Franklin Avenue

Five Reasons to Get Your Ass Over to Napa Valley
Part of July 4th weekend was spent up in wine country, where we visited some familiar places, but mostly sampled new (to us, at least) restaurants and wineries. Here’s five reasons why it was worth the trip:

1. Taylor’s Automatic Refresher
Possibly the highlight of the whole Napa experience. This place is truly one of the reasons to spend some time up north. Located in St. Helena, it’s a traditional hamburger stand from the 1940s—order at the window, eat outside at a grouping of tree-covered picnic tables—but the food itself is like no other burger joint. The place was totally overhauled in 1999 and given a gourmet taste to it—such as the ahi burger, which is served rare with ginger wasabi mayo and Asian slaw, on a butter-toasted egg bun. Maria got the blue cheese burger.
Apparently local chefs frequent the place, which also sells a wide variety of wine (this is Napa, after all). We had to come back the next day for one of the milkshakes. I went with espresso bean, while Maria tried the mint chip. Lyle Lovett likes the vanilla. Not that he told us. We just heard.

2. V. Sattui Winery
One of the old stand-bys, for good reason: The wine tastings are free. (Compared to $5 just about everywhere else). Just south of St. Helena, this is the perfect starter winery: The grounds are beautiful (although packed with people on July 4), the wines are on the sweet side (the Riesling, Muscat--dessert wine-- and Madeira, in particular) and the winery even has a gourmet food/cheese shop so you can snack and sip. True vinophiles probably hate the mass appeal of this place, but we think it’s still a lot of fun. And again, free.

3. Downtown Napa
We’ve never bothered checking out downtown Napa until this time, when we checked out an excellent tapas restaurant, Zuzu, close to the river. The downtown is quite beautiful, with several preserved pre-1906 buildings. The L.A. Times reported last month on a restaurant awakening in the valley, and several of them (including Zuzu) are right there downtown.

4. St. Supery Winery
One of the locations suggested to us by Louie and Tom, St. Supery is actually a good place to learn about winemaking—something we knew nothing about. Upstairs from the wine tasting, St. Supery has a self-guided tour that takes you throughout the building to explain the process. Kind of interesting. Maria also really liked the design on the St. Supery bottles. Didn’t buy any, though. (We stuck with wines from Grgich Hills Winery, Cakebread Cellars and Luna Vineyards, as well as picking up some yummy Muscat at V. Sattui.

5. Gordon’s Café & Wine Bar
Located in Yountville, this is the breakfast place. It’s a very European-style café located in a late 1800s market building. The coffee flows, Maria’s omelet with tomatoes, basil and Chevre cheese was tasty, and I could eat two more slices of Gordon’s coffee cake.