If the French Laundry and
Whole Foods had a love child... You'd wind up with the Green Grocer. For Windsor, not a bad baby.

Having shopped there frequently, enjoying the duck burritos, produce, protein, and Joe's cooking advice, my wife and I decided to check out their dinner service. On a Friday night, we rolled over to the tucked away gem hiding in Windsor's town green, near a great restaurant called Odyssey.

We sit down, get brought our still water and the menu perusing begins. After asking for Joe's recommendations we start what turned out to be a fantastic meal. Before the food arrives Joe brings over a glass of Preseco for both of us. Then an amuse bouche. Yeah, you read that right. In theory we are in a grocery store. The difference being the owners/ accomplished chefs. We get a beautiful presented plate of pickled green onions in red wine vinegar and what appear to be water lilies. It all tased fresh and perfect for a starter.

Then some amzing bread got brought over... and devoured. We both ordered the three course, three pour tasting dinner. At $33 each, this is a crazy steal. My wife started with the asparagus soup, because she is a lover of the pee altering vegetable that happens to be in season. With Joe's recommendation, I began with the beet and goat cheese raviolis (pictured above).

Three sweet pillows of pasta free ravioli lay in front of me, topped with candied walnuts and micro greens. I had to ward off my wife's fork. Amazing. Her asparagus soup with morel dumplings and I believe truffle oil also had a nice flavor and was also tasty, but the dumpling texture was slightly disturbing. Think of a brown, squishy lump floating in your soup bowl (albeit a tasty brown lump). The wine pairings worked well with both dishes.

Next, her two little crab cakes appeared with a grapefruit, citrus aioli and some micro greens. Despite being slightly enamored with my steak, I did managed to try one of these and it was quite good. Not your typical crab cake, which tend too have too much in the way of bread crumbs and not enough crab. The crab tasted fresh and everything on the plate was beautifully presented. As she savored her crustacean cakes, I devoured a plate of flank steak with asparagus. Perfectly cooked to medium rare. At this point, we were both full and borderline tipsy, which is why, unfortunately, I can't remember the wines that he paired our food with at this point.

The last dish arrived and for me it was a rack of lambed served with a white bean puree. My wife had the pulled pork sandwich on a cheddar scallion, which turned out to be a little to spicy for her liking. Turns out the pulled pork is done with a jalepeno rub, which I thought was great, but left Jenny searching for a water refill. The night ended exactly as it started, with impressively prepared food and wine pairings in a friendly, casual environment. For me, what separates this place from other restaurants around here are the people behind the counter. They are passionate about good food and quality local ingredients and they are more than willing to impart some knowledge to you if you ask. My hope is that the Green Grocer will be here to stay (where else can I get a duck burrito and french pressed coffee on a Saturday morning).

How do you f'up simple Irish food? Good question, go to Pattersons in Windsor and find out.

For starters, I dig good pub food. I'd even go as far as to say I love good pub food. Now that I've said that, every experience I've had (along with every other person I know who's been in there) at Patterson's has been horrible, bordering on "stick my finger down my throat like a super model" horrible.

I recently met some friends there on a Friday night. Arriving early, I took a seat at the bar and ordered a vodka tonic. It arrived and I paid. Two minutes later the bar tender came up and said I owed her $5 for the drink. I told her I paid for it two minutes ago, still having the change sitting loosely in my pocket I showed her. I even pointed out the tip she took from right in front of me 30 seconds ago. Her response- " Well it's not in the computer honey." Thankfully a guy sitting a few stools down vouched for me and she backed down.

Fast forward 30 minutes- friends arrive, sitting at the bar, ready to order food. The bar tender takes their drink orders and low and behold, 5 minutes later, after already paying, she comes back and asks for money for the drinks. WTF?! It was borderline comical at this point. I was seriously beginning to question my sanity and the bar tenders.

I reluctantly order, knowing full well that everything I have ever ate here simply sucked. Either overcooked, not cooked properly, not seasoned or just plain tasted like butt. The only consistently decent thing might be the fries and beer (hence the 2 stars). What's mind boggling is that they are serving simple food... it's not that hard!

My shepards pie shows up in record time- literally 7-8 minutes after I order it... that's like fast food fast. I'm already nervous. The mashed potatoes on top were not crispy at all (fyi-that picture above I nabbed off of Yelp... some one was lucky enough to have a decent looking Shepards pie, which they aptly called beef pot pie in their review), but the scary surprise that was underneath was far worse... Shepards pie is normally ground lamb with some peas, carrots, some herbs, maybe a little red wine, chicken broth and Worcester. Then topped with mashed potatoes and tossed in the oven or under the broiler.

As I peeled back the funky potatoes that blanketed the top of this dish a small smile crept up. "They actually f$!%ed up Shepard pie..." That's sad. Under the blankets laid a thick greyish pool of carrots, 3 pieces of cubed beef (why... oh yeah, laziness... the jackass chef probably cut off a few chunks from my friends steak sandwich and threw it in there) and chunks of potatoes. Oh yeah, you read that right. Chunks of potatoes in a "stew" topped with mashed potatoes... Are your f'ing joking. Swear to god, I've seen cat food that looks (and probably tastes better) than this pile in front of me. The saving grace... 4 more vodka tonics... one being a freebie from the forgetful, amnesiac bartender- "So I noticed you didn't eat much of your dinner honey?" Me- "Yeah, it taste like poop. That's not how Shepards pie is suppose to be made. This is an Irish pub right?" Her- " Yeah, it's not my favorite either. How bout a drink on the house." That saved them from a one star rating....

