Holy Jeebus, were these good! Visiting Seattle for the first time, I meandered over to Pikes Market in hopes of finding this place. After 30 minutes of searching my hunger won out and I found myself scarfing down a huge crepe... After I performed the disappearing act on the crepe, I then waddled down the street and stumbled across Piroshky Piroshky. Cue holy choir- Meat pie heaven.

I hopped in line, despite my gut pleading with my reason, stating that it was already well beyond full. When I got up to the counter I asked the girl what her favorite was. She said "Go with the beef and cheese."

That first bite was literally one of the best things I tasted in Seattle (and I ate in some amazing restaurants). 90 seconds later the piroshky was gone and I was plotting how I could how I could find time to eat a few more of these guys before I left.

My cholesterol and waistline are probably pretty stoked that I don't live anywhere near this place, but when I think of Seattle, that warm meat pie is going to be one of the first things that come to mind.

I'm a sucker for French food and locally, few other places do it as well (sorry La Gare... not even close). This is my third trip back to Bistro 29 since they opened and each trip has been progressively better than the last with an expanding crepe menu and impressive wine list. We showed up on a Friday night with 7:30 reservations (and despite the fact that they apparently didn't have our reservations written down, we were seated within minutes). Armed with a few bottles of wine (2004 Enkindu Fazekas Petite Syrah, $32) and some friends, I was prepared to dive head long into a night of marathon eating and over the top indulgence.

I started with the foie gras, served on top of french toast with some pain d'epice. The flavor was good, the foie cooked nicely and the sauce was sweet. Unfortunately, the toast was soggy by the time it got to the table so there was no contrast in texture. Every bite was filled with fatty, creamy smoothness. I could have used a little crunch to counter that. Overall though, a good start to the night ($14, *** out of *****).

In between bites of the artery clogging foie, I shared a savory crepe filled with a homemade pork sausage, gooey Gruyere and apples. Maybe this is the French's way of combating pizza. Or maybe the chef sprinkled some crack in there. Either way, all I wanted to do was curl up inside of this cheesy, pork filled blanket and roll around in its goodness. ($10, *****) I forgot how incredible these were.

In between day dreaming of a crepe hammock for the backyard, I sampled my wife's escargot, which was bathing in a herb butter bath (my kind of soaking tub). Perfectly flavored, not to chewy and it was served with toast to soak up the green, buttery goodness that was left in the bowl after the snails food their way into eager mouths. My only problem was that there weren't enough snails and that a dish like this should be served with a spork- that way you can get a mouth full of the herbaceous compound with each bite. And plus, every time I grabbed my spoon to slurp up the sage colored liquid I kept getting dirty looks from our neighbors (maybe they were doctors concerned for my health...). ($10,****).

The first bottle of wine was on its last leg, so we popped open a Limerick Lane Syrah just in the nick of time, as our mains started showing up. A heaping bowl of mussels was placed in front of me, along with a cone of frites on the side. For me, eating the actual mussels is only half the fun. Mopping up the shellfish elixir at the bottom of the bowl with french bread is the other half of the equation. The mussels were just as I remembered them- plump, tasty and occasionally grainy. The frites on the other hand were limp and almost soggy. I'm a double fry kind of guy when it comes to my frites, so I was slightly unimpressed by this offering. The saving grace was the half a loaf of french bread on the table, waiting to be submerged in my pond of Pernod cream sauce. ($14, ***1/2)

Although I didn't order it, I still was able to try a few bites: Lamb Sirloin with mashed potatoes and English peas. Excellent flavor and the sauce was amazing. The lamb was cooked perfectly and my only criticism was the chef might have been a little heavy handed with the salt. Otherwise, a killer entree. ($24, ****)

For dessert, a crepe with apples and whipped cream, a trio of ice cream and a trio of sorbet. Now considering I don't make desserts, rarely eat desserts and on a whole, don't like sweets, I'll refrain from passing any judgment on these. That being said... the dessert crepe was fantastic.

