Nico 2021 Malbec
Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina, $90–$100
This highly rated bottling hails from high-altitude vineyards in the Gualtallary area outside Mendoza. The famed Catena family’s properties — driven by the powerhouse Dr. Laura Catena — are focused on maintaining tradition while cultivating innovation. This unique wine shares both of those traits. With dark berry aromas and intense cocoa and peppery flavors, its polished texture leans toward a modern style. But the vines are a nod to the producer’s rich history. Crafted from old-vine Malbec plants rescued from a 105-year-old pre-phylloxera vineyard, the wine is layered and intense, offering a glorious glimpse of the past in the glass.
Ram’s Gate 2023 Chardonnay, Bucher Vineyard
Russian River Valley, California, $74
Ram’s Gate is a hidden treasure. A beautiful spot to include on a tasting visit, the winery is located at the crossroads of three famous appellations: the Sonoma Coast, Sonoma Valley and Carneros. This single-vineyard Chardonnay comes from the noted Bucher Vineyard in the Russian River Valley, where the afternoon sun is tempered by a cool ocean fog layer. This creates grapes with finesse and balanced ripeness. This small-production white is packed with aromas of lemon cream and vanilla, kept in check by vibrant acidity and a lush but bright texture.
Domaine Carneros “Cuvée de la Pompadour” Brut Rosé
Carneros, California, $43
Take a mini-trip to “France” when you visit Napa Valley’s stunning Domaine Carneros. It was founded by the family of France’s acclaimed Champagne Taittinger in 1987, when Claude Taittinger discovered the bucolic rolling hills and cool climate of Carneros. The magnificent château perched proudly at the top of a hill blanketed by vines is one of the top destinations in California to immerse yourself in elegance. Visitors can choose from myriad food and wine tasting options that truly sparkle, such as “Scent & Savor” and “The Ultimate Caviar Experience.”
To get a taste of the classic estate in your own home, look for their Brut Rosé Cuvée de la Pompadour — one of my ultimate sparkling wine favorites. The dry-styled bubbly draws you in with its alluring light pink hue and effervescent fizz. With notes of peach and red berries, its delicate nose is followed by a crisp yet creamy texture. The wine’s name is a story as joyful as the wine itself.
“More than 250 years ago, Louis XV’s great paramour, Madame de la Pompadour, famously introduced sparkling wine to the court at Versailles. She declared it ‘the only wine that a woman can drink and remain beautiful,’ and today Domaine Carneros’ Pompadour Brut Rosé is named in her honor,” the winery says.
I’ll raise a glass to that!
Episode Transcript
Sbrocco: Kansas City style barbecue in Napa…
Mantel: They pour a little beef tallow on it.
Sbrocco: …contemporary Swedish delights in Petaluma…
Bakke: My go-to is the Swedish meatballs. Super delicious.
Sbrocco: …and a taste of Venice in San Francisco.
Joseph Merritt: It’s tender. It’s creamy. It’s cheesy. You can’t really go wrong.
Sbrocco: Just ahead on “Check, Please! Bay Area.” We need more cowbell! We need more peppers!
Sbrocco: Hi. I’m Leslie Sbrocco. Welcome to “Check, Please! Bay Area,” the show where Bay Area residents review and talk about their favorite restaurants. Now, we have three guests, and each one recommends one of their favorite spots, and the other two go check them out to see what they think. Joining me at the “Check, Please!” table today are bike enthusiast Bennett Bakke, marketing executive Paige Mantel…
[ Glasses clink ]
…and tech HR executive Alexis Joseph Merritt. Welcome, everyone. You ready for a good time?
Joseph Merritt: Ready.
Mantel: Absolutely.
Sbrocco: When you think of Napa, you probably picture world-class wine, vineyard views, and elegant tasting menus, but at Paige’s spot, the vibe is far more casual. You can pair your bubbly with baby-back ribs, juicy brisket, and other classic Kansas City barbecue delights. Located in Napa’s Rail Arts District, it’s Stateline Road Smokehouse.
♪♪
Woman: This is gonna be for here?
Man: Yeah.
