Indulge in Napa Valley Restaurant Month

The Napa Valley is an oasis of culinary delight and fine wine exploration. There is no better place to uncover a plethora of flavors setting your taste buds on a delectable adventure through the valley’s amazing restaurants.

As some of the Napa Valley's finest eateries re-vamp in January 2015, Napa Valley Restaurant Month has moved to February, and with it comes an incredible selection of special culinary offerings that reflect the season and only happen once a year. Come sip, sup and savor the valley's finest cuisine and wines throughout February 2015.

The Napa Valley offers more Michelin-star rated restaurants per capita than any other wine region in the world and Napa Valley Restaurant Month offers are available up and down the valley. More than 30 of the valley's celebrated restaurants and resorts will showcase artisanal foods and the creativity of the area's renowned chefs with special multi-course Restaurant Month menus and offers. Dining offers often include optional wine pairings for a perfect marriage of wine and food that can only be found in the Napa Valley.

Valentine's weekend, February 13 – 16, 2015, is excluded from most offers and visitors are encouraged to review any date or other restrictions within each offer.

Napa Valley Restaurant Month highlights include:

  • Chef Tyler Rodde of acclaimed Oenotri offers a tour of Italy each week featuring a three-course dinner highlighting a specific Italian region. Each dinner will include a salad, pasta and dessert for $39 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity.

  • The Boonfly Café at the Carneros Inn features a three-course dinner for $29 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity, featuring cuisine that is based on the agricultural heritage of the region.

  • The Thomas at Fagiani's offers Michelin-starred chef Brad Farmerie's three-course dinner for $35 per person with an optional "$20.15" beverage pairing, exclusive of tax and gratuity.

  • Chef Victor Scargle of Lucy Restaurant & Bar at Bardessono offers a two-course lunch for $25 per person with an optional wine pairing, exclusive of tax and gratuity. Lucy Restaurant & Bar features fresh, innovative garden-inspired cuisine that embodies the Bardessono modern aesthetic and eco-spirit. Offer available Monday through Saturday.

  • In the same spirit of late night dining in France, Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bistro offers a "Late Night Dine & Drink," featuring three classic dishes appropriately paired with beverages each night between 9 and 11 p.m. Offers include Croque Madame & White Apron Ale for $20 per person, Duck Confit & Vin de Carafe for $25 per person, and Steak Frites & Vin de Carafe for $40 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity.

  • For those who cannot wait until February, the city of St. Helena offers a Napa Valley Restaurant Month preview night on January 24, 2015 with "Celebrate St. Helena...A Restaurant Roulette." Guests will enjoy a sparkling wine reception at Caldwell Snyder Gallery and at the end of the reception, will participate in a drawing to discover the restaurant where they will dine that evening. After-parties follow at Caldwell Snyder Gallery and Goose & Gander restaurant. Participating restaurants include Archetype, Farmstead at Long Meadow Ranch, Tra Vigne, Press, The Culinary Institute of America's Conservatory, Market, Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen, Goose & Gander, Cook St Helena, La Condesa, The Grill at Meadowood and Farmer & The Fox.

  • Michelin star Chef Robert Curry of the Restaurant at Auberge du Soleil offers a two-course prix fixe lunch menu for $29 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity, Monday through Friday.

  • Renowned Chef Larry Forgione's Conservatory Restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone offers a "Freshly Foraged 4-Course Dinner" for $47 per person, with an additional $20 per person wine pairing, exclusive of tax and gratuity designed by Master Sommelier Robert Bath.

  • The Grill at Meadowood Napa Valley offers a two-course lunch for $30 per person, or a three-course dinner for $50 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. Both are available with a wine pairing option.

  • At Solbar at Solage, Michelin star Chef Brandon Sharp will feature weekday specials Sunday through Thursday. Offers change daily and include 50 percent off Club Solage member wines, oysters shucked to order, a lounge menu by the bocce courts and Chef's special fried chicken.

  • During the month of February 2015 Hotel d'Amici Ristorante will offer its special Thursday night Menu Fisso nightly. Every week will focus on a different Italian region and the four-course meal includes antipasti, primi, secondi and dolce for $38 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity.

Napa Valley's gracious hoteliers and cozy Bed & Breakfast Inns have made it easier to stay a little longer for even more legendary culinary experiences with "dine-and-stay" lodging packages, offering comfort and pampering after a day exploring the valley during "Cabernet Season." A highlight of offers include:

  • The Napa River Inn offers a "Dinner is on us!" package, which includes $100 dining credit at nearby restaurants for each night's stay.

  • Villagio Inn & Spa offers a "Winterscape in Yountville" package, which includes two nights accommodations for two, "Chef's Choice" lunch for two at Michael Chiarello's Bottega Napa Valley, one autographed copy of one of Michael Chiarello cookbooks, two 50-minute wellness massages at Spa Villagio, daily Champagne breakfast and Afternoon Tea service, and a welcome bottle of wine. Rates start at $799 per night, exclusive of tax. Some restrictions apply.

  • St. Helena's Harvest Inn by Charlie Palmer offers a Max and Relax two-night experience and balance package for $859 per night, exclusive of tax, with a two-night minimum stay.

  • The Mount View Hotel & Spa in Calistoga offers a "Stay, Wine & Dine" package, which includes an overnight stay and a four-course pre fixe menu at Barolo Italian restaurant. Rates start at $249 per night, exclusive of tax and gratuity.

