apple crustatta at Brannon'a Grill, Calistoga, CA
San Francisco chewed up our GPS navigation and spit it out, laughing. Why so possessive, San Fran? We’ll be back in a couple of days. We barely made it out of there.
For our first stop we tasted and purchased some very agreeable wines from the Benziger Winery in Sonoma. Then we made our way to Calistoga where we did some.browsing in the local art, craft and olive oil stores before we checked in at our Bed & Breakfast, the Chateau de Vie. They have their own wine, which is delightful, but even without that, it is handsdown the nicest place I’ve ever stayed. Top notch, people. So far, worth every penny. Our host, Philip, went out of his way to take such good care of us, bringing us a delicious fruit and cheese tray that paired excellently with the wine to tide us over until our dinner reservation layer. The main house and the vineyard-adjacent carriage house (which we are in) are stylish, comfortable and immaculate.
We topped off our day with dinner at Brannon’s Grill where I had Rabbit Ragu on fresh pasta and Mr. W. had sole. The food was very good and the service was amazing, which was all dandy until our waitress brought out the apple crustatta pictured above that absolutely eclipsed everything else. Even though we were full, we ate every crumb as though we hadn’t eaten a thing all day. At one point I was just muttering, “so good,” over and over with a tear in my eye. I feel so large right now, I don’t even have words to describe it. A good first day.
wordtabulous 
San Francisco has a habit of eating people whole. I suppose I should have told you that I get lost ever time I try to leave the city – always get sideways and end up Not on the bridge going out of town. Oh well. my girls and I have fond memories of my manic ranting at the stupid street signs of SF
I was lucky enough to never drive when I was there – walking, public transit or Alan Widdoss was ferrying me around. They have housemade crostata at the Colonial House here too, and they are also wonderful… Sounds wonderful! Enjoy!
Thanks for the spelling assist on crostata, hopefully I remember to fix that later. Yes. Driving bad, but otherwise SF good.
And today there is WIND!
Yes, there was! But we did not let it discourage us. We are almost heroic that way. 🙂
I was SO glad to hear that was apple crostata–and then it looked delicious, indeed! My first thought (I’m SO sorry–and if this doesn’t show up in print, I fully understand) was it was something boiling up in your lavatory! (My only defense is it does look a little like a faucet in the upper left corner.) I actually stayed in a not-too-low rated hotel that had a bathtub full of water when we walked in–apparently no one had stayed in the room for a while, it had a leaky faucet, and the plug had been left in the drain! One never knows–and you HAD had difficulty leaving San Francisco!
It sounds like a wonderful 20th Anniversary Celebration so far–may the rest be at least as agreeable! Eat (but honey, you used to RAISE bunnies!), drink, and have a blast–you both deserve it! God bless!
I could tell when the picture loaded that it was a great dessert — I have some sort of bizarre sweets-radar. Your trip sounds lovely. Nothing like cheese and wine, right?
Good heavens, the FOOD! So good. The cheese and fruit plates practically wrecked us for dinner. The crostata picture would be a lot more attractive if we hadn’t each taken a bite before we realized how delicious it was, then took another bite in a ravening frenzy b4 realizing we needed to memorialize the dessert. I think maybe I love food too much.
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