♪♪
[ Chatter ]
Bell: I’m originally from Kansas City. I moved out here about 16 years ago just to work for Chef Keller and do fine dining and Michelin restaurants. I quickly realized the barbecue that I’m personally used to, it wasn’t quite out here. My wife, she essentially told me, “Stop crying about it and just open something.” Stateline Road Smokehouse. The name’s inspired by the road that divides Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, it’s called Stateline Road, and it has some of my favorite barbecue places. Every place that I would go to in Kansas City, it was always eating burnt ends and ribs. Those are my two go-to’s every time. Kansas City barbecue is defined by the type of sauce. Our sauce is tomato- and vinegar-based. It has a little bit of heat, but before it gets too hot, the sweetness just kind of comes in and cuts it off. And then afterwards, all these spices just kind of linger on. Our baby-back ribs have a nice meaty bite to them.
Woman: So good.
Bell: These briskets take 14, 15 hours to cook. Anytime that I order brisket at a restaurant, I always order it from the point because that’s just fatty and juicy. It’s great. So this is, like, some of the best piece right there.
Man: Burnt ends.
Bell: Kansas City invented burnt ends. It’s made from the brisket, and you just get this kind of sweet and tangy, fatty, chewy brisket bite. Yeah. That’s a classic staple that I grew up with.
♪♪
I enjoy cooking in this style because you’re dealing with fire. You’re dealing with the element. You’re taming it. You’re controlling it. You’re able to get it to rise and lower on command. That’s an exciting piece for me because it’s always evolving. I use oak which is native to California. Using this one really as a fuel source because it burns really hot and it burns for a while. And then over on this side, we have the cherry wood. And this one’s added to add those nuances, the sweet notes.
♪♪
Man: Finger-licking good!
♪♪
Bell: This is called the Rail Arts District of Napa. It’s this kind of funky warehouse vibe. The best barbecue places in Kansas City are in these kind of grungy places. This building used to be an auto shop, and it has all those really fun characteristics. If you go to any place and you see linen and fine dining for barbecue, you should turn and run the other way. It’s not meant for that. So this environment is joyful. It’s fun. That’s what makes this place really special for us here in Napa.
Man: Cheers.
Woman: [ Laughs ]
Sbrocco: Alright, Paige, now, do you go to Napa normally?
Mantel: Well, I live in Napa now. So I recently moved there and looking for all different kinds of restaurants. And Napa has amazing restaurants, but when I learned a year ago that a new Kansas City style barbecue place was opening by a Michelin-trained chef, I’m like, “Take me there.” My go-to every time I go is definitely the Kansas City style burnt ends. Have you ever had burnt ends?
Joseph Merritt: Yes.
Mantel: Right?
Bakke: They were spectacular.
Mantel: I mean, the morsels of, like, bite-sized chunks with crispy ends and the tender meat and a little fat just all together with barbecue sauce.
Bakke: And their house barbecue sauce is so good. There’s the house sauce. There’s a spicy sauce. I forget what the third sauce is.
Mantel: A sweet one, as well.
Bakke: Yeah. They were all great.
Joseph Merritt: I had the burnt ends, too, and it was my first time having that, so…
Sbrocco: A burnt-end virgin!
Joseph Merritt: A burnt-end virgin, yes. So it was delicious. And it was the unanimous crowd favorite with my table.
Mantel: The brisket is also something I get, and you can tell them exactly how you like it. I prefer it on the lean side, and so right there, the butcher is gonna cut off the fat for me. And right before they serve it, they pour a little beef tallow on it.
Bakke: Ohh.
Mantel: Oh, my goodness.
Joseph Merritt: We saw that. We were like, “What is that?”
Mantel: Yes, yes. Brings the flavors alive. And that is fork-tender brisket. And you can see the smoke line and the crisp edge. And melts in your mouth.
Sbrocco: Did you have the brisket?
Joseph Merritt: Yeah, I had the brisket also. So it’s good to know you can ask for it lean. So, unfortunately, the piece that we got was a little bit fatty.
Mantel: Ah. Yeah.
Joseph Merritt: But the flavor of the meat was delicious. We had the pulled pork also, which was a crowd pleaser. It was really juicy. It was cooked really well. And I loved that you got to kind of walk down the line cafeteria-style and kind of see what meats you were getting and what sides you were getting. Outstanding.
Sbrocco: And what about you?
Bakke: I kind of tried a lot of things when I first went in.
Sbrocco: That’s alright. We got time.
[ Laughter ]
Go ahead. Start with one.
Bakke: The tri-tip sandwich is a Wagyu beef, which was…
Sbrocco: Of course.
