Page 613 – Sonoma Magazine

Why I’m Trying To Make a Perfect Mac-n-Cheese

September 2010

By biteclub

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

An old friend of mine and nascent PK supporter, a certain Ms T (you know who you are), recently put in a request in for my best take on mac-n-cheese. Not just any mac-n-cheese, mind you, but a “rich, rich, rich, very adult mac-n-cheese”. This, T must have intuited, sits squarely in our wheelhouse because, here at the Proximal Kitchen, we love cheese, we love pasta, and we’re not scared of butter. But for me, and I suspect for T and probably most of you, it’s also about much more than that: A deeply satisfying mac-n-cheese is the very epitome of comfort food, and the right bite at the right time can transport us, in Proustian fashion, to a happy, child-like place. In short, I’m working on this recipe for T because mac-n-cheese makes me smile.
While I’ve tried any number of variations, I haven’t ever felt like I quite “got it”; maybe it’s just that I’ve not yet made a mac-n-cheese that is my mac-n-cheese, that expresses everything I associate with mac-n-cheese in one piping hot, gooey, luxuriant mouthful of sclerotic wonderfulness. So I’m starting with primary research (aka, my favorite cookbooks), after which will come some experimental work on the cook top, and what I hope will end with my own personal favorite take on this definitive nectar of the home-cooking gods, the one that casts a Platonic shadow on my kitchen wall.
I say “my own personal favorite” because this particular little exercise – developing a recipe for a hugely nostalgic dish, on request, for a friend – is a microcosm of why I cook: I truly love preparing good food for, and enjoying it with, other people, but I also prefer to do so exclusively with foods that ilike to eat, prepared how I think they ought to be prepared. Self-centered? Probably, but that misses the point: Cooking is at least as much about process as it is about product, and we should all like what we engage in, because when we choose an activity – any activity, excepting perhaps sleep – we are, by definition, choosing not to do all sorts of other, and otherwise wonderful, things with that particular piece of our life. Returning to the kitchen, it takes a considerable investment of time and money in order to construct a quality dish; the proper preparation of even the most humble and simply-dressed salad of leaves or box of dried pasta comes at the expense of the multitude of other things you could have done with that time or eaten instead. This may seem trivially obvious when the topic is food, but I really believe that it applies equally to the choices we make in our education, our career, the time we spend with our kids, the time I spend writing this blog.
I suspect I’ll be on this thread for a little while, as long as it takes to build a recipe that makes me smile, and while I’m at it, I’m going to try to remind myself what Thoreau, who died at 45, had to say about the cost of a thing.

Brasserie | Santa Rosa

September 2010

By biteclub

Hyatt Vineyard Creek Inn’s Brasserie, has had it’s ups and downs. Starting life as the chef-inspired Brasserie de la Mer with Liz Ozanich in the kitchen, it was managed until 2007 as Seafood Brasserie by Portland-based McCormick & Schmick’s. There were some heady days, but for the most part, the restaurant has struggled to find a consistent local audience. To be honest, there wasn’t always a lot to get jazzed about.
Which isn’t terribly surprising when you consider that corporate hotel restaurants aren’t known for inviting their chefs to put a strong personal point-of-view on their cuisine. There are just too many competing demands: The weekend eggs Benedict and Mimosa crowd, harried corporate lunchers, mandatory Happy Hours, budget vacationers, families and luxury expense accounters — not to mention banquet catering and various corporate bigwigs nitpicking the menu. It’s not the easiest gig.
So I’m giving big props to Brasserie’s Exec Chef Richard Whipple who recently simplified things up at the Brasserie with a refreshing, accessible all-day menu that brings together all those demands while maintaining some solid gastronomic cred and his own farm-to-table philosophy.
Still in it’s early days, the menu is an easy-going combination of small plates (earthy roasted beets with truffle oil and goat cheese mousse, chicken satay, addictive crispy green beans with chipotle aoili); $10-$13 sandwiches (sweet and savory slow-roasted pulled Kurobuta pork on a ciabatta bun, burgers with applewood bacon); salads (goat cheese tomato galette, seafood Louie); and larger plates (roasted local halibut with lemon-dill potatoes and caper butter, fish and chips, grilled pork chop, ). Smaller portions are available for most entrees (and half portions for kiddos), and a number of the small plates are available during the restaurant’s popular Happy Hour. Regulars will recognize many of Whipple’s signature dishes (the galette, halibut). The French-trained chef (Whipple worked at Domaine Chandon with Philippe Jeanty for nine years, as well as at Mustard’s and Deuce Restaurant in Sonoma) has a solid Wine Country background and makes a mean Swedish cream cannoli that took big awards at the 2010 Harvest Fair.
After tasting through a good part of the menu, call me jazzed.
Brasserie at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek,170 Railroad Street, Santa Rosa, 636.7388. Lunch daily from 11:30 to 2:30pm; dinner from 5pm to 10pm Sunday through Thursday, and Friday and Saturday until 11pm.

