1. All Seasons Cafe
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-9111
Address: 1400 Lincoln Avenue
Description: If you read the food-and-wine magazines, you’ve probably been introduced to All Seasons. It has been profiled in Gourmet and Wine Spectator, among others, and its high standards haven’t faltered in nearly two decades. Mixing the quaint and the luxurious, the cafe has a wine bar that makes use of a truly exceptional wine list—it ranges far beyond the valley and is especially deep in Pinots and Zinfandels. The menu changes often, but you can expect “seasonal California” dishes along the lines of grilled rib-eye steak with Cabernet glaze and creamy horseradish sauce; or English pea risotto with asparagus, spring garlic, tomato, and mushrooms. All Seasons is open for lunch and dinner daily.
2. Barvino
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-9900
Address: 1457 Lincoln Avenue
Description: “Big wines—small plates” is the focus of this tasting bar. The wine list changes frequently, but you can count on it to emphasize Napa Valley vintages. Many reds and whites are available four ways: in three-ounce tastes, six-ounce glasses, half-bottles, and full bottles. Combine the wine with a series of small plates of food at reasonable prices, such as a crock of crab (thermidor style), oysters with slaw, an artisan cheese plate, seared scallops with foie gras potato puree, and many others. Most of the same dishes are offered in larger portions at larger prices. BarVino is open for dinner only.
3. Brannan’S Grill
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-2233
Address: 1374 Lincoln Avenue
Description: Brannan’s is physically arresting both inside and out, with refinished trusses and ironworks (all original to the 1911 building, long used as a motor garage) and windows that open onto Lincoln in warm weather. Most notable is the bar, a mahogany Brunswick design that was shipped around Cape Horn in the late 1800s. The food is regional American, decidedly carnivore. Try the grilled hanger steak with potato-leek gratin and roasted portobello mushrooms or the blue cheese and walnut–crusted filet mignon. Brannan’s has a full bar. It’s open seven days a week for lunch and dinner in high season, but lunch is Friday through Sunday in the winter.
4. Cafe Sarafornia
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-0555
Address: 1413 Lincoln Avenue
Description: Calistoga’s most popular breakfast spot playfully incorporates the other half of Sam Brannan’s legendary malapropism: “I’ll make this the Calistoga of Sarafornia.” The busy, sun-infused dining room has a central counter and sidewalk booths. Regulars swear by the cheese blintzes, the Brannan Benedict (two poached eggs with guacamole, bacon, and Cajun cream on toast), the chicken-apple sausage, and the Wildcat Scrambler (three eggs scrambled with mushrooms, Italian sausage, spinach, and choice of cheese). The burgers are good at lunchtime. The cafe does not take reservations, which makes it easy to spot on Sunday morning—it’s the place with the line out the door.
5. Calistoga Inn & Restaurant
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-4101
Address: 1250 Lincoln Avenue
Description: Popular any time of year, this restaurant really booms in the summer, when dining moves to the delightful creekside patio. (The meat is even grilled outside, over hardwood.) Regional American cuisine is served. The marinated Australian lamb sirloin, the Jamaican jerk half chicken, and the tri-tip sirloin finished with blue-cheese butter are all winners. There are fish specials too. The inn is open for lunch and dinner every day of the year but Christmas. The restaurant has a full bar, including an extensive wine list and its own line of beers (see the close-up in the Nightlife chapter for more on that).
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Address: 1426 Lincoln Avenue
7. English Garden Tea Rooms
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-4262
Address: 1107 Cedar Street
Description: Park your wineglass for a few hours and lift a teacup instead. This genuine English tearoom, whose owners are all originally from the United Kingdom, opened in 2007 along Lincoln Avenue at the corner of Cedar Street. This may be just the palate cleanser you seek for a break from the pervasive wine culture of Napa Valley. Step into this lovely restaurant and gift shop and tuck into a sweet scone with clotted cream as you sip Earl Grey. The hospitality can’t be beat—proprietors Jane and Jim Mitchell offer you a warm welcome and six types of tea service, priced from $12.99 to $31.99 per person. The tearoom is open Thursday through Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
8. Flatiron Grill
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-1220
Address: 1440 Lincoln Avenue
Description: Hungry for steak? Slip on in to the Flatiron Grill, which beckons with a bovine-inspired sign outside. The stylish cow theme continues inside in the artwork. You can usually count on the house specialty, the Flatiron steak (boneless shoulder steak), roast chicken, grilled salmon, pork chop, seafood pasta, and maybe stuffed roast quail and beef brisket. Open daily for dinner.
9. Hydro Bar & Grill
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-9777
Address: 1403 Lincoln Avenue
Description: In a town where the sidewalks sometimes roll up at dusk, the Hydro is the restaurant that doesn’t sleep. It offers dinner until 11:00 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends, then greets you for breakfast the next morning. (It’s closed only for lunch on Thursday.) It does daily fish specials and top-notch hamburgers, and the crispy-skin boneless chicken with warm white Tuscan beans, grilled red onions, arugula salad, and herbed pan jus might be just the ticket after a relaxing mud bath. The full bar has 20 carefully selected microbrews.
10. Pacifico Restaurante Mexicano
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-4400
Address: 1237 Lincoln Avenue
Description: Calistoga isn’t your typical small town, so why should Pacifico be your typical Mexican restaurant? Instead of mountain ranges of rice and beans, the kitchen cooks up traditional specialties from Jalisco, Veracruz, and Oaxaca. The restaurant is especially noted for its fish dishes, such as grilled fish tacos with avocado tomatillo salsa or camarones a la diabla—sautéed prawns with garlic, onion, arbol chilies, and lime. There is a full bar, and the margaritas won’t let you down. Pacifico is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. It’s also popular for Saturday and Sunday brunch. (The morning favorites are huevos Benito and huevos Pacifico, Mexican eggs Benedict with a mulato chili hollandaise.) The restaurant takes reservations for parties of seven or more.
11. Solbar At Solage
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 226-0800
Address: 755 Silverado Trail
Description: One would expect the cuisine at a spa resort to be of the healthful, light variety. Half of the food at Solbar, the restaurant within Solage Calistoga, matches that description. The other side of the menu (the comfort-food side) offers meatier, more decadent options. So the person at your table who is watching his or her weight can dive into Columbia River steelhead, while you (presumably the person not watching the scales) can indulge in a flatiron steak or beef short ribs. The pizza is excellent, as are the spicy chicken lettuce wraps. The dining room spills outside onto a large patio, where the views are lovely. Breakfast and lunch are served daily from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; dinner is 5:00 to 11:00 p.m. daily.
12. Wappo Bar & Bistro
City: Calistoga, CA
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (707) 942-4712
Address: 1226 Washington Street
Description: One of the few Calistoga restaurants not found on Lincoln Avenue, the compact Wappo Bar is easy to miss—and that would be a big mistake. The scene is fairly informal and always gratifying, especially in the summer when the arbor-protected brick patio takes center stage. The inside features copper-topped tables and a wine bar with redwood interior; in the warmer months, ask for a table next to the fountain outside. The smoked chicken salad at lunch is great, and the daily specials can be inventive.Signature dishes include the chili relleno with walnut pomegranate sauce; a paella of chorizo, rabbit, prawns, clams, and mussels; and the Chilean sea bass with Indian spices. The Wappo Bar is open for lunch and dinner six days a week (closed Tuesday).