Most important note from this weekend: If you are looking for breakfast in Napa go to the Alexis Baking Company. Awesome. I had poached eggs on a homemade english muffin with home fried potatoes, Deb had a nonfat lemon coffee cake. All of their breads and baked goods are made fresh.
Geographically, Bouchon is just a couple of hundred yards from French Laundry, but it is miles away as far as the dining experience goes. Granted, we had high expectations based on a couple of things: our meal at the French Laundry exceeded our very high expectations and could not have been better; we had just seen Anthony Bourdain feature the Las Vegas version of Bouchon on his Travel Channel show with high praise (those who watch the show know high praise is difficult for Anthony); Bourdain had grudgingly admitted that the fries were the best pomme frites he had ever had. So we were expecting the best, and what we got was good but not great. A few things stood out as great, but we were glad the bill was reasonable, comparatively speaking. Click on Read More to hear the rest...
First the positives: The raw bar drew my interest right away. I ended up ordering a half dozen oysters on the half shell, four belle soleil (i before e except after c, except for these fruits de mer) and one each from Washington state. They were all exceptional. Motivated by this experience, I doubled down and ordered a dozen mussels which were also excellent. For some unexplained reason, Deb passed on the mollusks.
The entrees were very good but not great. Deb had a mushroom crepe which was excellent, but something you probably could get in a lot of places. She had her heart set on a steak with pomme frites, and not only was there no steak on the menu, due to renovations the deep fryer was not operational (neither was the men's restroom, but the trailer was the best I had ever used, which is nice). My scallop dish had perfectly cooked, and tasty, scallops with very fresh and delicious asparagus. The broth and accompanying veggies were only ok though, and the overall dish was just good. I'd have rather have had the scallops with a side of the asparagus (or maybe rice) to enjoy their taste alone.
As for the getaway weekend - it was great. We arrived a little after noon, checked in and went to the spa. After a couple of hours working out and using the facilities we each had a great massage. We had a great night's sleep and hit a few winerys before heading home. We definitely recommend the Black Stallion Winery, which has only been around for a year or so, but has a great facility and every wine we tasted was excellent.
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