In my quest to eat and drink my way through wine country, and I have to say I did a superb job, I came across some little favorites that I want to share in case you ever take a trip to wine country yourself.
Pacific Blues Café, 6525 Washington, Street, Yountville
For breakfast I highly recommend Pacific Blues Café. The place is casual, welcoming and super friendly. Serving omelet’s, French toast, breakfast burritos and a great selection of “Chef Specials” from the “Engineer’s Hearty Breakfast” which includes grilled steak, two eggs, hash browns and a pork chop on the side if you need more meat! They also serve a “Transfer Ticket” special, which includes flapjack, two eggs, smoked bacon or sausage or ham or flat iron steak!” They will have something for everyone.I settled for a regular breakfast the both times we visited of scrambled eggs with bacon and wheat toast. A filling yummy breakfast and all you can drink coffee. Inexpensive, not rushed and comfortable.
Rutherford Grill, 1180 Rutherford Road, Rutherford
A very fun place for lunch (and I am sure dinner). When we arrived around 1pm the Rutherford was pumping like the most “in place” in town. The hostess kindly took our names and told us there would be about a 45 minute wait – that’s crazy for lunch! However, I had heard that this place was fabulous so I thought it would be worth the wait. I thought it reminded me of Houston’s and to my surprise I realized they were part of the same group.
We ended up being lucky enough to grab seats at the bar and sat down to order an awesome glass of “Duckhorn” Chardonnay – it was delicious and it’s always fun to drink wine at lunchtime! The bar person took our order and then went about his business, apparently forgetting to put the order in. He was so apologetic, but we were fine, we were drinking wine at lunchtime!
The food finally arrived and sadly my order was wrong. Still not to worry, I was in no rush at all and was having a good time talking to a few of the locals who were giving us winery advice. Our guy humbly apologized again and put my true order in and covered the cost of our wine, which was very nice of him.
Jen was in heaven with her order. She ordered the special of the day, which was the “Seafood Cassoulet” with everything from large chunks of lobster, diver scallops, mussels, clams and lots of other seafood. I think she would have kept eating all day if there was more food on her plate. I ordered the “Chicken Sandwich” – Rotisserie chicken with sliced ham, Jack cheese, tomato and arugula and a side of the seasonal vegetables. I have to say the chicken was succulent and perfectly cooked and incredibly filling. The veggies of green beans and black olives was interesting and very tasty side.
Rutherford Grill is such an enjoyable, people watching place. All walks of life from the locals, to the tourists, to the wine party bus people to families. It was super fun! If we were not on a tour of wineries that day, I could have spent the whole day at the Grill just to see what trouble we could get up to.
Dinner places to follow soon.