QOW: Best Desserts

September 2010

By biteclub

Smart diners leave room for dessert. Brilliant ones just eat it first.

And really, why shouldn’t we? Dessert is all to often an afterthought. Or worse, an unpleasant struggle of will after gorging ourselves through four courses (and a bread basket). So it’s no wonder that some restaurants simply farm out their confections rather than putting serious energy behind their sweets. Not to mention that most chefs get nervous when you start forcing them to use things like measuring cups and recipes — critical to good pastry.
But dessert decadence is again on the rise (could economic recovery be far behind?). Kitchens are getting more creative with their last courses, retiring tired molten lava chocolate bombs and dry-as-dust cheesecake for a rainbow of cupcakes and childhood confections, fire and ice show stoppers, seasonal sensations and sweet-savory dishes that defy the category altogether.
Tummy rumbling? Here are some local favorites…

Of The Moment: With ripe apples threatening to bash our noggins at every turn, Starlight Cafe and Wine Bar take revenge on the crispy critters by serving up Gravenstein apple fritters with cinnamon ice cream and caramel. Take that. 6761 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol, 823-1943.
Childhood Confections:
– Triple Threat: Warm milk and cookies at Jackson’s Bar & Oven are exactly that, because who can improve perfection? Jackson’s Cupcake does Hostess one better with a dark chocolate mini cake filled with white chocolate cream and a signature swirl on top. And beignets are just a fancy word for doughnuts, right? “I have to say one of the best desserts I had recently was at Jackson’s Bar and Oven. Their beignets are to die for. Instead of the tradional fried balls of dough, they make them into long sticks of deliciousness that are fried perfectly and soft and warm on the inside. They are served with a raspberry coulis, creme anglaise, and hot fudge to dip them in. It’s worth the trip just to have this for dessert,” said Clara Black.135 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, (707) 545-6900.
– S’mores: Campfire-inspired, these melted chocolate, gooey marshmallow and homemade graham crackers for two have been on the menu since Restaurant P/30’s opening. And getting better every time. 9890 Bodega Hwy, Sebastopol, (707) 861-9030.
– Butterscotch pudding: “It’s just an old-fashioned recipe that proves classics are classics,” said Bryan Bousquet of Bistro M. Made with brown sugar, cream, eggs and other diet-smashing goodness, this nursery favorite has permanently taken up residence at the Bousquet’s casual Windsor eatery, Bistro M (610 McClelland Ave., Windsor, 838-3118).
– You’ll want to get your peanut butter in this chocolate: Homemade “Nutter Butters” (you remember the peanut butter cookies, right?) with dark chocolate fondue for dipping at Zazu Restaurant & Farm. (3535 Guerneville Rd., Santa Rosa, 523-4814)
Show-stoppers
Ice: Liquid nitrogen and vanilla custard make for a spectacular ice cream dessert made tableside. Part science experiment, part haute molecular gastronomy, it’s all good when warm chocolate and French cherries complete this avant sundae at Madrona Manor (1001 Westside Rd, Healdsburg, 433-4231. Baked Blackberry Alaska is “beyond delectable, the whole dessert is homemade from scratch…including the blackberry ice cream!” according to Stacy Chamberlain, a fan of Viola Pastry Boutique and Cafe, 709 Village Ct. Santa Rosa, 544-8830. Mixing up hot and cold is Stark’s Steakhouse’s Frozen Hot Chocolate with Whopper Foam and Chocolate Crackle Cookies (521 Adams St., Santa Rosa, 546-5100).
Fire: Cherries jubilee, the oldest of the old school desserts, flambeed tableside with a flair at La Gare (208 Wilson Street, Santa Rosa, 528-4355).
Out of the Ordinary
Leave it to a pastry chef to mix sweet and savory flavors in a single dessert. Roy Schvartzapel is the pastry chef at Cyrus (29 North St., Healdsburg, 433-3311). On his current menu: Passion fruit gelato with miso custard, white peach miso soup, olive oil and sesame sable. Love red velvet? Schvartzapel’s updated version is topped with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, candied baby yellow beets, pickled chiyoga beets, a yogurt sphere, carbonated raspberry and red beet consomme and verjus sorbet. Whew.
Ice Cream & Cake
Cheesecake: Autumn Barber of Aioli Delicatessen (6536 Front St # 7, Forestville, 887-2476) is a big fan of Autumn Merkel’s small batch Sinful Delights cheesecakes available at Aoili and at Graziano’s in Petaluma . “They make amazing cheesecakes!! Caramel macchiato is my personal favorite,” she said.
Willi’s Wine Bar’s (4404 Old Redwood Highway, Santa Rosa, 526-3096) warm Scharffen Berger Flourless Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Caramel, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream & Sea Salt Peanuts is my favorite dessert in the county,” said Megan Feldman. But it’s panna cotta and pot de creme that get big thumbs up at Cucina Paradiso (114 Petaluma Blvd N. Petaluma, 782-1130), Rustic’s Chocolate Mousse al “Francis Francis” served with a dollop of cream in a teacup (300 Via Archimedes, Geyserville, 857-1400) and Creme brulee at Mosaic restaurant in Forestville (6675 Front St, Forestville, 887-7503)