I might sound like an a'hole or food snob, but in all honesty, that place has to be the worst place in Windsor to eat at. I'll eat at the taco truck or have Joe make me something at the Green Grocer any day over eating at Pattersons.

As a drinking establishment, it's not bad. Over priced drinks, but still not bad. Problem is we don't have a lot of options here in Windsor. Hopefully if you're brave enough to venture in there your bar tender will remember you paid... and if you're lucky... she won't recommend the shepards pie.

Mirepoix Review- Windsor, CA.

Having lived in Windsor the past few years, I've had the opportunity to develop a few favorite establishments, including Odyssey, the Green Grocer and Mirepoix.

The latter I visited with my wife on a none to special Wednesday night. Making a 6pm reservation, we entered the once was house turned Michelin star worthy French bistro.

With a bottle of Adobe Road 2006 Pinot Noir in hand, we were promptly seated in the corner booth; one other table was occupied. After reviewing the menu and debating between the sweetbreads or the beef tartare for appetizers we made our decision and our waiter cracked open the bottle of Pinot.

We started with the frites ($6, **** out of *****), which were just as I remembered them- bordering on perfection, but slightly over salted. I believe they are first blanched in water, cooled, then double fried. Either way, they were just as frites should be.



Then my tartare arrived. Steak tartare with crab ($13, ****), croutons and a perfectly cooked egg. The presentation perfect, the beef appropriately seasoned and all the components worked well together. This was the second best dish we had that. The dish was delicate and refined, not over whelming like some tartares can be and the toasted quail egg added another layer of needed texture to the dish. It's hard to find a good restaurant that does steak tartare this well.

As I ravaged my plate of tartare, my wife poked a way at a green salad with preserved Meyer lemons, goat cheese and vinaigrette ($8, ***). As the waiter presented the prixe fixe menu ($26) my wife took fancy to the salad he described and asked if she could get that separately, which he said would be no problem. The flavors were good and she was particularly impressed with the sweetness of the lemon rinds. Overall though the salad consisted of a total of 8 greens... Not quite worth it and we both chuckled as the minuscule plate of greenage arrived at the table. To put it into context, for the same price you get a serious plate of butter lettuce or a large caesar salad. This salad was more of an amuse bouche, simply on a plate rather than a tidy spoon.

The main courses arrived about 30 minutes after our apps were finished. Having finished our bottle of wine (we had been there for about 75 minutes) we asked for the wine list. My duck confit with fennel raviolis and spring peas appeared ($17, **), nicely presented with the bright green of the spring peas popping out on the white plate. Mirepoix has a nightly special and this was Wednesdays grand finale. The duck was perfectly cooked, as you'd expect of a duck leg roasting in glorious duck fat- crispy, salty and delicious. The problems arose when I took a bite of all the components combined. There was an underlining taste of vinegar and bitterness which didn't work well with the sweetness of the peas (my wife cringed on her initial bite... she didn't ask for seconds). And the raviolis, while not bad on there own, didn't mesh well with the other ingredients (and there were only two raviolis on the plate- it invoked plate envy as I looked over at my neighbor and their towering plate of mussels and frites). The peas were a nice balance and their freshness helped offset the dark, richness of the duck. Too bad they had to sauce the plate. A little herb oil might have done the trick.

The pork shank with creamed brussel sprouts and butternut squash gratin, which I had begged my wife to order was "Oh Face" inducing ($23, *****). Slightly crispy on the outside and perfectly braised fork tender pork that fell off the bone. The portion was huge, which permitted me to graze on it freely. This was by far the best dish of the night. The brussel sprouts were perfectly cooked and were not the soggy sadness that you might expect when dealing with creamed vegetables.

After finished our entrees, the waiter finally came by and asked about the wine list he had dropped off 30 minutes ago. I politely mentioned that since we were done eating I wasn't interested in another glass of wine. He quickly brought over a half glass of wine on the house. Very thoughtful.

Overall, it was a nice way to spend 2 hours- eating away at classic French fare tucked inside the warmth of a small, cozy house turned bistro. The food is the most consistent element to the Mirepoix dining experience. The service though is a slightly different story. Each time I've dined here, there is a certain snooty element, especially from the head female waiter (same one we've had the last few times) that puts a damper on the overall impression. It's almost as if we were causing her some level of discomfort by being there (every time she'd fill our water glasses we'd politely say thank you and she'd simply walk off, never a smile, a "your welcome", nada).

That being said there is another recurrent theme in dining at Mirepoix; one which I don't fully understand. The average age of the other diners was easily 55+. Which would put us as the youngest people in the restaurant by nearly 25 years. Maybe the wait staff thought us "kids" were going to run off without paying the bill or tip. Or maybe they were afraid we didn't know what tartare was and we'd send it back. The fact was I noticed we were treated differently than the other attorneys and doctors that were there that night (we sat next to some malpractice attorneys who continued to mispronounce frites).

Either way, the restaurant was full by time we left and it appears this little 24 seat establishment has done just that... establish itself. It seems Mirepoix has a nice, local, cult following and while the chef/owner Matthew Bousquet isn't handing out the "Koolaid" to customers, he is instead dishing out inspiring French fare.