Bakke: …really good. But the thing that got me, though, is it has pickled onions and red peppers on it, and they gave you a little bit of extra on the side so you could add more pickles or red peppers, which is just something that needs to be normalized. Like, we need more of — We need more of that.
Sbrocco: We need more cowbell! We need more peppers!
Narrator: But I had the curly fries, as well, and they were exactly what you want when you want curly fries. But the highlight was, on the side, they gave you bacon chive aioli, which was spectacular.
Mantel: Isn’t that the best?
Bakke: Yeah.
Sbrocco: I’m getting a sense that you’re a sauce guy.
Bakke: Exactly. Yes.
[ Laughs ]
Sbrocco: Mm-hmm. Now, what about the sides?
Bakke: The mac and cheese was an aged cheddar, but the highlight was crispy kale and parsnip on the top, which– That was another one. They could have given you a little side of that to just dump more of that on because it was great. It gave the mac and cheese a little bit of a crunch. Yeah. I’d get all that again.
Joseph Merritt: I also had the beans and greens. White beans that were creamy and unctuous, and they had the kale greens in there. I think it was kale and collard that day. It was really delicious and just made for a really nice pairing with all of the meat dishes.
Mantel: So there’s something really special there that I’ve never seen at any other restaurant that is amazing. I’m a salad girl. I love a good salad. They have a cherry wood-smoked maitake mushroom and greens salad.
Sbrocco: Ooh!
Mantel: It is phenomenal. And there’s so many textures. They have crispy black rice. They have marinated garbanzo beans and a really nice light lemon vinaigrette. And just all together the textures, the flavors, it’s phenomenal.
Joseph Merritt: They had a special that day. It was a smoked sea bass, and it was this beautiful piece of fish that was just smoked and charred. I haven’t had just a smoked piece of sea bass before. It was delicious. It was really a nice surprise at a barbecue restaurant.
Sbrocco: And did you have anything to drink with it?
Joseph Merritt: Yes. I thought something that was really fun. Right when you walk in the door, they have an old-fashioned sink, and you can get a $5 sink drink, which I thought was really cute. So my husband grabbed a beer while we were perusing the menu. Some people grabbed some spritzers. I got a glass of Chenin Blanc, which was delicious.
Sbrocco: So they do have upscale and they have casual.
Joseph Merritt: Yeah. You can go both ways. It was beautiful.
Bakke: Their lemonade is great, too.
Sbrocco: Lemonade.
Bakke: It was a hot day. I was outside. So the lemonade was great. And I got one to go, as well.
Mantel: Nice. One of the fun things to drink is a boozie slushy. So, they have two different flavors each time you go. When we were there last, there was a gin-and-tonic buzzy– boozie slushy. When you drink too many boozie slushies…
[ Laughter ]
Joseph Merritt: It must have been good!
Sbrocco: [Slurring] I had the slushy…
Mantel: The boozie slushy will get you buzzed.
[ Laughter ]
Joseph Merritt: Ooh, I missed that.
Sbrocco: We have not yet, of course, talked about dessert. Dessert. Let’s start with you.
Bakke: I had the apple crumble, which was good, but I’d probably go with the banana cream pudding next time.
Sbrocco: Ah. Okay.
Joseph Merritt: I’m not normally a big dessert person. Wine can be my dessert, and I’m very happy. But we did get the Straus soft serve, which was–
Mantel: Yes! Yes!
Joseph Merritt: My favorite California dairy. And it’s just so creamy. And I actually hadn’t had it somehow in the soft-serve form before, so it was an amazing treat. We all loved it. It disappeared in five seconds flat.
Sbrocco: And the service, you know, though it is, again, sort of– not cafeteria style, but… What did you think about the service?
Bakke: The service was great, actually.
Joseph Merritt: We had a couple people come out and speak to us as we were wrapping our meal, just checking in on us, so it was nice.
Sbrocco: Alright. If you would like to try Stateline Road Smokehouse, it’s located on Vallejo Street in Napa, and the average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $50.
♪♪
As an avid mountain biker, Bennett’s a big lover of the great outdoors. It’s no wonder his favorite lunch spot features a sunny patio, housemade lemonade, and hearty Swedish fare, all perfect for refueling after a long ride. Located in downtown Petaluma, it’s Stockhome.
♪♪
Roberth: Stockhome Restaurant is an open casual restaurant serving traditional Swedish food and Middle Eastern food from Stockholm city.
Ashton: Our point here was to make it feel like home. Warm. inviting.