Just Three: Tomatoes, Chilis, and Parsley

September 2010

By biteclub

Tomato Salad with Chili, Parsley, and Tomato Vinaigrette — Tomato-Tomato Salad

As I’ve already confessed elsewhere and at length, I’m a pretty lousy gardener, but – as with most things in life – luck trumps skill, and Lady Luck planted a big, wet snog on my tomatoes this year. Seriously, to judge by my Green Zebras, she might even have slipped them some tongue. If you’re lucky enough to live here in the 707, you already understand that tomato season can acquire near-mystical qualities, spoken about in the same hushed tones normally reserved for yield, brix, and how badly hosed the wine industry may or may not be in the latest rags, so I take this bit of fortune seriously: What can I do to flatter all this sexy fruit?
Yesterday’s project: Construct a complete tomato dish that even my kids would eat, using only three ingredients, all of which we grew. To hand: Tomatoes (Lemon Boys, not technically an heirloom, with their lower acidity and mildly tangy sweetness; and the aforementioned Green Zebras, their distinctive, racy zing a great match to the Lemons), chili peppers (Serranos, a great go-to chili for heat and flavor, and particularly good raw), and a bed full of herbs (a whole Simon-Garfunkle reunion of parsley, sage, rosemary, and culinary thyme, alongside basil, lavender, and chives), from which – basis the chili – I could have plucked basil, but thought the flat-leaf parsley a bit more interesting and marginally less obvious pairing. The clever if likely unoriginal (296,000 Google hits in 0.21 seconds) insight: A vinaigrette, described (as far as I know) by none other than Thomas Keller as “the perfect sauce”, consists of nothing but acid, oil, and seasoning. So, why not use tomatoes as the acid, for a tomato vinaigrette? (A truly excellent discussion of vinaigrettes, citing all my favorite cook-book sources and getting it right, can be found here.)
Tomato Salad with Green Zebra Vinaigrette and a Fresh Parsley and Chili Garnish

