Dry Creek Kitchen

Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen. Highlighting Sonoma County’s fresh ingredients with an
ever-changing menu of homegrown seasonal delights, and an extensive all-Sonoma wine list.

707.431.0330
317 Healdsburg Ave
charliepalmer.com

Cafe Newsstand

Pick up a favorite magazine and relax over a cup of coffee, lunch time Panini sandwich, or gather for an evening cocktail and watch the world go by.

707.922-5233 | 301 Healdsburg Ave
www.hotelhealdsburg.com

Diavola Pizzeria & Salumeria

Cucina povera. Locally available ingredients. recipes prove through the centuries. House-cured sulumi and sausages. All fresh from wood ovens.

www.diavolapizzeria.com
707-814-0111
21021 Geyserville Avenue (map)
Geyserville, CA

Dry Creek Kitchen

Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen focuses on great and simple foods highlighting Sonoma County’s fresh seasonal ingredients with an ever changing-menu of homegrown seasonal cuisine and an extensive all Sonoma wine list. Dine on the Plaza patio or in the elegant dining room.

CharliePalmer.com
707-431-0330
317 Healdsburg Avenue (map)
Healdsburg, CA

Scopa Restaurant

Scopa’s rustic Italian menu changes daily to suit ingredients that are seasonally sensitive and locally grown. Nestled on the Healdsburg Square, Scopa is a place where friends and family come together to eat and drink. BRAVO!

ScopaHealdsburg.com
707-433-5282
109A Plaza Street (map)
Healdsburg, CA

Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar

Havana meets Wine Country at Willi’s Seafood & Raw Bar. The inviting, warm, and vibrant decor, and an extensive list of small plates combine with the fun, eclectic drink menu to make visitors feel right at home.

willisseafood.net
707-433-9191
403 Healdsburg Avenue (map)
Healdsburg, CA

Zin Restaurant

Healdsburg’s first farm-to-table restaurant and wine bar. Serves updated American regional classics. Open every night for dinner (reservations recommended). Open Monday through Friday for lunch.

ZinRestaurant.com
707-473-0946
344 Center Street (map)

Mateo Granados: Fresh. Local. Fabulous.

I hear about Mateo Granados from a few people before I actually get to talk to him myself. David and Ondine mention him when they find out I’m looking for interesting perspectives. And I crosscheck the reference with Julie, my winemaker-foodie friend. She nods her head. Yes. Definitely.

And when I’m talking to Evie at the Tierra Vegetables Farm Stand, she says: “Oh. You HAVE to talk to Mateo.” And she calls him right there and leaves a message with my phone number.

Mateo calls me the next day. I’m driving home and don’t really get a chance to explain myself, but we agree to meet the following Wednesday, at 9:00 am at the Palette Art Café.

I arrive early to sort myself out before he arrives. He rushes in a few minutes late, dripping and sheepish. He’s been at his kitchen making tamales since 6:00 am. He wanted to shower and clean up before he met me. We order coffee and sit down to chat.

He’s animated. He’s not only explaining himself with words. He uses his face, his hands. He gestures. He just starts explaining.

“What I’m doing,” he says, “Is reproducing the food I grew up eating—but with the bounty of Sonoma County growers.” He smiles and nods his head, “Modern Yucatan Cuisine.”

He explains a bit about the Nuevo Latino cuisine movement and states: “But we’re taking it further. We’re making it regional: Flavors of the Yucatan—with Sonoma County flair.”

“I grew up in the breadbasket of Mexico. My father was a butcher and my mother—an artist. This is what I know. This is what I love. This”—he motions to the table in front of us as if there were a grandiose spread right there, “This is just what I do.”

I ask him to explain more of his past. How did he come to Sonoma County? Believe it or not, he came to the US as a professional soccer player. It wasn’t long though, before he injured himself too much to continue to play. “My housemate at the time was Michael Bonaccorsi. We would spend all of our time together tasting. Tasting food. Tasting wine. And expressing ourselves. That is how I learned English: talking about food and wine with Michael Bonaccorsi.”

Michael went on to become one of the first twenty master sommeliers in the United States. Mateo went on to work his way up through some of the Bay Area’s top restaurants and is now a pedigree chef. He’s held positions such as Executive Sous Chef at Masa’s in San Francisco and Executive chef at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen here in Healdsburg.

LOCAL FINE DINING

Now, Mateo’s goal is to start his own fine dining experience. He aims to bring his refined Mayan recipes to the same level as respected French, Italian, and Spanish cuisine.

He started small. In fact, he went back to square one. In 2004 he started selling his handmade tamales in the Farmer’s Markets all over Sonoma County. His philosophy: “Grow local. Know local. Buy local.”