For more information on Napa Valley Restaurant Month, please visit http://www.VisitNapaValley.com.

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Great Country Escapes: Hudson Valley

This area just north of Manhattan has serious new restaurants, some owned by big-deal NYC chefs. The Hudson Valley, just north of Manhattan, has beautiful scenery as well as serious new restaurants. Photo © Joseph Sohm/Visions of America/Corbis.

Chef Michael Psilakis became a star by showing Manhattanites that simple Greek food (like grilled branzino with potatoes and olives in lemon sauce) can be transcendent. With the 150-plus seat MP Taverna, he’s bringing incredible Greek food to the valley. One Bridge St., Irvington, NY; michaelpsilakis.com.

Photo courtesy of Cold Spring Farmer’s Market.

This fabulous Saturday farmers’ market is in the parking lot of the 19th-century Boscobel House and Gardens, which overlooks the Hudson River. On market day, entrance to Boscobel’s landscaped gardens is free. 1601 Route 9D, Garrison, NY; csfarmmarket.org.

The most anticipated hotel opening in the valley is the Rockwell Group-designed The Roundhouse at Beacon Falls. The hotel doesn’t open until fall, but the cocktail lounge is already serving drinks like the Smoke, made with mezcal, lime juice and chipotle syrup. 2 E. Main St., Beacon, NY; roundhousebeacon.com.

Earlier this year, four beer-obsessed friends opened this store and restaurant, selling more than 100 brews, including six on tap. Chef Matt Hutchins also uses beer in dishes like beer-cured salmon fillet and a stout-and-ice-cream float. 458 Main St., Beacon, NY; thehopbeacon.com.

Photo courtesy of Café Le Perche.

Owner Allan Chapin decided to open a bakery after tasting the yeasty, dark baguette du Perche in Bretoncelles, about 100 miles southwest of Paris. To re-create it here, he flew in the baker who made the loaf, plus a 17-ton French oven. 230 Warren St., Hudson, NY; cafeleperche.com.

The marvelous Scandinavian-inspired restaurant has a new chef: Timothy Meyers, who previously worked here as sous chef before taking a job at Eleven Madison Park. The menu changes weekly, but the prices don’t: $10 for small plates and $25 for entrées. 225 Warren St., Hudson, NY; dabahudson.com.

Co-owners Benjamin Freemole and John McCarthy met at NYC’s WD-50. Here, they use molecular techniques to make comfort food like a faux risotto with peas in place of arborio rice. 746 Warren St., Hudson, NY; thecrimsonsparrow.com.

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Gourmet Food Gift Baskets From the Wine Country of the California Central Coast - Santa Maria Valley

In the Central Coast region of California, gourmet foods and world-class wines abound. You will find a tremendous variety of uniquely delicious foods that are ideal for gift baskets. Anyone who enjoys wine would be delighted to receive one of the many exceptional wines from this area.

On the northern end of Santa Barbara County are the Santa Maria Valley and the city of Santa Maria. This valley has a long history of ranching and agriculture, a part of the economy that now flourishes alongside the burgeoning wine industry. With the ranchers came the Santa Maria Style Barbeque that has become a regional culinary tradition. All along the central coast there is a lively entrepreneurial spirit that has led to the creation of many small artisanal food companies and boutique wineries. The foods are wonderfully varied, and there are many exceptional wines now being produced.

In early California cattle ranching days, America's first cowboys, the colorful vaqueros, held large beef barbecues following every cattle roundup. This was the beginning of the barbequing tradition in the Santa Maria Valley, and it has continued to the present day.

The Hitching Post Restaurant has been a local favorite for many years. It is known for its California-style barbequing, as well as their superior Pinot Noir Wines. Since the movie 'Sideways' their notoriety has expanded worldwide. Many of their foods are available for purchase including their tasty Hitching Post BBQ sauce and their own Hitching Post Pinot Noir wines.

Another outstanding sauce is the Buckshot BBQ Sauce from Cowboy Flavors. They began as a catering business out of Los Alamos, a small town down the road from Santa Maria, and now have their own TV series! They also sell among other items, the excellent Cowboy Flavors all-purpose BBQ seasoning.

Susan Righetti, whose parents own the renowned Far Western Tavern restaurant in nearby Guadalupe, started a Santa Maria company called Susie Q's Brand. Celebrating their family recipes and Santa Maria style BBQ, they offer recipes, sauces, salsa, the delicious local pinquito beans, and their signature Susie Q's Brand seasoning.

Any of these items could be combined to make a terrific gift basket for the BBQ cook in the family. Add a superior bottle of Pinot Noir wine, to make it a perfect gift from the Santa Maria Valley on the California Central Coast.

Lynne D. Garrett is a member of the tasting team who select the foods and wines for Garrett's Emporium and the gift basket division, Gifts Gone Gourmet. It is a small, family run company, located in the Santa Maria Valley, a burgeoning wine region, on the Central California Coast. Since its inception in 2006, Garrett's Emporium has accumulated a diverse collection of high quality foods and wines made primarily in California. To see the complete selection of gift baskets go to http://www.GiftsGoneGourmet.com and to see the complete collection of foods and wines see http://www.GarrettsEmporium.com.