Food, Wine and (Mostly) Hospitality
And what did you do this past Martin Luther King weekend? On the spur of the moment, we drove up last Sunday to Healdsburg, about an hour away from San Francisco. Despite its proximity to home, we decided to stay overnight at a bed & breakfast as a special treat. Just spending two days in this picturesque town felt like taking a week’s vacation. It was relaxed and just lovely, surrounded by vineyards and the natural beauty of Sonoma County.
We found ourselves in the middle of Winter Wineland. A $25 ticket bought us a wine glass, an ID bracelet, and access to more than 90 participating wineries for wine tasting.
Fortified with a lunch of lobster rolls from Willi’s Seafood and Raw Bar, we descended upon the tasting rooms in town. Each winery served small nibbles, such as mini-grilled cheese sandwiches, a bit of daube, chili, gumbo or cream of leek soup to compliment its wines. My husband and I managed to sample the offerings of eight wineries by being judicious in what we tasted and sharing tastes.
Dinner was not a big priority that evening after participating in Winter Wineland, but we had made reservations at a restaurant that had been on the San Francisco Chronicle’s Top 100 list in 2002. (Our two first choices were already fully booked.)
Although we were not hungry for dinner, we wanted to honor our reservation. Our strategy was to eat light, ordering six appetizers, to meet the check average of a regular meal. However, we ended up walking out of the restaurant, having sat in our seats for 25 minutes without water, bread or wine. We weren’t being purposely overlooked. The good-size restaurant had three waiters for the entire restaurant and there wasn’t any bussing support in sight.
Instead, we walked across the Plaza to Bovolo, where we had a wonderful meal of roasted butternut squash and bacon pizza, and a delicious salad. This is the casual dining spot of the talented Duskie Estes (she also owns Zazu in Santa Rosa), where bacon and salumi are made from scratch.
The next day, we went wine buying at the Bottle Barn, where you can purchase tastes by the ounce or more before you settle on your choices. After help from proprieter Bruce Emmons, we walked off with a case and a half of wines at very reasonable prices.
Sharing the space is the Mayo Family Reserve Room, where you can do a food and wine tasting — seven wines and seven food pairings. The food comes from the restaurant Zin, next door. Having consumed enough wine, we decided to save the experience for another day, instead, walking over to Zin for juicy burgers on homemade buns with Maytag Blue cheese.
I couldn’t help noticing that Zin, with about a third of the seats of the restaurant the night before, had a wait/bussing staff of five. And they were so solicitous that when I asked for another wine glass so two of us could share one glass of Sangiovese (one of us was driving home), the waiter whisked away the filled glass, neatly poured half in another glass and brought them both back to the table, saving us the messy work.
INSIGHT: When it comes to food and wine, it’s not just business; it’s personal. When we review all of our dining experiences in total, we will always remember with fondness great service; and will never forgive poor service. So any restaurant not investing in its staff is not investing in its future.