Aside from loosing our reservation and our table having to beg for french bread 20 minutes after being seated (after the first loaf showed up, they kept bringing us bread non-stop), the night was a success and the four of us left equally stuffed and satisfied. I've yet to try RendezVous Bistro (the yelp reviews scare me), but as far as I'm concerned, for French dining in Santa Rosa, Bistro 29 is the place to beat. Now if only they could master the frites the way they perfected the crepes...

"So how long have you guys been open?" I asked Heather Van Doom, owner of Starlight Wine Bar. "Oh, about three and a half years." she replied. I was surprised that this little gem has been hiding here so long and I had no idea. And when I say hiding, I really mean hiding. The restaurant is located in a train car, located in a building, located in the Gravenstein shopping center near Coffee Catz. My first attempted at finding this eatery had me walk right by without noticing.

The good news is, once inside, ambiance, nostalgia and great cooking take over. This is the kind of place where you'd picture people sipping martinis, cigarette smoke clouding the air and Sinatra buzzing away softly out of a jukebox. Unfortunately, they lack a liquor license, smoking has been banned in California restaurants for quite sometime and I didn't see a jukebox (but there was some good music playing).

The best way to describe the menu would be seasonal, Californian paired with a little New Orleans flair. They also offer an early bird special which consists of an app, entree and dessert for only $25. My wife went this route, while I started with the mussels and then moved onto the gumbo.

The savory, corn beignes were the first to show up. We each grabbed one of these hot, corned filled little donuts and gave them a red aioli bath. They were perfectly crisp on the outside and once you bit into one, the corn filling provided a nice, unexpected contrast (**** out of *****). As we each polished off the first beignes the mussels arrived, soaking in a pool of spicy, red broth. The mussels were nice and plump, not over cooked and the sauce had a kick to it (some tomatoes, red pepper coulis, maybe a bit of saffron and garlic), perfect for submerging bread in ($15, **** out of *****).

The next two dishes were a showcase for chef Thaddeus Palmese and his New Orleans roots- BBQ Shrimp and Gumbo. The beautifully butterflied, tail on shrimp were swimming in a buttery, Worcestershire sauce. The only problem I had was I couldn't get the tails off fast enough. (****). Knowing the chef had done time in some big name restaurants (Emril's Delmonico being one of them) I had faith the gumbo would not be a let down. I was right. The roux was a nice, dark brown and the dish as a whole warmed you from head to toe the way a good scotch does. Shrimp, chicken and andouille sausage filled out the dish, along with white rice on top. If I wasn't so damn full at this point I would have ordered another bowl of this okra-file-roux masterpiece. (*****).

My wifes dessert course was next. When we ordered, we were told that it was a peach cobbler with a cream cheese ice cream. What showed up instead was another classic. One which I wouldn't have traded for anything peach related. Bananas Foster. For the record, I don't like desserts or sweets, but this was one of the best sugar laden things I've eaten in recent memory (****). Cinamon, bananas, sugar, banana liqour and ice cream all melted together in a neat bowl... a diabetic nightmare? Maybe. A perfect way to end a great dining experience? Hell yes.

So if you're like me and you haven't heard about this hidden culinary treasure, get out your gps immediately and set a course for Starlight Wine Bar.

It was a long weekend... Within a 16 hour time frame, 60 lbs of short ribs were cooked in my not-so-large kitchen, over 600 servings were plated and dished out in only a few hours (sous chef Matt to thank for that) and a trophy was taken home that says "Guys Can Cook Too Winners- Appetizer Category."

Gusy Can Cook Too is an event put on by the Sebastapol Rotary in which, amateur chefs (about 50 of them) compete and serve food to over 500 attendees. They are judged on taste, presentation and originality. Attendees place their votes and then professional chefs judge the food as well.

The cooking shenanigans started Friday afternoon when I picked up 60 lbs of massive short ribs from Joe at the Green Grocer. He was nice enough to hook me up with a deal on them and they looked beautiful. It was the equivalent of a local Kobe short rib. The marbling worked wonders for the taste and texture of the meat, but the high fat content proved to be problematic when it came to our sauces (more on that later).

