bowl holding the food. It may be authentic, but these days it's a little off-putting.

Carlos had ordered this because he remembers a salt cod dish from Hong Kong that he loved, another one of those "you had to have grown up with it to like it" dishes. He remembers the bacalhao as being in chunks, in the middle of a pie made with a very sweet pastry dough – which undoubtedly was made with lard, the traditional Portuguese way.

Although Café Lucia's casserole bore little resemblance to his childhood memory, he did enjoy it. The serving is just too massive, however. Although there's a generous amount of (expensive) dried salted cod in it, there's no getting around it's a salt fish hash with a lot of sliced potatoes. Fried in a lot of oil, remember those tasty crispy edges? He ate most of it, but left at least a quarter or more in the bowl. 

He asked me what I thought of it, and I told him it was clearly a "home cooking" dish. If I were to make this at home (which I wouldn't – washing and rinsing salt cod all day is just not my idea of fun), I'd add some oven-roasted tomatoes to give some acidity and natural sweetness, then top it with a couple of fried eggs. It's not a bad dish, just a very plain one, strictly for bacalhao lovers who are tired of the softer-textured fritters.

Neither one of us felt like having anything else but coffee, so we got our check and walked across Healdsburg Square to Flying Goat for another cappuccino.

If one has never been to La Salette and doesn't have time to detour to Sonoma Square, Café Lucia is far from the worst choice to pick. They have the very fine Brazilian feijoada casserole which I had at La Salette a few years ago, and if you're sharing the bacalhao fritters (they're the equivalent of a small plate entree if ordered by one person), it's great cool-weather food.

But this is summer, and the traditional Portuguese dishes here are on the heavy side. The lighter dishes didn't seem to have much ethnicity: a Dungeness crab flatbread, for example; or the beet salad. Healdsburg now has many more choices than five years ago, when only Cyrus and Dry Creek Kitchen were on the foodie consciousness. 

Lucia has a handsome space (albeit with those awful sofa modules) and a nice front patio that's covered against the hot summer sun. It's a pretty little place, but Willi's, Mateo's, Barndiva, and now Bravas are within two blocks. Cyrus' replacement, the more casual Chalkboard, is open and getting good buzz. Dry Creek Kitchen still has its fans, as well. 

We don't know if being good but not exceptional is going to be enough. It isn't much different than La Salette except in décor – so if you've been to one, there's no reason to go out of your way to visit the sibling.

As Carlos (who is half Chinese, half Portuguese) remarked on our walk to again visit Flying Goat for after-meal cappuccinos, "Portuguese isn't a great cuisine, is it?"

Nope, it isn't. Good, but not remarkable unless you're in the mood for those specific dishes (Brazilian beans or Portuguese salt fish) that no one else does as well as the Café Lucia/La Salette twins.

Two people, lunch: three starters, one entree, one beverage, with tip was $87.