Willow Wood Café in Graton, CA – update, lunch
http://www.willowwoodgraton.com/  
Review date: May 2014
(previous review appended below)

In 1995 Matthew Greenbaum opened both the Underwood Restaurant and (a few months later) the Willow Wood Market Café which is almost directly across the street from its elder sibling. Partner Sally Spittles insisted upon calling in feng shui experts for the two-year renovation of Underwood. This must have worked, as what had formerly been Graton's own Black Hole of Restaurant Death was an immediate success when it opened, and has remained that way for almost ten years (see http://www.metroactive.com/papers/sonoma/02.27.03/dining-0309.html for a great little article on Underwood).

In June 2011 we ate at Willow Wood and were wowed by the polenta and pork, which is the most recommended dish on this small café's menu. It doesn't take reservations, and is off the beaten path in the "old" part of Graton, where the downtown is exactly two blocks long off the Gravenstein Highway. It has the same faded-but-stubborn air that Penngrove, on the other side of the freeway, has – an embracing of the Bohemian and Aging Hippie that whole-heartedly rejects the cookie-cutter suburbs around it. 

The aggressively-hyped glitter of the massive Graton Casino, which briefly excited foodies with Cyrus' owner/chef Douglas Keane opening up a chicken wing stall called D. K. Wings that stayed open all of two months before shuttering without explanation, is way on the other side of Hwy 101, closer to the Rohnert Park border. It bears no resemblance to the old Graton; the freeway is as much a cultural divide as a physical one.

We parked virtually in front of the restaurant. There's a minimum number of parking slots in Graton, but on a Thursday before Memorial Day there were even less cars competing for the meter-free spaces. The café was virtually empty, as it usually seems to be except for weekends. This is not the cheapest place to eat, despite its remote surroundings. A lot more locals eat at the Mexican restaurant next door than at Willow Wood.

Carlos is always seduced by a mushroom soup, and so ordered a cup of the crimini-porcini that was the daily special. He was disappointed in it, saying it didn't have enough mushroom flavor. I thought it had a bit too much white wine in it. It was okay, not great.

When we were first here, I had the smoked trout salad and loved it. It is big, however, so I was glad Carlos was willing to share it with me. This is a plate of generous pieces of smoked trout over spinach, with walnuts, apples, blue cheese, and a lemon vinaigrette. It isn't an elegant or sophisticated presentation; but precisely what you'd expect from a café where they care more about good food quality and tasty flavors. Carlos agreed with me this is a salad full of straightforward, well-matched flavors, with a mild but tasty vinaigrette pulling it all together.

I asked our young waiter a question that floored him, however. This time the smoked fish was pink-fleshed, so I asked him if this really was smoked trout. He looked puzzled and said, "I'm not sure I understand your question?"

I politely pointed out, "Trout isn't usually pink. I was just wondering if this was trout, or something else?"

He went into the kitchen to ask, and came back to say the chef had said (probably growled) that yes, it was a pink trout. 

I thanked him and said, "Okay, so this is pink trout, not salmon. That's what I thought, I was just checking."

Pink-fleshed or white, trout is one of my favorite fishes. Although it looks like pale coho salmon, it's only diet that determines the trout's color. It shouldn't be confused with salmoncino, species Oncorhynchus Mykiss, or Tasmanian Ocean Trout, which are aquaculture farmed in Australia, also known as steelhead trout. The trout Willow Wood is using is also farmed, but it has the milder flavor of freshwater fish, and responds well to the heavier smoke used in this salad.

At Willow Wood there are always three polenta dishes. One will be pork, prepared different ways but always hearty and substantial. One is vegetarian, and one uses meat but more as an accent than a main. The high-quality polenta is always soft, prepared with very little salt as it's the base for the other ingredients. It is available separately, however, for those (like Carlos) who are thinking that next time it would be great with butter and honey.

Carlos once again chose the polenta with pork. This time it came with shiitake and spinach. The first time he got this dish, the pork was braised in a rich brown farm-style gravy. This time the pork tasted like thick slices of a really superb porcetta, but without any fat – gently perfumed with fennel seed and rosemary, incredibly tender and soft as if very slowly roasted. He said it was one of the best pork dishes he'd ever had, despite the fact he isn't fond of fennel seed or rosemary. This is a very generous serving of meat and gravy. Two people could easily share this dish; the other two polentas are less filling. 

I ordered the day's Market Plate polenta: spinach, coppa, cambozola toast, roasted tomato, soft-boiled egg. This was a very different combination of flavors. The spinach was seasoned with vinegar, a country-cooking method I don't normally like. But the thin slices of coppa were spicy and chile-hot, so with the mild polenta and two salty-funky cambozola toasts, the tangy spinach was perfect. The creamy richness of the blue-veined cambozola cheese offset any tannins. The roasted plum tomato was a thick slice, surprisingly sweet for so early in the season, and the egg was just slightly runny on the yolk. Everything worked together: it was unusual but pleasant, a tasty lunch dish that wasn't heavy.

The first time we came in 2011, I had the gingerbread for dessert, over which I waxed rhapsodic as an ode to Dickens' classic. It is dark, substantial, and rich with real spices and molasses, not the wimpy pallid Duncan Hines imitation that comes in a box mix. This time we were too full for dessert, but I noticed it was still on the dessert menu (and not cheap at $7.75 for a good-sized piece). 

