John Ash & Company @Vintner's Inn
4330 Barnes Rd. @River Rd., Santa Rosa, CA
http://www.vintnersinn.com/pdfs/dinner.pdf 
Review date: May 2013

First off, you have to FIND John Ash & Co.

Your GPS will undoubtedly try to direct you into the PG&E substation which is right across the roadway (Barnes Rd. ends at River Rd.) from the hotel's discreet signage. It doesn't matter whether you're coming from the East or the West; just remember to turn the opposite direction of what it's telling you to do. You will save yourself ten minutes of frustration, driving back and forth along River Road, looking for a restaurant somewhere, anywhere.

As it happens, if you're driving west to east, it's easier to see the Vintner's Inn sign. This is a classic case of bad design, as probably 98% of all visitors are dropping off Hwy 101 and driving east to west, where there's no way to read the sign unless you're looking backwards as you pass it!

Our Magellan wasn't the only GPS who couldn't find John Ash. As we lined up in the turn lane into the Inn's driveway., four cars – two before, two after us – also turned into the John Ash/Vintner's parking lot along with us. When we mentioned our issue to the hostess, she nodded and said that many people have complained about this, but there's little John Ash can do about it. 

The weather was nice enough to be seated in the patio room, which has folding glass panels. These were pulled open with a pleasant view of two modest-sized gardens – one roses and lawn, the other artichokes and leafy vegetables bolting in the heat. They are backdropped by grapevines, which are now fully leafed out. 

John Ash offers not only two types of bread – whole wheat and French – but also corn muffins. These are slightly sweet and tender, quite good with an unusual accompaniment of pats of sweet butter drizzled with olive oil and garnished with a few fresh rosemary leaves.

Our waitress recited the specials. The soup of the day was potato-leek. This is one of Carlos' favorite soups, so he ordered it. It was described as coming with Hobb's bacon bits, a Parmesan foam incorporated into the purée, and a swirl of pesto oil. 

I took an initial spoonful and said, "Wow, this is salty!" Carlos likes salt and tried to eat it, but had to give up less than halfway through. I told him for these prices he should send it back, which he did. The waitress apologized and took it away.

In the meantime, I was working on my beet salad with prosciutto and burrata. John Ash uses the La Quercia brand of American-made prosciutto, which we find acceptable if not as good as the Parma. The plate was well-composed, with three separate piles of different diced beets: yellow, Chiogga, and red. Each had been roasted and then capped with the creamiest burrata we've ever had, which was Di Stefano's burrata alla panna, according to the menu (this is a Southern CA dairy: http://www.distefanocheese.com/products.html). It was luscious, and each heap was then topped with shavings of prosciutto. 

The plate was underpinned by two delectable sauces. In the middle was a reduction of beet au jus, lightly pickled and sweetened. Around the edges was a drizzle of a sherry vinaigrette that was the perfect companion to it. This was truly a combination that made me sorry I hadn't kept a piece of French bread to mop up that combo sauce and wipe the plate clean.

Because the burrata was so rich, however, even though the trio of beets was a small amount, no more than two bites, I gave Carlos the remaining third of my plate. After having that substantial burger at Hole In The Wall for lunch, I was afraid if I finished the whole starter I wouldn't have room for another two courses. As it turned out, I was right, so he received some consolation out of our first course.

Carlos ordered the filet, which came with a mouthful of ingredients. He also added the optional bone marrow with panko crust, for me. The menu described: "Brussels sprout leaves, pancetta, preserved lemon, smoked goat cheddar twice-baked potato, cabernet reduction," along the aforementioned extra of marrow with "crispy crust."

The filet was a decent-sized medallion, with the stuffed potato standing on end so it looked rather like a soufflé baked in a soupcan. Carlos loved the potato filling – he never eats the skin, although I keep telling him it's the only nutritious part of a spud. The filet was a little salty on the crust, but not unduly so...as long as you didn't mix it with the wine sauce, which was, as you doubtless guessed, too salty.

The  Brussels sprouts were a lovely bright green, with tiny lemon peel dice and bits of thick-sliced pancetta. They were also ridiculously salty, even worse than the soup. With preserved lemon and pancetta added, there was really no need to add any additional salt to the sprout leaves, but obviously someone had done so.

The marrow was the usual long bone, but I just don't get the breadcrumb-crust idea. Almost every restaurant does this now, but I dislike it. Only Jeanty/Yountville and Café Rouge/Berkeley serve roasted marrow the way it should be served – plain, with salt and toasts.

I chose the venison saltimbocca. This was venison loin, prosciutto, and sage, with purple cauliflower and celeriac purée. Like Carlos' entree, this was an "almost." We love a classic saltimbocca, which is hardly ever offered any longer. It's the Italian version of a Viennese schnitzel...not that you'd know that from John Ash's version. 

