a big group

Solid · Yountville

booking essential

Buttermilk fried chicken served family style, the cheap seat on Thomas Keller's Yountville block. The MICHELIN inspectors call it the best bet for how Keller cooks at home.

Solid · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Ken Frank's rosti potato with creme fraiche and half an ounce of Regiis Ova ossetra, a dish he has been making since 1980. Wednesday to Sunday, from 5:30.

Solid · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

The akaushi beef short rib comes with potato boulangere and a Napa Cabernet glaze, and the list runs deep in back-vintage Napa Cabernet. Rock and soul are on, loud.

Listed · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Spain's oldest winemaking family planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on a Carneros hilltop in 1991. El Jardin Espanol pours the Iberian varietals nobody else here grows.

Listed · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Over twenty wines off one Carneros property, including Riesling and Pinot Meunier that nobody up-valley bothers to plant. The garden tasting is $45 and the wind comes off San Pablo Bay.

Listed · Rutherford

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Chardonnay every year since 1973, and a cooking school attached. Cassoulet and Cabernet runs three mornings in December, $275.

Listed · Calistoga

booking essentialthe room’s own account

Winston Hill Cabernet finishing on older library vintages, poured either in the original Craftsman house or in a Howard Backen barn. Ten to five, daily, by reservation.

Listed · Napa

book aheadthe room’s own account

The Cellar Lounge sits inside the Occidental, a gravity-fed ghost winery, and pours library bottles among the barrels. Ten to four, by reservation, off Silverado Trail.

Listed · Calistoga

book aheadthe room’s own account

An aerial gondola is the only way up to the winery, and every tasting includes the round trip. Above 100 degrees they close it and the hill closes with it.

Listed · Napa

booking essentialthe room’s own account

The room on Silverado Trail outside Yountville is not Paraduxx any more. It pours across the Duckhorn Collection now, from a $50 Pinot Noir flight to a $150 food pairing.

Listed · St Helena

book aheadthe room’s own account

Over 200 cheeses in the deli, ribs and a tri-tip sandwich off the truck on weekends, and two and a half acres of shaded tables to eat it on.

Listed · Yountville

book aheadthe room’s own account

Philippe Jeanty has cooked classic French in Yountville for over twenty years. Every menu page on his site is dead, so I have no dish to point you at.