The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa. Honestly, I was expecting some over-wrought yet boring food. You know, something billed all “seasonal-local-organic” but then manipulated within an inch of its life to no sensory avail. Something ungodly expensive with copious and gratuitous use of foie gras and caviar. Something that might make me sad.
Instead we enjoyed one of the most interesting fine-dining meals we’ve had in a long time in simple and elegant vaulted-ceiling grown-up (read: quiet enough to have a conversation) dining room. I knew things would be good when the amuses-bouches arrived: the small plate included a simply dressed white radish from the restaurant’s garden and a miniscule chickpea fritter topped with a tiny dice of citrus gelée and and even tinier octopus leg. From Chez Panisse ingredient-driven to chef-driven construction. Both pretty, both tasty, both prepared us for the meal to come.
A highlight was my main: Jones Farm Rabbit, spring vegetables, almond froth, hamhock broth. It arrived three ways: loin wrapped in fava leaves, chops with a fava bean inserted in the middle (fussy but yummy), leg deboned mixed with aromatics re-shaped on the bone coated in dried and ground fava beans and pan-fried. It was the best rabbit I’ve had since living in France. Even the loin was juicy.
Best of all: we left wanting more instead of cursing the gods for having eaten too much.
Full disclosure: yes, I ate as a guest of the restaurant. Maybe our service was better, maybe extra effort was put into our dishes, I know this, believe me. I also know a kitchen can’t make a rabbit juicy out of thin air.
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