Weekend trip to Napa

I am a member of Far Niente’s library cab club, and since they are having a chard release party and Nickel & Nickel is having a party next weekend, we are heading to Napa for a quick trip. Any better restaurant recommendations?

This is our itinerary:

Thursday
Flight arrives SFO 4:30
Dinner choices:
a. Sausalito - Fish. Restaurant

b. St. Helena (close to the cottage)– Brasswood

c. San Fran - Pacific Catch –

Friday
10:30 Chateau Montelena Cellar tasting
11:30 Picnic at private pavilion on pond at Chateau Montelena
1:00 Neal Vineyards tasting
3:00 Covert and Nicholson Jones tasting
Dinner at Greystone Restaurant (Napa Valley Culinary Institute)

Saturday
10:00 Far Niente Chardonnay Release Party
1:00 Nickel & Nickel Release Party
Lunch – Gott’s Roadside
3:00 Heitz Cellars
7:00 Dinner Under the Stars – Jordan Winery

Sunday
10:00 BV Georges de Latour Tasting
11:30 Silver Oak tasting
Lunch – 12:45 - Market
2:30 Nickel & Nickel tasting
4:30 Far Niente tasting
Dinner at cottage (BBQ steaks) or Brasswood

Monday
Flight home – 11:00

Allocate an hour + waiting in line at Gott’s on the weekend.
Rutherford Grill after Silver Oak.
Instead of Brasswood twice do Cook or Press.
Cutting it close on some of these times. Hope you can pull it off.

Trying to get North will be a an exercise in patience on a Thurs afternoon. Traffic has been very very heavy lately. I picked up my in laws from SFO yesterday at 3:10 and we arrived in downtown Napa at 6:20. Friends left SF on Wed at 2:45PM and arrived at 6:05. Check Waze before jumping in the car, lately the 101 route has been 30-45min longer than taking 80.

Thanks for the heads up. I was thinking 1.5 hours at most. With this is mind, does it make more sense to eat in Sausalito or SFO to avoid some traffic, or will that really matter?

Chances are you aren’t leaving SFO til 5:15. Dead center of the afternoon commute. Do yourself a favor and eat on the Peninsula while traffic dies down. Ecco Restaurant in Burlingame is quite nice.

Agree with others about getting out of SF during rush hour. You could possibly brave driving in to SF central, though there are quite a few choices in the south end that would be easier. Better to eat in SF, then drive up to Napa after dinner once rush hour is over. Traffic is miserable compared to what you’re used to.

Your itinerary looks a little challenging in some places. You’ll have to get out of Montelena by 12:30 at least to make it up to Neal. I don’t know where that stop is after Neal, but if not up in the hills nearby, could be challenging. I’m assuming Far Niente and Nickel are co-located or near each other.

If you are going to be hungry when you arrive, I’d eat near the airport or in the Mission in SF.

Close to the airport, there are some great Chinese places in Millbrae-
For super casual and very spicy authentic Szechuan- Yi Yuan is very good and 10 minutes from SFO http://yiyuanszechuan.com (This is not an American Chinese place, you will probably want to ask for help ordering).

If you can make it to the Mission in SF you could try
Bar Tartine
Commonwealth
Delfina
Mission Chinese
La Ciccia (Noe Valley).

On Sat. PM-- Saint Helena to Jordan is about 40 minutes and 2 parts of the drive (getting in and out of Knight’s valley) are winding. If you don’t have a driver, be very alert / cautious driving back.

We fly in/out of SFO regularly (we fly non-stop with wine and we are tied to United otherwise I would book SMF - the drive to Napa is a bit longer but much easier).

Echo what others have said - traffic is horrendous anytime before 8pm (SFO to Napa). Find a restaurant close to the airport or bring a snack for the car and plan on a late dinner in the valley.

This is great info about the traffic. What about in the other direction - i.e., Napa to SFO? If I have a 1 pm flight on a weekday (would like to arrive at SFO by 11-ish to return car - have global entry so not too worried about security lines), what time would locals suggest leaving Calistoga?

