There’s an undeniable charm to eating in a railway car.
Chummy quarters, dim lighting and feeling transported to a slower, more
romantic time when travel didn’t include pat-downs and families in
sweat pants.

Captivated by romantic visions of the past (if not
the long-term practicality of having a an entire restaurant, bar and
kitchen in a space not much larger than a tour bus) SoCal transplants
Ted and Heather Van Doorn have been fronting Sebastopol’s funky Starlight Cafe & Wine Bar for the better part of three years. The cafe is a former Southern Pacific lounge car parked permanently in Gravenstein Station.
And though he was never intended to be their permanent chef, New
Orleans’ Thaddeus Palmese has taken over the helm (literally),
transforming it into a functional kitchen.

The restaurant has flown mostly under the radar despite an enthusiastic local fan-base. With
hard times hitting many eateries around the North Bay, It didn’t escape
BiteClub’s attention that the trio have recently been plugging the
space, garnering a Best Of nod from the Bohemian and KGO radio time.
Honestly, you can’t help but want to cheer for this hard-working,
hipster crew who’ve had their share of uphill battles since opening.

Continue reading “Starlight Cafe & Wine Bar”

There’s an undeniable charm to eating in a railway car. Chummy quarters, dim lighting and feeling transported to a slower, more romantic time when travel didn’t include pat-downs and families in sweat pants.

Captivated by romantic visions of the past (if not the long-term practicality of having a an entire restaurant, bar and kitchen in a space not much larger than a tour bus) SoCal transplants Ted and Heather Van Doorn have been fronting Sebastopol’s funky Starlight Cafe & Wine Bar for the better part of three years. The cafe is a former Southern Pacific lounge car parked permanently in Gravenstein Station. And though he was never intended to be their permanent chef, New Orleans’ Thaddeus Palmese has taken over the helm (literally), transforming it into a functional kitchen.

The restaurant has flown mostly under the radar despite an enthusiastic local fan-base. With hard times hitting many eateries around the North Bay, It didn’t escape BiteClub’s attention that the trio have recently been plugging the space, garnering a Best Of nod from the Bohemian and KSRO radio time. Honestly, you can’t help but want to cheer for this hard-working, hipster crew who’ve had their share of uphill battles since opening.

Now settled in, there’s a lot to like about the haute homey-ness of Palmese’s food, a clever but compact wine list, the Van Doorn’s constant presence and unforced cross-table discussion with pretty much anyone within fork-shot. Meaning that chances are good you might get a bite or a sip of your neighbor’s homemade pot pie, penne macaroni or BBQ shrimp if you play your cards right.

Much of the menu nods to Palmese’s New Orleans culinary roots, making it one of only a handful of southern-influenced restaurants in the region. (They keep disappearing.) Starlight also prides itself on adopting the Slow Food mantra, using local produce and meats when possible. Daily specials don’t disappoint — a luscious cut of pork belly on creamy (creamy!) polenta with peach jus and grilled fennel or seared scallops atop a bed of corn and bacon relish, topped with a nest of fried sweet potatoes. Presentation is spot-on and impressive for the small kitchen.

There are also misfires. The restaurant doesn’t have a liquor license, so cocktails (though tasty) are made with Soju (rice wine) rather than hard alcohol. The 40’s swing vibe just cries out for martinis and Manhattans. On a recent visit, Chef Thad veered into croc-infested waters when deconstructing a Caprese salad. The texture and flavor of olive oil ice cream — though a noble idea — just didn’t work, especially when sitting atop a tasteless tomato (no excuses this time of year). I truly wanted this dish to be summer on a plate, which it just couldn’t be with the inclusion of sharp Parmesan and pine nut flavors and crumbly ice cream. It’s a dish that could work beautifully with a few changes.

The price tag at Starlight can also get steep rather quickly, with the majority of dishes in the $15-20 range. Wine flights — a fun way to taste a variety of wines with dinner — range from $16 to $18 with three generous 3oz pours. Cocktails and desserts run about $7. Expect to hit triple digits if you indulge. To keep things reasonable for the less-indulgent among us, Starlight offers a three-course $25 prix fixe early-bird menu until 7pm on weekends. There’s also brunch on Sunday.