This was very thin slices of loin, pan-fried. Now, venison is always dry, because the fat is on the outside and not marbled through the meat. The ideal way to cook it would be sous vide. To panfry venison without drying it out through overcooking takes careful attention. This, alas, was not given. The slices were dry and chewy, saved only by a lovely juniper-enhanced reduction (juniper berries, or the use of gin, is traditional with venison). 

Each venison slice was topped with a sage leaf and fried prosciutto (La Quercia again). The sage was rather strong and the prosciutto saltier for being fried. With the overcooking, this entree was barely acceptable; a case where the accompaniments were good enough to pull the dish up into the adequate range.

Unlike Carlos' overly salty wine reduction, the juniper reduction for the venison was perfect, even if the meat itself wasn't. It played nicely with the celeriac purée, which was smooth and luscious. The roasted purple cauliflower florets were joined by an equal number of standard white cauliflower. Half of the florets were oversalted, the other half were fine.

So far the starters and entrees had been erratically executed. We ordered dessert and coffee, hoping for a better ending.

Carlos opted for the Key Lime Fromage Blanc cheesecake. This was lovely: light and fluffy, not oversweetened. The mania for making trios of dessert remains at John Ash (and other places as well), so it came with a small macadamia florentine cookie (good, not great), a coconut-rum sabayon (almost invisible), and a pineapple-basil sorbet set in a pouf of whipped cream. 

This last would have been good all on its own. It was full of super-fresh pineapple flavor, just a touch of basil, and was relatively smooth in texture for a sorbet, meaning they'd taken the time to break up the ice crystals at least once and refrozen it. The whipped cream was light, not heavy, but it was also unsweetened, making it a fine accompaniment to the sorbet. Having the whipped cream separate is one of those techniques I think enhances a sorbet – it adds that slight ice-cream richness but doesn't damp down the fruit flavor the way a typical ice cream recipe does.

I decided to try the Lemon Almond Flourless cake. The menu listed "citrus in a honey mint syrup, cream Chantilly, and orange sherbet." I was hoping for a nut flour cake which I love, but instead received an immensely tall round cake. It had finely chopped almonds in it, but if this is flourless, I think it was using something like the gluten-replacement flour invented by the French Laundry pastry chef, called Cup 2 Cup. Nut flour cakes don't rise and are tender, but dense and moist. This was like a slightly coarse regular cake with a lot of chopped nuts in it, rather ordinary. It was good, just not what I was expecting.

The citrus was navel and blood orange slices arranged on top. The syrup was on the plate, moistening the bottom of the cake. Crème Chantilly is just whipped cream, and as noted before, John Ash uses light whipped cream, not the better quality heavy. The orange sherbet was terrific. Like the gelato it was hardly sweetened at all, full of fresh fruit flavor.

Coffee is the Illy brand. We like their regular and decaf, although it wasn't as strong as we prefer. The soup was taken off the bill.

Remembering the divine combination of Chandon brandy and the caramelized pear mille fleur at Etoile, I looked over John Ash's after-dinner liqueur list, hoping for something interesting. 

Alas, I don't think I've seen such a long, yet undistinguished listing in decades. When was the last time you saw a sherry selection that consisted of Dry Sack and Harvey's Bristol Cream? Shades of the 1960's!

Overall, although this wasn't a bad meal, the erratic execution and sloppiness undermines the decent ingredients. The conception is like everything else at John Ash, good but not great. There's talent here, but not consistent skill across the board.

If this sounds harsh, it's because John Ash and the Vintner's Inn hold a high place in Sonoma County dining. This was the first expensive resort hotel and high-class restaurant in this area. They hold the same place in Sonoma County as Auberge du Soleil does in the Napa Valley.

Auberge, like John Ash, started out with five-star applause that sank over the years into has-been indifference. But unlike John Ash, Auberge has fought back to reclaim that lofty high level, even if nowadays they must share the plaudits with a number of equally polished competitors.

John Ash & Co. may yet come back to the five star level, but they won't do it with their current executive chef Thomas Schmidt and kitchen staff. No chef worth his/her toque should have let some of that food out of the kitchen, especially that soup. This was reminiscent of our second dinner at La Toque, where I sent two of four courses back (and would have sent a third back if I hadn't been so starving I ate it anyway).

It says something not very flattering that Carlos and I agreed our $30 lunch earlier in the day was immensely better than the dinner at John Ash. We would rank this restaurant even lower than Redd/Napa, because the latter was more a style we didn't care for. John Ash was sloppy, insulting to what their name used to stand for. There's no excuse in this day and location to offer a 2-star dinner at 4-star prices.

They have been before, and could be again, so very good...but they think you, the diner, don't know any better and won't care. 

They're wrong.

Two people, dinner: one starter, two entrees, one side, two desserts, three beverages, with tip was $161.