Sonoma Part I: Healdsburg
One of many vineyards in Sonoma
Our trip so far to Sonoma wine country continues to be full of surprises. A quick recap of our first night is in order. I would be remiss not to mention the lovely café we stopped in to have a light lunch. Located in Winters, CA, the Putah Creek Café offers breakfast all day as well as reasonably priced lunch options. While the name of the café might inspire some chuckles (especially to Spanish speakers), the food is quite good and the servers very attentive.
We took Highway 128, a scenic highway that runs next to the massive and man-made Lake Berryessa to Napa and were shocked and awed by the innumerable vineyards blanketing the expansive landscape. The roads were packed full of holiday weekenders, especially towards St. Helena, but we were lucky to find a back road to Windsor. Oak Grade and Trinity Road proved to be a scenic and forested drive. For a moment, I had forgotten that I was in California.
Our room at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Windsor is refreshingly large, and we are quite pleased by its central location to the wine universe of Sonoma. Our first destination was to Healdsburg, about a 10-minute drive up Highway 101. Foodie folks on Chowhound raved about the restaurants there, so we decided to check it out for ourselves, settling on SCOPA, a favorably-reviewed Italian restaurant.
John and Zekes Bar, Healdsburg
I asked Andreas what he thought of Healdsburg after our leisurely stroll around the center plaza/park. Without hesitation, he answered: “cozy.” I agree. There’s an old-world charm to Healdsburg’s town center. At closer inspection, however, the manicured aesthetic and the shops and dining spots around the plaza seem to cater to those with deep-ish pockets. It was a treat to stumble into John & Zekes Bar, an unpretentious and very loud local dive bar, complete with air hockey table and friendly bartenders, for a pre-dinner cocktail—a complete aberration from its neighbor, SCOPA.
To be very blunt, SCOPA was a disappointment. While the small-ish and darkly-lit space exuded a stylish and clean modernism, the food we ordered did not quite live up to the reviews we had read. We loved the Grilled Calamari antipasti and should have ordered another order of it. The antipasti Sardines “In Saor” was a complete disappointment. My first bite into a sardine felt like I had just bitten into a frozen fish. I asked Andreas, “Did your sardine taste like it just came out of a freezer?” His was also cold, and he thought that it might have just come out of a jar chilled in a very cold refrigerator. I love sardines prepared in all sorts of ways, but the dish we had was not good. Our main dish, the Pizza Del Giorno, was just ok. Andreas thought the pizza was very oily and uninspired; I thought the green peppers were mostly a distraction. We left it feeling let down.
My thoughts on Healdsburg Bar and Grill, Barndiva, wine tastings, and others to come.