Concasse a few Green Zebra tomatoes, maybe 1/2 to 1 tomato per salad (click the Foodista widget below for an explanation of the proper concasse technique) and, while slightly annoying, can be done in bulk, stored, and used later in any number of preparations). Seed, rib, and finely mince a fresh Serrano (or other red, say Arbol) chili pepper. Pick a handful of small leaves off the parsley.
Tomato Concasse
Push the tomatoes concasse through sieve or ricer or whatever to get a smooth texture and ensure that all the seeds have been removed (tomato seeds tend to add an unpleasantly bitter flavor and odd texture to smooth sauces) into a small mixing bowl. Season with a dash of white wine vinegar, finely milled salt and fresh white pepper (you don’t want black flecks in it).
Whisk olive oil into the tomato base, in roughly equal proportions (a typical vinaigrette requires a 3:1 ratio of oil to acid, which would be fine here as well, but I prefer to let the tomato remain center stage, and its textural weight seemed to hold the oil just fine in this ratio), and adjust seasoning as required.
Spoon the dressing to cover the bottom of shallow pasta bowls.
Cut the Lemon Boys, remaining Green Zebras, and/or whatever other tomatoes you have to hand (Tangerines, Cherokee Purples, and Early Girls would all look and taste phenomenal; you can’t go wrong, just try to balance the zesty acidity and color of the greens with sweeter, and yellow-red colored, cousins) into roughly uniform medium-dice.
Sprinkle a little of the minced chili on the sauce and judiciously place the tomato cubes (skin-side up or not, depending on their look) on the sauce, adding a leaf of parsley to the top of a few of the not-green cubes.
As a speedier alternative, simply give the parsley and the whole tomatoes a rough chop, toss the tomatoes with the sauce, and then sprinkle the chili and parsley over the top.

AV Chardonnay Calls BS on ABC (Part 2 of 3)

September 2010

By biteclub

I may live in the Russian River Valley – indisputably, home court to any number of world-class Chardonnay winemakers – but I’m here to tell you that, if well-made, sexpot Chards are your thing, then you need to get your Chard-guzzling booty over to the Alexander Valley, and stat. You won’t find nearly the selection (the simple math is fewer wineries making less wine), you’ll drive a few extra miles between tasting rooms (it’s a sparsely populated region), but for quality, value, and stylistic consistency, nobody is producing better hooch than the cellar rats of the Alexander Valley.
If you were to think of RRV Chardonnays as the all-grown-up beauty queens of today’s Hollywood (think Nicole Kidman or Michelle Pfeiffer), and Sonoma Coast as the edgy up-and-comers of tomorrow’s (say, an Emma Watson or Kristen Stewart), then AV Chards would have to be the voluptuous blonde bombshells of the classic silver screen, all Mae West and Marylin Monroe, with their graceful curves, inimitable class, and breathy sex appeal. What I find so special about the best of these wines, however, is that what’s in the bottle consists of much more than just a metaphorical pretty face. Like Mae and Marylin, the better Alexander Valley offerings all maintain their own fierce individuality, one might even say attitude, while at the same time sharing an unmistakable common thread, a sense of place, or terroir, that even the most die-hard ABCer would begrudgingly concede, and that sets them apart from many of their more westerly cousins.
All of which lines me up for The World’s Best Unpaid Job: I’m going to spend the next few days soaking up the postcard-perfect scenery of the Alexander Valley, bar-hopping my favorite tasting rooms in and around Highway 128 (yes, I’ll spit), and talking to the men and women that grow these special wines. Check back in for Part 3, coming soon to a liver near you.

“It’s Food!”: Clark Wolf hosts new show

September 2010

By biteclub

What’s next on Clark Wolf’s ever-expanding to do list? Television personality.
The jet-setting restaurant consultant/author/food personality and sometimes blogger turned up at Sonoma County’s own TV 50 kitchen studio a few months ago to tape the pilot for “It’s Food!”, a video love-letter to the chefs and purveyors of Sonoma County.
As a longtime Wine Country resident, he’s calling on foodie friends to guest what’s hoped to be a monthly half-hour program exploring the farm-to-table philosophy of SoCo. On the first episode: Chef John Ash, Zazu’s Duskie Estes and Nancy Skall of Middleton Gardens.
“There’s so much about food that started in Sonoma County and is being revisited in Sonoma County. There are so many stories to share. I’ve done TV over the years on and off, but I was waiting for something that was less of a game show and something I actually wanted to share with people,” said Wolf.
The first show is slated to air before Thanksgiving and will be viewable throughout the Northbay. Channel details are still being worked out.