Dessert redeems dinner’s hiccups and sometimes painfully slow service: Banana’s foster, a banana creme brulee or a bourbon-soaked brownie slathered with caramel and a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream (much better than the olive oil). Again, here’s where making friends with nearby tablemates comes in handy, seeing what looks best and getting an honest thumbs-up or down before sharing a rousing round of multi-table singing wineglasses.

You’ll be hard-pressed to leave Starlight’s platform without at least a few goodbyes and well-wishes from your new pals. And the bon-temps go on until late on the weekends and raised tables and a four-person bar make for comfortable eating (or just sipping) if you’re on your own. All aboard.

Starlight Cafe & Wine Bar, open Tuesday through Thursday noon to 10pm; Friday noon to 11pm, Saturday 5:30pm to 11pm, Sunday brunch 10am to 2pm. Closed Monday. 6761 Sebastopol Ave., Sebastopol, 707.823.1943. Check out the website for upcoming winemaker dinners and other events at www.starlightwinebar.com.

Peter Jacobsen doesn’t get mad at the herds of snails that have made Swiss cheese out of his organic kale. He gets even.

At the edge of his 1.5 acre Yountville orchard and farm, the dentist turned dirt-under-the-nails grower pulls open the lid of a wooden box to reveal hundreds of the slimy pests. Instead of baiting or poisoning them, Jacobsen invites them to his makeshift snail hotel, treating them to a diet of greens and cornmeal. Fat and happy, these garden troublemakers are eagerly snapped up for swanky dinner menus. Revenge is best served in a bath of butter and herbs.

Walking around the small backyard plot dense with rows of tomatoes, squash, flowers and fruit trees, Jacobsen casually acknowledges that he makes his living working with some of the best chefs in the country. The produce on his property along with that of next door neighbors, Hill Family Farms, grace the tables of The French Laundry, along with spots like Angele, Auberge du Soleil, La Toque and Redd.

Having close personal relationships with farmers has been a hallmark of top chefs like Alice Waters and Thomas Keller for years. Keller, in fact, has a network of farmers around the country producing everything from cheese and meat to veggies and fruit for the restaurant.

It’s a philosophy gaining traction throughout the restaurant biz as chefs seek out more and more specific products grown to their own exacting organic standards. Around Wine Country, a handful of local chefs have even gone one step further, managing onsite culinary gardens or even their own farms. Among them: Zazu, Restaurant Eloise, The French Garden, Julia’s Kitchen at COPIA and Zin come to mind, though there are certainly many others.

For Jacobsen, there’s plenty of trial and error involved in the process. Chefs aren’t always clear about exactly what they want, he says. Often they’ll ask for a particular size, texture or color but leave it to him to refine and experiment with the produce to get everything just right–like lavender that doesn’t taste soapy or pears that hold up to a salad without becoming mush.

Throughout the year, Jacobsen grows everything from onions, rosemary and basil to pears, figs, plums, tomatoes, berries and lettuces for the restaurants.

Just across the street, the Hill family (who are primarily involved in winemaking) are also producing small lots of organic produce and edible flowers. Walking around with her pet chicken, six-year-old Joselyn Hill points out the various types of flowers, fauna along iwth her brother, Ryan. She makes sure we see her special orchard treehouse as we tour the farms gathering as many goodies as our little baskets with hold. These are seriously pedigreed plums and figs, after all.

As Joselyn chatters happily, I stop to consider the fact that her playground is the chef’s garden for Thomas Keller. Her chicken pecks at fallen blackberries and tomatoes that almost made it to one of the best restaurants in the world.

I’ve never been so jealous of a kid, or a chicken in my life. I’ll savor my purloined plums as consolation.

Jacobsen Orchards, Yountville. Closed to the public but you can purchase his organic seeds for your own gourmet garden here. Hill Family Estate tasting room, 6512 Washington Street, Yountville, 707.944.9580

“Meh” is about the only word I can think of to describe my feelings about eating out lately. When the bounty of summer threatens to overwhelm my refrigerator it seems criminally wasteful to let so much good food go to waste.

Well-meaning friends overwhelm my cupboards with figs, zucchini and tomatoes. A former PD employee brings overflowing baskets of organic veggies and flowers to the office each week and despite sitting at my computer munching on cherry tomatoes all day, my kitchen still runneth over!