Thanks!

8:30-9:00

The morning commute is over by 9am. I gave you extra time just in case. Without traffic it’s almost 2hrs. The time is about the same going west to 101 or south to 80. More chances from problems going 80 IMO.

Thanks, Brian. I will check and follow Waze for sure. Just wanted a ballpark estimate including the tail end of morning rush hour.

You asked for advice, so I’ll be blunt: if it were me, I wouldn’t choose any of the restaurants on your itinerary. In San Francisco, I could name 100 restaurants I’d choose over Pacific Catch. If you want seafood, go to Farallon, or for slightly more casual/less expensive option, go to La Ciccia (mentioned above), a Sardinian restaurant that does seafood really well. Another place that has great seafood is Piperade, a fantastic and often overlooked Basque restaurant. Or go to Kokkari.

In Napa, try to go to one of Bistro Don Giovanni (my personal favorite), Terra, Bottega, Press, or Redd. Terra and Press are in St. Helena. Bottega and Redd are in Yountville. Bistro Don Giovanni is close to Napa along the main road. But if you take a car/taxi after 7, traffic won’t be bad. Yountville is 15 minutes away; Bistro Don Giovanni is closer to 20.

This is what I was looking for. Tried La Ciccia but no availability.

But, we did get a reservation at Bistro don Giovani.

Thanks Jay T. for the restaurant recommendation. Bistro Don Giovanni was great. I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Napa. I had the chicken, and it was cooked perfectly, bones removed, and huge. My wife had the home made pasta.

Glad you enjoyed it, Kevin. Please report back on the rest of your trip when you have the chance.

DAY 1:
We are staying at a cottage on 1 acre on land on Deer Park Road. Beautiful setting and great location, but the roosters get us up each morning at around 5:15.

Today we started with a Cellar tasting at Chateau Montelena. It was held in the large reception room with some great art work and a nice fireplace. We tasted a semiilion, chard, zin and 3 cabs. We bought picnic supplies and reserved one of the island on the lake. very peaceful setting. They had is set up with plates, silver ware and nice stems. We bought a bottle and had our lunch there.

We then went to Neal Vineyards. If you like cali cabs, you really need to try their wine. It is one of my favorites (the 2006 Howell Mountain is awesome). We tried several cabs, and they even take requests.

We ended up at Covert in Napa. Unfortunately, they had us down for August, not July, so they weren’t set up for us, but they rebounded with some good wine. They have a beautiful new tasting room on the property. The Covert cab is very smooth.

DAY 2:
We started the day at Silver Oak at 9:00 am (thanks roosters). We just did the walk in tasting. For $25 you get three nice pours (2011 Napa, 2007 Alexander and 2006 Napa) and get to keep the glass! (They give you a new glass in the box as you leave).

From there we went to the Far Niente chardonnay release party. This was first class. They were pouring many different vintages of chardonnay, one cab and Dolce (a sweet wine). The had several tasting stations set up, and even had a guy walking around with a 6L bottle outing 2006 chard! They had a band, ice cream machine, wood fired pizza and your typical cheese trays everywhere. I am not a chard drinker - but I may be now. This is the best chardonnay I have had (although I admit I am no connoisseur).

Next was the Nickel & Nickel cab party. This was a PARTY atmosphere. They had burgers, cheese, etc, and all 15 of their cabs were poured. I really liked the DRAGONFLY, MARTIN STELLING and the SORI BRICCO. They sell futures and I will probably buy some when I go back today.

We then did a Caymus tasting. Always good.

We ended up at Jordan for dinner under the stars. Very nice event (although it was a little cool). They started with a sparkler, then a chard and three different cabs (the 2005 was real good).

Sunday was a nice slow day. We started at 10:00 at BV for a Georges de Latour tasting.

We then had lunch at Gott’s in St. Helena.

A single vineyard cab tasting at Nickel & Nickel (for some reason they tasted much better at the release party yesterday) and finished with a tasting and tour of Far Niente.

Dinner at Mustard’s (this was better than I expected), then home to pack.

Thx for the info.