All of Friday, and late into the night/ early a.m. was spent searing meat, sweating vegetables and making braising liquid. And then repeating. It felt like a never ending cycle and to make matters worse I was going to bed at 3am knowing that I'd have to wake up in 4 hours and do it all over again. I was going to have nightmares about dinosaur sized short ribs.


The initial plan at the competition had been to make a braised short rib topped with a little pear reduction. A few days prior to the event I realized that the dish needed some kind of textural contrast. Normally, when I braise short ribs I throw them under a broiler for a minute to develop a nice crust. This wasn't an option at this event. I contemplated bringing my creme brulee torch, but that just didn't seem practical. While shopping for short ribs at Safeway for a test run, I had an epiphany in the cereal isle... rice krispies with some Chinese five spice. These would provide the much needed crunch (and originality) to the dish. The Thursday before the event we did a test run with the krispies and pear reduction. The tasters seemed to approve but I felt it was missing something.

Fast forward to Saturday morning and I'm putting in the last batch of short ribs in the oven to braise. While putting the canola oil back up into the cabinet, I saw what turned out to be the possible saving grace for the dish... balsamic vinegar. I reduced a squeeze bottles worth, Matt (my friend/ sous chef for the day) came over, we packed up everything and we were off.


After getting our booth setup and our prep area worked out, we did a taste test- braised short rib bite, pear and balsamic reduction, Chinese five spice krispies and some of the reduced braising liquid... I didn't like it... At all. There was an overwhelming taste and mouth feel of grease and fat. I had botched it and added some of the non-skimmed pan juices into my braising liquid reduction from that morning. So the already skimmed sauce that was reducing on the stove, got a fresh injection of fatty fluids and what was left in my tasting cup and now in my mouth was a yellowish, fatty liquid. Not good. We decided right then and there to ditch the braising liquid and go with just the pear and balsamic reduction. This worked out perfectly in the end and we wound up with a crapload of votes for our dish, garnering us the Popular Vote winner in the apps category.

Matt, my sous chef was kicking tail with the prep work and pumping out portions like their was no tomorrow. It wouldn't have worked without him. Below is a modified version of the recipe we cooked. If you want to add the rice kripsies, simply cook a few cups in some canola oil and add a teaspoon or two of Chinese five spice and a sprinkle of sugar. Wait for them to almost caramelize. For the sauces you can reduce some pear juice and balsamic vinegar, or try without. Either way, have fun cooking it and pair it with some sake.

Enjoy.

Pear & Sake Braised Short Ribs

Serves 4-6

2 cups pear or apple juice
1 cup sake
1 cup mirin
½ cup sugar
1 cup soy sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
10 cloves crushed garlic
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons neutral oil, like corn or grapeseed
4 to 5 pounds short ribs
2 large onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
½ cup chopped scallions
4 cups cooked white rice.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, combine juice, sake, mirin, sugar, soy sauce, about 20 grinds of pepper, both forms of garlic, sesame oil and 1½ cups water. Bring to a boil, then simmer.
2. Put corn or grapeseed oil in a large ovenproof braising pan or skillet over medium-high heat and add ribs, seasoning them liberally with salt and pepper. Brown well on all sides, moving them around to promote even browning. Remove from pan and add onions and the carrots, stirring vegetables occasionally.
3. Ad ribs back to pan. Carefully pour braising liquid over meat and bake, bone-side up and submerged in liquid (add water or juice if necessary), covered, for 3 to 4 hours, until meat falls from bones. Cool ribs in liquid for 1 hour, then remove; strain liquid. At this point, ribs and liquid can be covered and refrigerated overnight.
4. Remove bones from ribs. In a pot, combine meat with braising liquid; heat to a boil then simmer, reducing liquid until syrupy. If it seems too thick, thin with a bit of water. While this is reducing make the white rice.
   
5. Taste mixture and adjust seasonings if necessary, then garnish with scallions and serve on rice

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.