The Carneros Restaurant at The Lodge at Sonoma changed its approach to attract more local customers. It lowered prices slightly and emphasized local, organic ingredients. The menu was changed to include more comfort foods and bistro items like pizzas from a wood-fired oven. A variety of weekly events were also added to draw in locals. These changes have resulted in increased business, especially from the local community, while the quality of the food remains high.

1. Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)
November 6, 2005
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES: TO ATTRACT MORE LOCALS, CARNEROS
OFFERING MORE COMFORT FOOD, LOWER PRICES
JEFF COX
FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Carneros Restaurant at The Lodge at Sonoma set out in 2001 to appeal to the Lodge's
guests and well-heeled local patrons who wanted very fine dining. The food, as I wrote
when I first reviewed it, achieved this goal. The paying guests paid -- and they got their
money's worth.
But a restaurant situated on a rather charmless stretch of Sonoma's Broadway can't make
it on summer tourists alone. It has to be popular with the locals, who support it when the
rain is coming down in buckets. I think the good people of Sonoma thought of it as a
place for out-of-towners.
So the management wisely set about changing it, and now has unveiled the Carneros
Bistro & Wine Bar. First, they backed the prices down just a bit, and put the emphasis
squarely on the best, freshest, organic ingredients grown or raised in Sonoma County and
vicinity.
They changed the menu to include more comfort food, bistro fare, and homey items like
pizzas from the wood-fired oven set into the tiled wall of the open kitchen. Those pizzas,
by the way, are made with dough leavened by a wild yeast starter developed from the
grapes in the food gardens outside the restaurant's many French doors.
They put more oomph into an already great 26-page wine list, including a page devoted to
explaining the uniqueness of each of the county's AVAs (American Viticultural Areas),
with its well-chosen wines arrayed by varietal. The list won Double Gold at this year's
Harvest Fair and has earned the Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence every year since
2002.
And they put more fun into the days and nights. Sundays there's a sparkling wine brunch
and ``Big Red Night'' in the evening. Mondays there are special flights and hors d'oeuvres.
On Tuesdays, after the farmers market on the town square, there's an after-market party
with a winemaker from wineries like Chateau St. Jean, MacRostie and Bouchaine.
Wednesdays there are films to watch while you sip your wine. Thursdays are wine
education nights, with chances for folks to learn more about Rhone-style whites, German
wines, and so on.

2. The result has been an upswing in business, especially from locals. The good news is that
while boosting business, Executive Chef Ercolino Crugnale and Sous Chef Janine Falvo
have kept the quality of the food at a consistently high level.
I sat down on a recent night and was brought a basket of good walnut bread with a scoop
of olive tapenade to smear on it. I could see the garden beds outside in the process of
being renovated to receive the winter crops. The music varied from disco-trance club
music to Tin Pan Alley standards. My first dish was a plate of Oak Hill Farm's Greens
($5.95 ***) with just-picked crispy romaine and other salad ingredients like loose-leaf
lettuces and radicchio, and doused with an overly-oily white balsamic vinaigrette. The
greens were so wonderfully fresh that I forgave the kitchen the heavy hand with the oil.
A bowl of tawny Roasted Delicata Squash and Cippolini Onion Soup ($5.95 ***) was just
right on a cool fall night. The sweet onion and mild squash flavors were pulled to a sharp
focus by the large spoonful of crispy shallots and fried bacon floating in the center of the
soup. My waiter said there was a bit of cumin used in its preparation, but it was below my
threshold of detection.
I ordered my Flatiron Steak ($27.95 ***1/2 ) medium rare and that's exactly how it
arrived, cut into six big, meaty slices. This is grass-fed beef from the grasslands around
Point Reyes. The cattle eat only pasture grasses, which keeps the meat lean, as opposed to
cattle fed grain -- an unnatural food for them -- to fatten them up for slaughter. You don't
often find flatiron steak, but it is a tender, flavorful and cut at more modest prices than filet
mignon (though there's nothing modest about the price of the flatiron at Carneros Bistro).
The same farm that produced the flatiron steak also provided the short ribs for Short Ribs
with White Corn and Chanterelle Risotto ($17.95 ***). The short ribs were braised and
slow-cooked in wine until the meat was a rich black color and falling off the bone. The
risotto was gummy -- not my favorite texture in risotto -- but the flavor of the corn and
mushrooms so irresistibly yummy that I even enjoyed the style.
Then came the Wood-Oven Roasted Mussels ($10.95 ****) made with fennel, tomato,
white wine, chives, red pepper, garlic butter, and Hobbs' bacon -- a premium bacon
smoked over sweet apple wood. The big bowl of these dainties was simply the best I've
ever had. The idea of adding the flavor of apple wood smoked bacon to mussels is
providential.
More of the bacon showed up on the plate of Pacific Halibut ($19.95 ***), which was
snowy white, perfectly cooked, and juicy inside. The fish sat on a mound of zesty
horseradish-flavored mashed potatoes and this island was surrounded by a cherry tomato,
Hobbs' bacon and leek broth.
Right now, at the crescendo of the tomato season, is the perfect time to order the

3. Margherita Pizza ($11.95 ***1/2 ). The dough is house made and covered with slices of
sweet vine-ripened tomatoes and four cheeses: real Italian buffalo mozzarella, fontina,
Vella dry jack, and Parmesan. A sprinkling of basil chiffonade goes on top and the 12-inch
pie is slipped into the fiery hot wood-burning oven to emerge after a number of minutes as
a genuine treat.
Saturdays, the special entree is a huge, glistening, slow-cooked (in pinot noir) CK Lamb
Shank ($18.95 ***1/2 ) and it's a whopper. With the lamb is a yam puree; red, orange and
yellow baby carrots; green and wax beans; and small, perfectly ripe black Mission figs.
Have it with a glass of pinot.
Vegetarians will appreciate the Sonoma Vegetable Tour ($14.95 ***), which includes such
goodies as pecan-Delicata squash bread pudding, cippolini onion ragout, and much more.
I tried two desserts from pastry chef David Leyva. A Toasted Hazelnut Flan ($7 ***)
seemed to suit the season well, its flavors intense. The smooth-textured flan is made by
soaking roasted hazelnuts in cream overnight, then adding a buttery hazelnut paste and a
dash of Frangelico to the mixture. And I tried a very delicious, dense, rich and chocolatey
Scharffen Berger Devil's Food Cake ($8 ***), another season-appropriate dessert served
with sauteed figs and a zinfandel port reduction sauce.
To sum up: The changes wrought to Carneros Restaurant are all positive, and the food is
just as good as ever.
Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review column for Q. You can reach him at
jeffcox@sonic.net.
Copyright (c) 2005 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, CA)