Reality and Authenticity in Yountville

The olives we ordered were really good. They were delicious green olives, cured and brined with coriander and other spices. According to the waiter, they came from the front yard. Jonathan (who was excellent) referred to them as "Front Yard Olives". At Bottega, Michael Chiarello's new Napa Valley restaurant, I learned that the olives are good and ostensibly come from his front yard. One of us had a very nice, rather pricey glass and a half ($20) of the Chiarello Family Vineyards Cab. I started feeling bad for the poor Chiarellos. Here we are taking all this food from their table and this wine from their cellar. With his rustic Napa Style retail shop across the courtyard, the Bottega/Napa Style complex represent the latest in the simulacra of the old world in the New World Wine Land of Napa. The dark woods and distressed furniture, the hammered copper water mugs, the light fixtures, and the fireplaces all denote the pretensions to recreate a sense of the past.

My first exposure to Chiarello's cooking was at the long established St. Helena restaurant, Tra Vigne, that he opened in 1986. We first went in the November of 1996 and many times thereafter. His tenure as Executive Chef ended in 2000. Tra Vigne was (and arguably is) a fine example of the fusion of California's emphasis on fresh, top-quality ingredients with an Italian culinary vernacular done in a large, open plan restaurant with earthy tones and spare decor. But it had other charms as well, including an excellent front of the house and a number of long-timers on its waitstaff. One of these fellows, a true gourmand, is Murph. I might say, "The Murph", as the usage of his name seems almost titular, like Mahatma, but I think his name is John. With his bushy red mustache, his warmth, and sincere enthusiasm, he was also a treat. Murph ended his 14 years of service (to the day) at Tra Vigne in 2003.

Now Bottega is in Yountville, which is upmarket (barely) and down valley from St. Helena. Yountville is the home to The Restaurant That Shall Not Be Named and the two other Thomas Keller places. So it has high culinary status. In opening Bottega there, was Chiarello hoping to benefit from the food traffic in town or trying to compete with the resident Chef impresario Keller or is the commute simply a little easier from his place? But given the nature of the Napa Valley, it may simply have been the place where the right space was available.

All this said, Bottega was a great place for lunch. The menu is extraordinarily appealing and, like Tra Vigne, is reasonably priced for the quality of the food and the experience. I tried the calamari, the zuppa (Cauliflower), a salad of the first courses and had the duck half confit for the main course. The food was great. This is not the height of haute cuisine, but there are other places in town for that. This is about great food in an appealing environment that, while it is annoyingly derivative, is the real deal - a great place for food and drink with friends and loved ones. We ate late and guess who I caught up with just getting set up for the dinner service? The Murph. Who was looking virtually unchanged from that November thirteen years ago. With his presence, I was doubly assured that in spite of the "Napa Style", this place is real.


My use of "simulacra" is the first paragraph was only partly to show off my liberal arts education. I feel that this word (as articulated by the author/quote below) truly expresses the idea I am trying to convey. 
Jean Baudrillard - The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth -- it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.