I took the opportunity to ask the waiter if it is always available. He answered in the affirmative, saying the gingerbread is housemade by the pastry chef for both restaurants. So for our friends who are pining for really good gingerbread, or have never tried it and want to know what the fuss is all about, know that you can go to Willow Wood whenever it's open and enjoy this great classic cake. 

Our tip: ask for extra whipped cream. More is always better, when it comes to accompanying real gingerbread. And Willow Wood makes a proper pot of tea, equally rare these days.

Carlos and I stuck to coffee and a cappuccino. I had an iced tea during lunch. Service was very good, but they weren't busy.

Willow Wood isn't the cheapest place to eat, but we like it a lot. And when you consider two people could split the salad and the pork/polenta dishes, then have room for that gingerbread...well, it would a bargain, and well worth the drive. In fact, that's what we'll do the next time we return!

Two people, lunch: two starters, two entrées, three beverages, with tip was $78.

Willow Wood Café (lunch)
9020 Graton Road - Graton, CA 95444
http://willowwoodgraton.com/menus.html
Review date: June 2011

We are back in Sonoma for the second time in three weeks, just for an overnight stay. Today was picture-perfect weather – low 70's, the sun and blue sky, with the hills still mostly green. The Bohemian Highway is a bit more crowded than last month, but not yet at the crawling pace of weekends in high summer. 

We needed a lunch that was not too heavy, as we're at a meat-heavy BBQ class tonight. Searching the area on Yelp, we found three small restaurants that were possibilities, of which Carlos picked Willow Wood Cafe. 

Graton is easily accessible off Hwy 101 if it's non-commute times. It's not far from Santa Rosa, but feels and looks quite different – small-town, surrounding hillsides of dairy pastures, with a two-block long downtown where the restaurants and a few stores are located. A lot of bicyclists come through here, biking the back roads.

Willow Wood is a casual, old-fashioned space. Not the grungy kind of outdated interior, but one where the reference to relaxed country-casual is relatively recent. The space is arranged cleverly into a series of smaller dining areas, with an outdoor patio in the back. There's a short bank of counter seating which fronts the kitchen, from which the waitstaff brings out your food without making you feel rushed (at least on weekdays).

We both started with small bowls of soup. Carlos picked the Yukon potato-leek, and I chose the black bean. They come with three slices of garlic toasted French baguette. Both were good, but Carlos loved my bean soup, which had a great chile heat to liven up the usual bean heaviness.

Willow Wood gets good reviews for its polenta, and it's nice to see this offered instead of the ubiquitous pizza (which you can get across the street at the Under Wood Cafe). He selected the pork loin with polenta, receiving a lovely pasta bowl-size of creamy polenta, tender slices of roasted pork tenderloin in a tasty brown gravy with wilted spinach, slices of shiitake mushrooms and a few shreds of roasted red bells. 

This was especially good for two reasons: none of it was oversalted, and the red bells were a limited to a gentle accent, not a copious quantity of overwhelming grassiness. It was a home-style dish, but with the kind of clean flavors and quality ingredients that a good chef uses.

This was also evident in the spinach-walnut-smoked trout salad I picked. Unbruised spinach leaves, lots of toasted walnuts, a good handful of diced green apple, a generous crumble of not-too-salty bleu cheese, and tasty pieces of a commercial but good quality smoked trout, had a lovely lemon dressing that was nothing more than lemon juice, EVOO, and cracked black pepper. No salt was added to the dressing, which made it exactly right with the cheese, lemon, and trout. Simple, but fresh-tasting. 

It was interesting to compare this to the spinach salad at Willi's Seafood/Healdsburg last month. Willi's was a more generous size, but although tasty and I liked it, somehow it lacks the individuality and fresher taste of Willow Wood's version. 

We were so pleased with our meal I decided to try a dessert. The waitress apologized, saying they only had two this time – gingerbread or chocolate molten lava cake. I chose gingerbread, and what came was a real homemade (I forgot to ask if they make it on site or buy it locally) gingerbread, the kind that Dickens wrote about. It was fragrant with cardamon and ginger, redolent of blackstrap molasses, with less sweetness and a slightly denser texture than the pre-packaged Duncan Hines or Pillsbury mixes most people are familiar with.

A drizzle of light caramel syrup (definitely housemade) and a pouf of whipped light cream made for a fine old-fashioned dessert. Carlos had coffee, and I switched from iced tea with my meal to hot tea to accompany dessert. Hot tea is served in a sturdy china English teapot – no silly florals, just the classic Rockingham brown or English cream colors. These great pots keep it hot all the way through the three cups it holds, a very nice touch that we wish more restaurants would offer instead of the icky metal ones.

Willow Wood isn't cheap, but we loved the food and it charmed us. It is the kind of place Doce Lunas tries to be but can't quite pull off, being a little too stuck in the 1980's. Willow Wood is more a circa-2000 bistro hiding in small-town rural clothing, with the kind of good quality, simple but interesting combinations that suit not only how people eat nowadays, but the creative spark Carlos and I enjoy most. 

They don't try to offer too many things, understanding that keeping it simple is a wise small-business decision. Do it well, or don't do it at all, is a lesson more restaurateurs need to remember.

Service was friendly and efficient. And when you go, note the hand-made tables, at least in the front where we sat. Rustic and sturdy but also beautiful in a country way....and they have sturdy pipe iron footrests!

Two side soups, two entrees, one dessert, three beverages, with tip was $76.