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Showing results for tags 'Napa'.
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yes, when I finally got around to having an In n Out Burger for the first time last year I was a little underwhelmed - good but not the life changing experience some had painted it to be on the very same trip though I did find the best burger I have ever eaten....at a roadside diner somewhere in Napa: Taylor's Refresher --- [The above link is now broken. For the benefit of readers across the country: In 2010, Taylor's Refresher morphed into Gott's Roadside, resulting in a contentious family feud - details can be found here, and for those pining away for the Taylor's of yesteryear, here's a remnant of their old menu.] --- Dining near Deer Park and Meadowood Napa Valley (JLK)
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Amazing review. I'll be at AD Hoc next weekend, can't wait. --- I'll be in Napa next weekend and looking to set up one more winery visit. Much prefer intimate and curated tours over the ones where you stand in a tasting room vying for the next sip. Last year we sat with winemaker Dennis Johns of Round2 and white Cottage in his house and were given a several hour conversation on his beliefs and philosophy. We have appts at Venge( I met Kurt the other week at a diner), Cade and Chapellet and are looking for one other. We do random, semi planned stops as well but too many of those lead to early nights. I.E. one year after a cellar tour at Flora Springs the guide sat down with us and opened 10+ bottles of Trilogy. So please let me know your one favorite tour/winery in the Napa Valley.
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I'm in the process of planning my first trip out to Napa with my wife for the last weekend in February (Thursday - Monday). It'll be our first trip sans our 17 month old little one so I really would like to pull out as many stops as I can without going completely off the wall financially. To that end - does anyone have any lodging recs they would pass along? I'm fine with larger hotels, boutiques, BnB's or even Airbnb or HomeAway options. Thanks in advance!
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Napa, CA I recently spent six nights at the DoubleTree by Hilton in American Canyon, which is about fifteen minutes south of downtown Napa. This is a hotel you won't forget once you see it due to the radical design over the entrance: While this hotel looks like an avant-garde project from the 1950s (and, quite frankly, feels like it, too), it was surprisingly built in 2006. Truly, it's difficult to imagine this is only a nine-year-old hotel, and although the layout is nice, the general air is that of a run-down traveler's rest which is being propped up, and has seen better days. The good news is that it's fairly inexpensive - you can find rooms here for around $100 if you look, and the rooms themselves are perfectly fine, with fairly new-seeming, clean sheets, very friendly service at the front desk, and cleaning service which is very responsive to quirky requests, as long as those requests are made on a timely basis, and are reasonable. My room was directly above the gym, which is a tiny little thing - really, just a guest room which has been made into a rectangle, containing about ten pieces of equipment - it's good for an exercise bike ride, some light weight work, and things like that. The gym had a very, very strong odor of antiseptic (like a hospital) when I was there - I just sucked it up, and got used to it). Although I'd stay here again if the price were right, that's only if I wasn't going to be spending much time in my room. Though the beds themselves were comfortable, with very clean sheets (I cannot emphasize that enough), the bathroom was a dump, with pump bottles of shampoo, body soap, and moisturizer in three containers plastered against the shower wall near the faucet area. The tile floor was very dated, and the linens were not at all fluffy. Even though I *might* stay here again, I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this DoubleTree by Hilton to anyone, although I wouldn't urge them not to stay there unless they were the type of people to expect a bit more pampering in their vacations. The room coffee is feeble, and it was worth walking over to the lobby restaurant in the mornings in order to get a freshly poured cup - there's a mini-fridge in each room, so you can bring your own beers and store them there to save money. Parking is free, as this is right on State Route 29, but since the rooms are around back, surrounding a lagoon area, road noise isn't a problem. DoubleTree by Hilton is very much of a three-star hotel - calling it two-star is needlessly unfair because the important things - with the glaring exception of my bathroom - are comfortable, and the beds themselves are perfectly fine. This should be on your list of places to look if you want to stay in Napa, but don't want to pay exorbitant prices - you have to not mind driving an extra ten miles each way to get to Napa, but in my situation, I didn't care - DoubleTree by Hilton served me perfectly well during my stay, and central operations was responsive when it needed to be; unintrusive when they weren't. -
I called at least seven or eight times. I started at 9 in the morning and continued every half hour or so until noon. We were going to be in Bealeton and I knew this new winery was not open to the public-at least not until April. Dave McIntyre had noted the release of their Estate Wines and given his credibility (RDV, Black Ankle, Boordy) with wineries I had never been to or, to be honest, even heard of this was a winery whose wine I had to have. Fifteen minutes out of Bealeton Toni answered the phone. The owner. Hearing, "hello," I thought...feared that I had the wrong number. Could we be so lucky? Several miles from the literal crossroads of Bealeton, Virginia that the owner had actually answered the phone? Would she sell us wine? Would she sell us their estate wine which their website noted would be available in April 2013? Of course I would lie, if I needed to and say we would not open a bottle until then. And, then, up the road, in back of a gas station pull out my crokscrew. But she said "yes, I'd be happy, too." We were there within the fifteen minutes. Toni, a physician at the Warrenton Free Clinic and her husband, a patent attorney in D. C. are absolutely passionate about their wine and their farm. She told us that he insists the wine be sold and presented at 58 degrees. As I type this and occasionally sip, it is indeed @ 58 degrees....well, maybe 59 but I opened this bottle straight out of a Eurocave. And kept it cold in the trunk of my car until we returned home. She was wonderful. Passionate, proud and knowledgeable she is the new wave of wine makers and owners in Virginia. And she and her husband (who we have not met, yet) are putting out a helluva wine! It is a 15% alcohol blend of cab, cab franc and petit verdot. Full bodied, mouth coating and jammy it is in league with Keswick Reserve, Barboursville Octagon, Delaplane Cellars Left Bank Reserve, Hillsborough Onyx and, yes, RDV Roundezvous. This is a delicious wine! Frankly, a remarkable acievement for their first effort with their own grapes. Or anyone else's! I bought a case @ $17 a half bottle after a 10% case discount. There is not a lot of it which is why there are only half bottles. My personal hope is that anyone reading this, when visiting in the spring will try a half bottle of their Humility. It speaks well for Toni, for Granite Heights and the state of Virginia. I should also note that for myself it is remarkable that Bealeton would be home to a wine like this. My parents grew up in Bealeton and returned there when they retired. Now that my wife and I have retired we'll return, too. And one of the reasons will be to buy Humility, which is among Virginia's best red wines. http://www.graniteheightsorchard.com/About_Us.html