His commitment to his customers is 100% locally grown and produced. He buys his ingredients from over 30 growers in Sonoma County. “If you love what you do, you have to do it right.” He’s a passionate proponent of not only knowing where his food comes from, but knowing the grower and how it was grown. The Local Harvest website defines community supported agriculture as “putting the farmers’ face on food.”

Mateo certainly puts a face on every ingredient he uses. He describes every dish with a list of identities. It wasn’t just queso fresco. It was Bodega Bay Queso Fresco. Black Sheep bacon. Pug’s Leap Goat Cheese. Black Beans from Tierra Vegetables. And so many more. I couldn’t keep track.

“You can’t beat it. The flavors. The smells. The textures. I get vegetables from Tierra—there’s still earth on them. And roots!” He cups his hands as if he’s holding a bulb of garlic or something and brings them towards his face. I can tell he can smell the earth.

The idea of fresh, local produce is to keep it alive until you use it to cook. He tells me: “Enjoy it while you can. Because the fresher it is, the more alive it is on your plate. The more flavor explodes in your mouth.”

Another part of Mateo’s philosophy is: Respect. Respect the land. Respect the food. Respect the growers. Respect the producers. He knows how much energy, time, and labor it takes to grow a tomato, an onion, a carrot, a pig. Because he knows his suppliers, he doesn’t waste. He creates his signature dishes around what’s available in the season and finds a use for everything. Everything. He doesn’t waste anything because he doesn’t want anything to go to waste. He’s very aware of what he’s throwing away.

He tells me all of this and I take notes. Finally, he takes a moment to sip his coffee and looks at me expectantly: “Do you have any questions?”

“Well,” I say thoughtfully, “Is it possible to have an experience?” He looks at me and thinks for a second and says: “Ok. You want an experience? Let’s go to my kitchen.”

FRESH FAST FABULOUS

We drive to the kitchen where he prepares his tamales. As we get out of his car, he points to two big trucks and adds with a grin: “Those. Those are complete mobile kitchens. I am so committed to local ingredients and the idea of fresh. I bring everything to your site and prepare it right there.”

He shows me around the kitchen and introduces me to his workers who are preparing tamales for his Farmer’s Markets. He makes me taste some of his garnishes: olives from Lou Preston, beets and cabbage cured with bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, and cloves.

I realize what he means by keeping the produce alive until it’s on your plate (or in this case—in my mouth). (A few weeks later as I’m writing this article and thinking about his cured beets and cabbage, I’m still salivating from the memory).

“OK,” he pulls a cast iron fry pan from the cupboard, “Let’s make a quesadilla.” He asks his helper to clean some cactus.

“Come over here,” he motions and makes me smell the olive oil. “Can you beat that?” He pours a dollop to the fry pan and turns up the heat. He adds the cactus pads for a few seconds on each side then removes them to a cutting board. Then, he goes into the other room to get out his knives and comes back sharpening one: “To make good food, you have to have good knives.” He’s cheeky.

He slices some onion and crystallizes it in the pan. Then dices the cactus pads, slices a bit of Pug’s Leap Cambremer goat cheese, and layers it all together on a soft tortilla. All of which, he now puts it back in the fry pan, fast. Both sides. Just enough to grill the tortilla and soften the cheese.

He whisks it out onto a cutting board, quarters the quesadilla and decorates the top with tomatilla salsa and his cured cabbage condiments. He tops it all off with a handful of sliced green onion. All the while, he’s lecturing about not wasting anything in his kitchen.

How can you beat that? 10 minutes or less. Fresh. Fast. Fabulous.

He smiles:“Pair it with a crisp Rose and you have yourself a succulent, fine-dining, regional experience.”

MORE ON MATEO
Flickr photo stream for this article
MateoGranadosCatering.com
Interested in attending a Missing Link diner?

PS: You can taste more than his tamales at the Healdsburg Farmer’s Markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays. You can also find a Mateo Granados menu at the Santa Rosa Farmer’s Market on Saturdays and in Sebastopol on Sundays.

Francis Ford Coppola Interns and Fois Gras

A friend wrote me last year and told me he and an his familial entourage are taking a tour of Napa Valley. He forwarded me their itinerary and asked if I knew anything about the wineries on the list:

• Domaine Carneros
• Tour of Napa, boutique wineries
• Rubicon Estate
• Clos Pegase

So, even though I know nothing about these wineries nor the wines, I wrote him a long and convoluted email back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hhmmm….

Carneros is an appellation that is known for their Chardonays and Pinots. I’m guessing they capitalize on the hot days and cool breezes…but I don’t know if they get the cool breezes from the Bay or from the Petaluma Gap.

…quick google search says from San Pablo Bay.

