We just got back from a week in San Francisco and Napa Valley and ate such amazing food and drank delicious wine that our trip deserves a recap!

First stop in San Francisco was Zuni Cafe for appetizers of sliced heirloom tomatoes and marinated olives. We continued our walk to Nopa for a dinner of little fried fish, pork chop (Carolyn), duck confit (Luke) and pumkin sage souffle. Completely delicious!

The next day we visited Liguria Bakery for some fresh foccacia (amazing!) and then on to Mama’s for an omelette with pancetta, mushrooms, fresh basil, tomato, and garlic jack cheese (Carolyn) and chocolate and cinnamon french toast with fresh berries and bananas (Luke). YUM!

For lunch we hit up the Ferry Building and shared a salami sandwich from the Acme Bread Company. Walking around in the afternoon we stumbled upon the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. Dinner was at Kokkari, a Greek restaurant. We shared appetizers of favosalata and tirosalata (different feta dips) with homemade grilled pita bread. We got the special of the day which was lamb from a rotisserie. It was good, but I bet the braised lamb shank would have been better.

On day three we drove to Napa and visited some vineyards with friends – Gundlach Bundschu, Ravenswood and Viansa. Dinner was at Ad Hoc, a Thomas Keller restaurant in Yountville. It’s a set menu, different each day, served family style. The menu consisted of frisee & watercress salad, Snake River Farms pork loin, Rouge et Noir camembert, and citrus pound cake. The food completely blew us away! Amazing!

Day four started with a visit to Domaine Chandon for some champagne tasting. Afterward we visited a couple of wineries – Goosecross Cellars, PlumpJack, and Regusci – and had some wine, cheese, salami and bread for lunch. Dinner was more casual that night – we went to Taylor’s Automatic Refresher for some

great burgers. Breakfast most mornings and afternoon snacks usually consisted of some fresh bread and/or pasteries from Buchon Bakery (another Thomas Keller creation). Day five we went hiking, then stopped at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena for a looksy, then lunch at Model Bakery, which had really yummy panini sandwiches. After, we stopped by Peju for a wine tasting.

Our last day in Napa Valley/San Francisco we visited Copia, a small institution to educate, promote and celebrate American excellence and achievements in the culinary, winemaking and visual arts arenas. We walked around the garden, which had almost every kind of fruit and vegetable growing and ate lunch at Julia’s Kitchen, named after Julia Child. After a visit to Muir Woods and some hiking, we ate dinner at Sushi Ran in Sausalito, which was delicious.

Overall Food Rating: A++

Overall Wine Rating: A