AV Chardonnay Calls BS on ABC (Part 1 of 3)

September 2010

By biteclub

Alexander Valley, Lytton Springs Exit — Driving into Alexander Valley off 101 North

Google “ABC Anything But Chardonnay” and you’ll get something on the order of 19,000 hits in the first few tenths of a second. The oldest reference I could be bothered to find dates to 1995 in a column by Frank Prial for the NY Times, but as recently as 2008, someone actually took the time to write a book with the same dated and misguided tag line, so we know that wine writers, at least, have had the ABC bug up their collective keester for the better part of 15 years now. A cursory review of the literature, such as it is, will tell you that the ABC crowd (or “movement”, as they are wont to call themselves, if they’re feeling more plucky and self-important than usual) represents a backlash against the hegemony of that ubiquitous style of California Chardonnay that assaults the palate in a blitzkrieg of sweet butter, vanilla, and sodden oak.
The ABCers have a valid argument, to a point: Too many California Chardonnays taste too much alike, lacking both individuality and varietal character. I have read, but cannot confirm, a plausible hypothesis that the tsunami of monolithic and uniform Chards washing over the marketplace some years ago was the industry’s natural reaction to Kendall-Jackson selling of hundreds of thousands (millions?) of cases of wine in the 80s and 90s that were made in that particular style. Whatever the roots of its family tree, this style – the oenological equivalent of Marshmallow Fluff – reaches its dubious apogee in Rombauer’s eponymous bottling, which I used to care for, truth be told, but – both to its winemaker’s credit and ultimate failing – now strikes me as inscrutably cloaked in wood and stupefyingly uniform, regardless of the vintage, with an inescapable impression of chewing on a handful of buttered-popcorn Jelly Bellys while licking an oak tree. Maybe that’s harsh, and a bit unfair to the Rombauers (whom, unlike downmarket Marshmallow Wines that spend the tender days of their vinous youth literally soaking in a bath of oak chips, at least produce a product of quality), but one thing the ABC folks got right is that too many Chards taste indistinguishably alike in a not-very-Chardonnay sort of way, and where’s the fun in that?.
What they got wrong, however, is that Chardonnay is somehow ill-suited to oak barrels and malolactic fermentation, and that Americans (or anybody else, for that matter) would stop drinking Chardonnay: In the first instance, not only do the undisputed heavyweight champions of the Chardonnay world – counting amongst their ranks the who’s-your-daddy of all Chardonnays and possibly all dry white wines, Le Montrachet; some of the world’s finest Champagnes (any Tete de Cuvee designated blanc de blanc, including such luminaries as Salon, Taittinger, and Krug’s mythical Clos de Mesnil); and New World “cult” offerings (such as those from John Kongsgaard and Helen Turley) make extensive use of new oak and ML fermentation; and as to the second claim, it’s just plain false. To wit, Americans guzzle 5-10% more California Chardonnay each year than the one previous, and have done so since that very same NYT article appeared in 1995.
So what gives? A winemaker friend of mine once told me, “Americans talk dry, but drink sweet”. He was talking about the oaky, extracted, blue-black ink wells of Cabernet Sauvignon that continue to define most of our neighboring Napa Valley, but I think the song remains the same further west as well, here in the Land of Chard: We, the American palate, like to fill our glasses with big, rich, succulent, gobs of toasty, creamy Chardonnay unctuousness. Decry it all you want, but the sales statistics don’t lie, and I, for one, am proud to hold my hand up as one of the many whom they represent, provided the wines in question reflect their varietal character and a retain a sense of balance between fruit and wood, richness and structure, winemaker and vine because, at the end of the day, these are flirty, sexy, flattering wines, and a well-made, sexpot of a Chard is the sort of wine that will get you lucky.

2010 Heirloom Tomato Chef Challenge PIX

September 2010

By biteclub

It takes a top chef to whip out a dish like foie gras with passion fruit and liquid nitrogen grapes, diver scallops and fried green tomatoes in 25 minutes — along with three other dishes. But that’s exactly what former Top Chef contestants Hosea Rosenberg, Ryan Scott and Chris (CJ) Jacobsen did, along with the day’s ultimate winner, Kendall Jackson Chef Justin Wangler, on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010 during the Kendall Jackson Heirloom Tomato Festival.
It’s an annual chef-off that’s all about the camaraderie and sweating it out under the summer sun with a glass of Riesling and several thousand of your best friends. Here are some of the amazing dishes from the chefs…
And congrats to Justin!

