Girl & the Fig, Sonoma (lunch)
Review date:  May 2010
Well, we stayed over an extra day to get together with some friends, so decided to go back to The Girl & The Fig in Sonoma to try their cheese and sausage platter. The weather had warmed up so we got a good patio seat outside – if you don’t get there before 1p you’ll be stuck sitting in the full sun as all the shaded seats get taken first.
We got two of the platters as you get your choice of three cheeses from their list of nine. I’m not a sheep cheese fan, so we opted for three cow cheeses and three goat cheeses. Suffice to say they were all good and a couple we’ll be looking for at our local cheese shop. We also ordered a ‘petit plat’ of the duck confit with a frisee salad, as the three small slices of salame and two thin slices of bresaola, sliced salt-cured, air-dried beef, wasn’t quite enough with all the cheeses. 
G&F is a fun little place, not quite as good as Barndiva or generous as Bottega, but it’s got good service, charming surroundings, and tasty food. It’s hard to go wrong with those advantages, and G&F sticks with what it knows will please their customers, many of whom are locals. 
Two platters, one small plate, two beverages, with tip came to $63.

Girl & the Fig (lunch)
110 W. Spain, Sonoma
www.thegirlandthefig.com 
Review date:  May 2010

The Girl &The Fig has the same management as Estate, where we had an excellent dinner. G&F has a different vibe, more French-inspired/cheese-and-salami casual, with a very pretty outdoor dining space.

Carlos ordered the Peekytoe Crab Salad, a layered salad of crab, pink grapefruit and orange sections, and avocado slices on the bottom, with a citrus vinaigrette. I'm not a fan of peekytoe crab, as I think it's vastly inferior to Dungeness since it's never available fresh here, only frozen. Still, Carlos said it was a very good combination and he enjoyed it immensely.

I ordered G&F's signature salad, mixed greens with diced dried fig, bacon, toasted walnuts, and goat cheese in a sherry vinaigrette. It was wonderful, a very nice combination of flavors with a perfectly balanced dressing.

Carlos had the Croques Monsieur and I had the Lamb tartine (open faced sandwich). These were unfortunately less successful than the starters. The Croques Monsieur was over-the-top rich, with buttered brioche, an overload of rich melted cheese, and very mild ham. A nice bite of tart sliced tomatoes, or a stronger ham with less cheese, would have more impact.

The lamb sandwich wasn't well thought out. The lamb was sliced thin, but cold and untrimmed - and cold lamb fat is as inedible as petroleum-based candle wax; e.g., it won't kill you but your stomach won't be very happy.

The bread was too thick, too coarse, and although spread with some sort of mayonnaise blend, simply too dry with the well-done lamb. I like 'wet' sandwiches and Carlos likes 'dry', but this sandwich was too dry even for him. It was garnished with a single wedge of roasted tomato, and had there been more of them the sandwich would have been improved immensely. As it stood it was one-dimensional and uninteresting.

We split a dessert of ice cream profiteroles, two small (thank goodness) balls of pate a choux pastry, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and just the right amount of a nice chocolate sauce. The ice cream needed to soften a bit, but as we were outside and the sun was getting warmer through the meal, waiting a few minutes was all that was needed. 

It was a good ending to a pleasant if not perfect meal in lovely surroundings on a perfect day, which probably influenced us to like G&F more than it might deserve. It wasn't as good as Estate, yet it charmed us nonetheless. The cheeses really sounded interesting, and I suggested to Carlos that next time we get salads and then split a cheese/salami platter. Their bread is good and the coffee both strong and fragrant.

Two starters, two sandwiches, four beverages and one dessert, with tip came to $83.