Calistoga Inn Restaurant & Brewery
1250 Lincoln Ave., Calistoga, CA
http://www.calistogainn.com/restaurant.html
Review date: February 5, 2015

Seduced by a Reuben!

That's my excuse for selecting Calistoga Inn, instead of Archetype which I'd been intending to try. 

It's the usual mess of streetwork on Hwy 29, this time centered near St. Helena. St. Helena is bisected by Hwy 29, which becomes its Main St. for about a mile. It's where a 60-mph road turns into a two lane nightmare with a 25-mph limit, except that the only time we've ever gone that fast down Main St., was after 9:30 p.m. on a Monday evening. 

In broad daylight on a weekday, the Orange Cone Workers were in full force, happily slowing down traffic. These stretches of obstruction are mercifully short, but continuous: some part of this highway has been under repair every time we've come to Napa. We have a favorite hotel in Napa itself, but we're continually traversing back and forth on 29 as we tend to dine elsewhere. No matter what month of the year, let alone what year it is, it seems somebody is always working on parts of this major road.

Once finally through the slowdown, we escaped the cramped upscale toniness of St. Helena's Main Street for the small-town prettiness of Calistoga. It's only a few minutes further down Hwy 29, but feels a world away from St. Helena's clogged downtown and Yountville's artificial pastiche.

Calistoga Inn has not one but three lovely indoor dining rooms, as well as a newly constructed handsome outdoor patio area. It's a casual farmhouse décor, the kind one can't imitate with new construction. This is a 19th century building that has been beautifully restored, and it shows loving care and excellent taste.

Carlos and I again opted for sparkling water, as we both love Pellegrino which CI offers. He decided to try the spicy chicken wings with blue cheese dressing. But he was disappointed to discover these are the true Buffalo wings style: crusty-battered, soused with hot sauce, served with the blue cheese dip on the side. He was expecting the dry-flour fried wings we love from Star pizzeria/Oakland.

However, Calistoga Inn does the Buffalo style very well. They don't overcook the wings, the batter stays crusty, and the hot sauce, instead of being just boring Crystal hot sauce, is a much more interesting Korean gojujang chile glaze. We discovered CI's portions are on the substantial side, with six good-sized drummettes.

The Reuben came with corned beef, which Carlos prefers to pastrami (the latter being my fav). There were garlic fries on the side. This was an "almost". We're fussy about our Reubens. The original Max's Diner in SF (not the current incarnation, God forbid, which is awful) had the best straight-from-New-York/deli-style Reubens. Good quality medium rye with caraway seeds, properly toasted. Thinly sliced pastrami layered and pressed so that it doesn't fall apart when you pick it up. A good – meaning noticeable – layer of tangy sauerkraut. A couple of thick slices of Swiss cheese melted over the kraut. Not Gruyere, nor Emmentaler, but Swiss. A Reuben is an American invention, so it's spread with the barest touch of Russian dressing*, although many places use Thousand Island dressing instead.

* Russian dressing and Thousand Island dressing are often confused because both begin with a base of mayonnaise and ketchup or ketchup-style chili sauce, which results in a pink salad dressing. But where Thousand Island is sweet and studded with pickle relish, Russian dressing is on the spicier side, with a hint of heat from horseradish and hot sauce.

This had good flavors, but was off in small ways. The bread wasn't good enough quality, with weak rye flavor, no seeds, not toasted long enough. It used Gruyere, not Swiss, and too little of it to add much flavor. The corned beef slices were hot, but a bit too thick and unpressed, so when you picked up a sandwich half, the meat fell out.

It was a substantial-sized sandwich, however. The garlic fries were pretty good, too, if not quite up to Gordon Biersch standards.

I fared somewhat better. The soup of the day was a cauliflower-turnip bisque with curried apple garnish. This was a very fine soup, although I could wish for more of those cooked curried diced apples. They were exceptional and brought this soup up a whole level by themselves.

The endive-treviso (radicchio) salad had a little amount of many additions: toasted pumpkin seeds, thin slices of wine-poached pears, sprigs of hydroponic watercress, and fragile shavings of salty Manchego cheese. The baby endive and treviso were lovely together, but the golden balsamic dressing didn't make quite as much impact as it should have. I love bitter lettuces, but this abundance needed more of at least one of those side ingredients. There was just too much bitter lettuce, and not enough 'something else' to make them play together nicely.

The crab cakes starter was an identical pair of almost-solidly crab, lightly coated with panko and nicely pan-fried, with the detriment of some finely chopped raw red bell pepper. I realize chefs are trying for visual appeal but really, red bells do no favors to shellfish. Please drop them immediately, or find something else to use, like sweet pimentos or tastier piquillos. 

They were accompanied by twin pools of remoulade sauce, enough for both cakes and then a few more pairs. It was good, but too much sauce. I left most of it.

We liked Calistoga, and there's definitely skill in the kitchen. But it tries a little too hard to attract the "big portions for the money" diners, and we're not lovers of that concept.

If you're in Calistoga, it's not a bad place to dine. But it doesn't come close enough to the better places, to be worthy of destination status.

Twp people, lunch: three starters, one salad, one entrée, with a beverage apiece, was $100 with tip.