Necessity being the mother of convection, I roasted a big batch of tomatoes, garlic and rosemary to make gads of bright sauce for the cold months ahead. But for lunch, it has to be a daily dose of Insalata Caprese. It’s so ridiculously simple: fresh mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and pepper.

But it can go horribly wrong in so many ways. Here’s the lowdown on where to get the absolute best ingredients for this perfect end-of-summer summer salad. Eat it now, dream of it later…because it won’t taste half as good next month.

– Heirloom tomatoes: They’re everywhere, but I’ve found few as good (except straight from the garden) as Soda Rock Farm’s. You can get the red variety at G&G, Pacific Market and Big John’s. They sell the heirlooms at the Healdsburg, Windsor and Petaluma Farm Markets.

– Fresh mozzarella: I’ve spent years searching out the perfect ball. I think I’ve found one that comes as close at Oliver’s Market. Look for the large balls in water. They’re from Grande cheese in Wisconsin and have the perfect combination of salt and creaminess.

– Sononomic Vinegar: Okay, this stuff is like crack. It’s as sweet (maybe sweeter) than the best aged balsamic but a whole lot cheaper. You can get it from Sonoma Portworks for $18. Drizzle it over salad, strawberries or even ice cream. You’ll die.

– Herbes de Provence: Salt, pepper, a little lavender. It’s heaven.

– Basil: Get the freshest you can find and taste it first. Often older basil is a bit heavy on the anise-flavor and overwhelms everything.

Yes, I know. Shut up and get back to the restaurants already. But seriously, one bite of this and you’ll know why I’ve been off my game lately.

PS. Want something sweet for dessert? I’ve recently been all over Bodega Goat Cheese Natilla. It’s a combination of goat’s milk, sugar and molasses that comes together in a creamy paste you’ll be sticking your fingers into all night long. (Available at Oliver’s)

The bacon has hit the fan.

Seems that longtime PD food writer and cookbook author Michele Anna Jordan isn’t too happy about Windsor’s most recent attempt to create the World’s Largest bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

Chris Smith recently wrote about the flap which boils down to the fact that Jordan (who wrote the BLT Cookbook and was part of several other World’s Largest BLT attempts locally) was not part of the most attempt. Exactly why she wasn’t there is the subject of much consternation.

And trust me, consternation is only the very tip of the 146-foot sandwich here. There are some seriously unhappy folks on both sides. I’ve got a string of emails that are bordering on War and Peace in length. I’ve had some very emotional phone calls. I ate an entire bag of M&M’s last night worrying about the whole thing, which McNibs thought was absolutely hysterical. It’s about a sandwich. Sheesh.

I want to believe that this was a serious case of mis-communication rather than intentional malice because I know most of the folks involved. They’re all good people. The bottom line is that BLT or BTL or whatever you want to call it, this weekend’s event was bigger than its players — it was about fun, community and most of all about helping a group of culinary students at Windsor high school who really needed the, uh, dough. Everyone agrees that’s the most important thing.

It would really stink to have people who’ve individually contributed so much to our culinary community permanently at war. So let’s bury the bread knife if we can. Or at least have a tomato fight to sort it all out. I’ll host.

NOTE: Comments will be closely monitored. I won’t tolerate name calling or intentional nastiness. Let’s heal. Please.

Are you Grateful? Are you Charistmatic, Sassy, Golden or Abundant? Prepare to be all of them…and much moremore when SF’s Cafe Gratitude opens in Healdsburg in mid-September.
Are we ready for all this raw, vegan, healthful positivity? The restaurant has been a whirlwind success elsewhere in the Bay Area with its combination of rejuvenating foods, lifestyle affirmations and social conscience. Want a side of spicy olive tapenade, you’ll need to order, “I am Extra Opulent”. Pesto Pizza made with hemp seeds goes by the moniker “I am Sensational”.
Aside from their jazzy names, all items on the menu are “live” foods — meaning nothing is actually cooked (but can be warmed slightly). That means lots of salads, smoothies and shakes, but Gratitude also has a plan for soups (Pho Miso, carrot avocado, etc), pizza, lasagna and grain bowls. No meat, no animal proteins, no heat, no gluten, all the rage.
Prepare to feel “abundant” with you wallet, however. Appetizers run upwards of $8.50, salads $12-$15 and entrees around $15. Feel-good fare doesn’t come cheap.
Cafe Gratitude, 206 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg. Expected to open in mid-September 2008.