I know about the Carneros Inn because the lady at PlumpJack Cafe wanted me to send Bush-Field Pinot there. …now a google search indicates that the Carneros Inn is part of the PlumpJack family and probably resides in the Carneros appellation…and has nothing what-so-ever to do with Domaine Carneros except the proximity. So–you’re going to have to let me know what you think. Judging by their website, you’ll be suitably impressed.

Rubicon…that’s the sister winery (or parent winery?) to Rosso & Bianco Winery. Rubicon is the original FFC (Francis Ford Coppola). Cindy (my housemate for a few months last year) was the winery intern at Rosso & Bianco for the harvest season 2007. She toured Rubicon in late August for a day. She says it’s much nicer than Rosso & Bianco .. except Rosso & Bianco is pretty damn nice (see: An Afternoon at Rosso & Bianco Winery).

Oh. Side note—Francis Ford Coppola apparently started a community concert band in St. Helena. He plays the tuba.

Other than that…I know nothing about their wine. I do know, however, that I don’t like the new Rosso & Bianco label….it doesn’t pop. The label is red and sits on a red bottle. It disappears on the shelf.

Here is a picture of the winemakers from Rosso & Bianco Winery in my back yard. We had them over for dinner! One night last summer, Cindy made an evening of French cuisine local to her region in France. She invited her colleagues. That was a funny story.

She’d brought over some homemade preserves. Her family are farmers–so everything is grown and preserved right there on the farm. One thing she’d brought over was her Mum’s foie gras.

Everybody was tasting a bit of this and a bit of that and somebody asked her how she made the foie gras. (Keep in mind, that when she arrived, she spoke in broken English–she now speaks in less broken English–but she has greatly improved).

She said:

“At my parents, we have ducks.”
“In the spring, we start to feed them a lot of mais…What is mais?”
“Corn,” we piped up.
“Ok. So. We feed them corn. A LOT of corn. Maybe three of those bowls a day.” She pointed to a dish on the table.
“Ok,” We said. “So you feed them a lot of corn.”
“Yes,” She continued: “They eat a lot of corn for two or three months then…bup!” She motioned with her hands like she was cutting off their heads. “Bup! We harvest them.”
“What?” We exclaimed. “That’s it? You harvest them?”
“Yes.” She nodded her head. “We harvest them. We kill them and take their liver…and…Voila! Foie gras.”
“Don’t you do something to their livers? You know, before we eat it?” We asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “Harvest the liver. Put it in the jar. Cover it with oil and Voila! Foie Gras.”

Nobody ate the rest of the foie gras. We just let it sit on the table while we ate the gratin and salads and prunes—even though they were harvested in much the same fashion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So. That’s it. That’s the story about how I know nothing about Domaine Carneros and Rubicon Wineries. But, I do know a little bit more about Foie Gras.

[Originally posted 27 Oct 2007 at YukonJen.com]

Two-Drink Minimum: Two Cocktails Recommended by Shana

Scott Beattie has certainly raised the bar for cocktails, not just in Healdsburg, but all over the United States. His soon to be released book, Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus (you can pre-order it on Amazon) is all about using local ingredients to create unique, fresh custom cocktails. Though I have still not visited Cyrus to try one of his signature cocktails, I have enjoyed my fair share of beverages at many other establishments in Healdsburg.

Months ago I discovered my favorite cocktail — A hand-made Blueberry Lemondrop by Anthony DeMaria in the Hotel Healdsburg lobby bar. Anthony hand muttles the blueberries ending up with a Hotel Healdsburg signature cocktail that is so good it can be dangerous.

Currently, they are making the same drink with blackberries, lime juice and tequila, so ask for a Blackberry Limedrop and they will make it for you.

Selecting a second favorite cocktail was a bit difficult because I am in love with a few different drinks from a few favorite bartenders. Chelsea and KC’s Mojitos at Ravenous are deliciously refreshing, while the Pineapple Lemondrop from Daniel at Willies Seafood & Raw Bar is tart and quenching. In the end, I had to go with an old favorite, that Erin Beecher from the B&B Lounge calls a “Hibiscus.”

It is a combination of Gloria Ferrer Sparkling Blanc de Noirs and cranberry juice with a splash of orange juice for an extra tangy kick. Ever since I tried the combination of sparkling wine and cranberry juice one Thanksgiving, I fell in love with this nameless drink. Erin randomly poured it for me one day and named it a Hibiscus. If you are looking for a zesty pick-me-up, visit Erin during the day on a Saturday and she will make this drink for you, or a spicy Bloody Mary that will cure any hangover better than any espresso.

Visit either one of these establishments and tell Anthony or Erin that Shana sent you…. Oh. and don’t forget…tip your bartenders.

Hotel Healdsburg Bar: 25 Matheson Street, Healdsburg, CA 95448
The B&B Lounge: 420 Healdsburg Avenue, Healdsburg, CA 95448

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