California’s Luxury Dining Circuit: Delicious and Dull

Late in the summer, late in the afternoon, I woke from a nap by a glittering pool. Over the last few days in California wine country, I had eaten macaroni and cheese out of a golden egg and broken into a juicy quenelle of caviar over softly set custard. I had drawn slices of aged beef, so tender it barely required chewing, through a sticky, peppery Cognac sauce and rinsed, after dessert, before petits fours, with a glug of Sauternes.

In other words, I had reached my final form and stepped into the old stereotype of the restaurant critic, driving a rental car through wine country, racking up the expenses. And I was feeling sedated by this ideal of luxury: technically flawless, incredibly expensive and, in the end, somewhat predictable.

For decades, the region’s hospitality business has grown alongside its wine industry, and tourists have come here for the small towns and extreme leisure — restaurants, golf courses, spas — and maybe the odd novelty magnet that says “Wine Time” in wiggly letters.

When I woke up and checked my schedule, it was, in fact, wine time. It was always wine time.

Few parts of the country have such a concentration of this nostalgic genre of fine dining: grand destination restaurants with big reputations, extravagant food and deep wine cellars. When Michelin released its 2019 guide to California dining in June, the tire company’s anonymous inspectors awarded three restaurants in the area three stars each, the highest rating, suggesting they were “worth a special journey.”

by Tejal Rao, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Preston Gannaway for The New York Times