eating and drinking in Sonoma

There are two wonderful restaurants in the town of Sonoma that Chef John Ash recommended to me and that I now highly recommend to you; The Girl & The Fig (110 West Spain Street) and Estate (400 West Spain Street).  They are owned by Sondra Bernstein and both have amazingly talented chefs. Be sure and make reservations before you leave for vacation.  We couldn’t get in for the days we were in town, except to sit at the bar (which was still great and probably more fun) at The Girl and for Sunday brunch at Estate.

At The Girl we started with their Charcuterie Platter – a duo of house-smoked trout & duck rillettes, seasonal garniture, and baguette crouton, to which we added a couple of wedges of cheese.  Then I had the Duck Confit –  with flageolet beans, bacon lardons, tomato confit, frisee, dijon mustard jus – SO GOOD!  And Dave had the Oil Poached Tuna Tartine – toasted brioche, pacific Tombo, sundried tomato vinaigrette, radish & shaved carrot salad.

We had visited Jacuzzi Family Vineyard (yes, that Jacuzzi family) earlier in the afternoon, so we paid the corkage fee to have the bottle we’d purchased there served with our meal.  The food, the atmosphere, the service, the wine – all perfect!

Jacuzzi is one of the few remaining wineries where you can taste the wine without a tasting fee (up to 5 tastes). It is a gorgeous Tuscan-style stone villa that is modeled after the Jacuzzi homestead in Udine, Italy. Jacuzzi Family Vineyards was launched in 1994 by Fred Cline, the grandson of Jacuzzi whirlpool inventor, Valeriano Jacuzzi, and proprietor of Cline Cellars (which is directly across the highway from Jacuzzi.) The two brands lived together at Cline until 2007 when the grand villa opened. Inside Jacuzzi you’ll also find The Olive Press, a boutique olive oil producer, where locals can bring their own olives to be pressed and bottled – uber cool!

On Sunday morning, before we headed back into San Francisco to catch our flight home, we had a lovely brunch at Estate. Not only was our food scrumptious, but so were the couple of Fellini Prosecco drinks I had; a blend of limoncello, blood orange juice, and sparkling wine.  They will be featured here soon!

If you’ve been to Sonoma before, you may have visited or remembered a restaurant called “The General’s Daughter”.  In 2008, Sondra Bernstein and her team took it over and changed it to ESTATE. It is a beautiful place steeped in California history.

When California was controlled by Mexico, much of the North Bay was under the jurisdiction and ownership of General Mariano G. Vallejo, the last regional Mexican governor prior to California statehood.  The General constructed an elegant home (now part of the Vallejo State Park) which he surrounded with orchards, vineyards, and pasture, and named it “Lachryma Montis” (Mountain Tear).

As a gift to his third daughter, Natalia, and her new husband, Attila Haraszthy, the son of Colonel Agoston Haraszthy, founder of  Buena Vista, California’s first winery, General Vallejo gave the couple 122 acres adjoining Lachryma Montis.  It was there they built their home in 1864.  It remained a family home until 2005 when it became The General’s Daughter.