Saturday night in Yountville

Saturday night we had reservations at one of the Yountville restaurants we hadn't tried yet, Redd.  But first - we went to my favorite, Ad Hoc, for a quick drink.

We ate at Ad Hoc on one of our trips last year, and it's just amazing.  It's one of Thomas Keller's restaurants - he's the acclaimed chef of The French Laundry, Bouchon in Napa, NY and Vegas, and Per Se in NY.

We snagged a spot at the bar and each enjoyed a glass of wine.  Ad Hoc was originally just a temporary restaurant that was to be changed to something else, but it was so popular when it opened, they kept it.  It's a set menu each night, and they don't announce the menu until the day of.

After soaking up some of the atmosphere from Ad Hoc, we walked next door to Redd.

This restaurant I feel gets a little overshadowed by all of the other restaurants in Yountville.  This little town in the heart of Napa Valley is just full of incredible restaurants by highly acclaimed chefs.  Redd was really wonderful, I'm so glad we put it on our list.

The food was so delicious.  We talked with the sommelier, Garret, who was fantastic.  He was really nice and stood and chatted with us for a while, and kept checking back to see how everything was.  

We started with Sashimi of hamachi, sticky rice, edamame, lime ginger sauce.  It was amazing.  We also had the appetizer size of the lamb bolognese.  It was comfort in a bowl - I wanted to crawl into it!

Then we had the special - it was salmon with an olive compote and artichoke puree, I think - it's of course not on the menu so I can't just go copy it like the others...but it was REALLY good.  We shared everything, and it was all amazing.

At the end of the night, Garret came over to say goodbye, and saw that I had tried to pull the label off the wine bottle.  I collect them...and this one just wouldn't come off.  He vanished with the bottle and came back a few minutes later, carrying the label.  It was so sweet that he'd taken the time and effort to get the label off for me - it was just a perfect note to end our evening on.

I highly recommend Redd, and hope to get back there on our next Napa trip.  We headed back to the hotel to get packed up and ready for our last day in California.