Bottega, CA
Executive Chef: Michael Chiarello
Cuisine: Southern Italian
Price: $$$
Address: 6525 Washington St., Yountville, CA 94599
Phone: (707) 945-1050
Hours:
Lunch: Tue – Sun 11:30am – 3:00pm
Dinner: Mon – Sun: 5:00pm – 9:30pm
The countdown to Hermielle’s wedding continues with another post of Napa nostalgia…
It was June 2012 − Natalya and I were back in SF for a weekend to attend the wedding of our friend and former roommate Josie. Natalya and I had decided to fly in for a couple days prior to the wedding to go through our usual itinerary deets: drive up to Napa Valley for the day with our crazy /& beautiful friend Noz (yes the “slash” and “and” was intentional). Noz packed us into her car around 10:30am and we headed up to Napa to make our lunch reservation at Bottega.
Noz had been raving about Bottega and when she talks about food, we listen. Bottega was no exception to her list of winning recommendations. The restaurant celebrates Chef Michael Chiarello‘s culinary heritage of Southern Italian cuisine with a Californication twist. The menu highlights artisanal and house-made ingredients, and of course, the best of local produce. I remember even from the garlic infused olive oil they served with the starting bread, we were all pretty enamored. The Potato Dough Ravioli and Polenta Under Glass are classic favorites and are still on the menu today.
Bottega is located in one of the oldest wineries in the Napa Valley, the Vintage Estates in Yountville. The area is well known for its parade of celebrity chefs including my idol Thomas Keller, whose French Laundry is just down the block. I had not realized Chef Chiarello was also a pretty big deal. According to his website, he is “the Emmy-winning host of Food Network’s Easy Entertaining, tastemaker behind NapaStyle, proprietor of Chiarello Family Vineyards…” and the accolades go on.
Chef Chiarello has also opened a Spanish restaurant at Pier 5 of San Francisco called Coqueta just last year, and it is most certainly on my wish list.
“Green Egg & Ham” : confit of Delta asparagus, culatello, crispy soft cooked egg, whipped prosciutto butter & bits, Cambozola cream
My favorite doctor in the world, Dr. Seuss, inspired me (and every patron here) to order this. But then the “whipped prosciutto butter” and particular the “& bits” part were the deal closer. Side note: I really want to learn how to cook eggs like this.
Polenta Under Glass : caramelized mushrooms and balsamic game sauce
Must try.
Potato Dough Raviolo : filled with spinach and ricotta, black truffles, farm fresh egg yolk, sage brown butter
Farm fresh decadence wrapped in a fluffy pillow of potato dough drizzled with butter than had been browned in fresh sage… ** commence salivating
Rigatoni al Coniglio : tomato-braised Sonoma rabbit sugo, caramelized mushrooms, housemade ricotta
Rich comfort food… that is assuming you grew up on braised rabbit sugo and ricotta to die for
Pasta special of the day was a crispy soft-shelled crab linguine
I can’t remember if I liked this dish… think it was okay… was the special of the day after all
food comas 