We Arrive in Yountville

The flight to Sacramento was good. I read Alice Munro short stories and Chip watched This American Life on his iPhone.

This afternoon we took a walk and had drinks at a local bar.

Dinner tonight was at Bottega in Yountville. The Bottega Napa Valley is owned by Michael Chiarello of Food Network fame for his shows Easy Entertaining and NapaStyle. He also has a "lifestyle" and cooking store/catalog called NapaStyle.

The Bottega menu reminded me of L&M (R.I.P.) in Oxford. Our apps were fabulous, especially the grilled octapus. For my entrée, I had the parpadelle with bolognese. This dish was my favorite on the L&M menu, and I was excited to compare the Bottega version to the L&M version. Let me tell you, L&M rocked this dish!!! The Bottega version is good, but not as tomato-y and delicate as the L&M version (if only I could still GET the L&M version). Chip had the wood-fired quail and said his dish was more tender than any quail he'd ever ordered.

Dessert was a berry tart topped with basil ice cream... Divine...

Update: I almost forgot... Michael Chiarello was there. In the kitchen and walking around doing table touches, speaking to some of the guests. I thought that was pretty cool (even if he didn't come speak with us).

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