2010 Harvest Fair Food Winners

September 2010

By biteclub

Though many of Sonoma County’s chefs, purveyors and winemakers receive accolades far beyond Wine Country, the annual Harvest Fair Awards are a purely local commendation of the region’s favorites.
So whet your whistle, then head to Sept. 25th’s Awards Night Gala to taste, sip and celebrate all of the winning food and wines selected this year. Here are the winners in the food categories…
Dairy: This long-overlooked category was revived in 2010, spearheaded by local cheesemaker and caterer Sheana Davis. “I felt it was time to revive the Dairy competition, since we we have so many amazing dairy producers joining in the cheesemaking production of Sonoma County, which includes artisan butters, farmstead cheeses and so many unique and regional new dairy products. In our judging of more than 30 entries, we tasted raw goat milk cheeses, aged cow milk cheese, fresh goat milk cheeses, yogurts, butters and yet this was just the beginning,” she said. Petaluma Creamery took top honors in the aged cow cheese category (Monterey Jack won gold); Redwood Hill Farms in the fresh goat cheese category, rined goat cheese (Cameo) and aged goat cheese (smoked cheddar). Valley Ford Cheese Company won Double Gold for its Estero Gold Montasio and Highway 1 Fontina. Spring Hill Jersey captured Double Gold and Best in Show for its Peppercorn Goat Farmstead Cheese. McClelland’s Dairy won top awards for its European Style Organic Artisan Butter, while Green Valley Organics and Redwood Hill Farm both took medals for their yogurts.
Olive Oil: Ferrari-Carano Vineyards Vintners Inn Estate Olive Oil was named Best of Show Olive Oil. According to Cheryl McMillan of Ferrari-Carano Vineyards, the winning oil is a blend of all the olives grown on the Vintners Inn Estate: coratina, frantoio, leccino, maurino, and pendolino. The judges were impressed with the balance of fruit, bitterness and pungency of the winning oil.
Desserts: Brasserie at the Hyatt took Best in Show and Beset use of Local Products for its Swedish Cream Cannolis, while Oliver’s Markets won the Sweepstakes Dessert Award for its desserts. Oliver’s also won Best in Show for its decorated wedding cake and honey caramel nut tart in the pastry division.
Best of Show Wine List: Carneros Bistro at the Lodge. Dry Creek Kitchen won Best Sonoma County Wine List.
Best Deli/Charcuterie: Newcomer Yanni’s Sausage won Best Charcuteries for its Loukaniko Pork Rustic Country Sausage, while Bear Republic Brewing won Best of Show Delicatessen for its Wild Game Chili.
Appetizer and bread categories have a variety of classes, but top contenders in the Appetizer category included Brasserie at the Hyatt for their Best Use of Sonoma County Cheese, BBQ Smokehouse Catering for the BBQ Beef Brisket (Best use of SoCo Beef) A La Heart Catering for best use of Seafood and Poultry and Grapevine Catering for Best use of Lamb and Wine. In the breads category, Costeaux French Bakery won Best in Show for its Ciabatta and Multigrain breads. Winning double golds were Franco American Bakery for their Sweet French Roll and Nightingale Breads for their Forestville French Baguette.
The 2010 Sonoma County Harvest Fair takes place October 1-3 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. More information click here.

DaVero’s New Healdsburg Tasting Room

September 2010

By biteclub

Since the demise of Plaza Farms in 2008, Sonoma County’s olive oil fans have been chomping at DaVero Olive Oil owner Ridgely Evers to open another retail outlet for his ever-growing selection of locally pressed oils, preserves and estate wines.
This week Evers (who is notoriously obsessive about his small-batch products) opens his long-awaited tasting room/vineyard/biodynamic farm on Westside Road near Madrona Manor. There’s been lots of buzz about the space, which Evers has been planting and renovating for the last two years. Aside from filling your 30 Weight (DaVero’s sturdy cooking oil) there, Evers makes about 300 cases of wine including a Sangiovese Rosato and his personal fave, Sagrantino, a rare Italian varietal, both for sale in the tasting room.
The space utilizes reclaimed wood, fixtures and steel — from fallen trees to lights from one of Evers’ old start-ups. He’s also rescued several olive trees and reclaimed stumps for use as decor.
As the space ramps up, Evers plans to sell local produce ( Nathan Boon of Tommy Boy Potatoes is growing produce on a corner of the 5-acre property) and make the tasting room the exclusive retail location for his olive oils.
DaVero Tasting Room: 766 Westside Road, Healdsburg.