Roberth: You’re walking into our house. I was born and raised in Stockholm. It’s such a mixed culture in Sweden today. Every corner has something new and creative. Swedish bistro. Swedish classic also. All the Street food. Kebab places all over. Pizzerias everywhere, as well.
Ashton: My fondest memories in Stockholm are with my cousins and… 2:00 a.m. — Beer in one hand. Lamb and beef pita in the other. I think my dad’s the greatest chef in the world, so I haven’t had meatballs that have been better than my dad’s. Savory. Tangy. Sweet. And then you get this nice creaminess with the mashed potatoes, as well. I’ve had guests who come in who have only eaten Ikea meatballs, and being able to give them a different experience, I think it’s really beautiful.
Roberth: Swedish people like to have the sweets, but they also like the tanginess to balance things out, and I think that’s kind of our food is famous for. We have something called tunnbrodsrulle. It’s frankfurters in a thin wrap with mashed potatoes. That’s really Swedish traditional. Something you go off to the bars and eat. The dish I love the most is the beet-cured gravlax. It’s just a cured salmon with salt, sugar, a little white pepper, dill, grated beets, and lemon zest. It’s a beautiful dish. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Our Middle Eastern dishes that we’re working on. I’m especially proud of our falafel. We do lamb and beef kebab plates. More of the shawarma style. The menu is really created to cater for everybody.
Ashton: Banana marshmallows are some of my favorites. Candy in Sweden is huge. The average Swede eats around 40 pounds of candy a year. I want people to be full and stuffed. Maybe even have a little bit of room for taking some candy on the road with them, as well. With Petaluma, depending on your weather, you have beautiful, warm, sunny days to enjoy food, and then when you have those rainy days, it’s… We have this warm interior on the inside for you.
Roberth: There’s always a table or we make sure we make a table for you. It’s a very easy restaurant.
Sbrocco: Alright, Bennett, you live in Marin, but you make that trek to my hometown, Petaluma.
Bakke: There we go. Yes. My mom made, um, Swedish meatballs when I was a kid, and so when we noticed that there was a Swedish restaurant within a drivable distance, we made the trek up to Petaluma, and there’s tons of antique shops to walk around and kind of make a whole afternoon out of it with your family. My go-to is the Swedish meatballs. They do it interesting, I think. It’s not tomato-based gravy. It’s a really thin gravy. And the mashed potatoes are really fluffy, as well. The unique part is the lingonberry jam that comes with it. And the cucumber, as well. Super delicious.
Sbrocco: What did you have when you went?
Joseph Merritt: Had two things. So had the Swedish meatballs, which I thought were delicious. The meatballs were just really light. It had a lot of really great flavor. It was seasoned well. My dish was a little bit cold when I got it, which was unfortunate because it came out so quickly. The flavor was great. It would be even better if they were super hot, but we would have that again. And then also I got a falafel kebab plate. Our falafel was a little bit over-fried, but the plate was really beautiful. It had really great roasted vegetables that I really enjoyed. And it had this tomato sauce. Not Italian tomato sauce, but kind of a peppery tomato sauce that I wasn’t sure what to put it on, so just put it on everything. That was the idea.
Sbrocco: There you go. That’s okay.
Joseph Merritt: Yeah.
Sbrocco: Okay. And, Paige, what did you have?
Mantel: Well, I knew I was going to want to try a lot of things on the menu here, so I bought a couple of friends with my husband, so the four of us ordered a whole bunch of things. The first was the mezze plate. The hummus was just super creamy. You could tell there was a lot of tahini and olive oil in it. The tabbouleh was great, super fresh, and the baba ganoush was really perfect. That eggplant flavor just really came out. And it comes with the most beautiful, amazing fresh-baked pita. The other big star was the Jerusalem artichokes. So they’re thinly sliced, fried, and served on a bed of sunchoke purée.
Sbrocco: Ooh.
Mantel: Every little bite of this was just crunchy, tangy, delicious. I mean, I’ll go back and just order that. The plate was gone in 30 seconds. It was so delicious.
Sbrocco: It was inhaled.
Mantel: So inhaled. Yes.
Bakke: Yeah, pivoting off of the artichokes, so the grilled artichoke is in the little gem salad, as well. It’s a Manchego cheese on the top. And the dressing is a buttermilk tahini dressing. But the highlight is the crispy garbanzo beans.
Mantel: Yes!
Bakke: Oh, my God.
Mantel: Yes. I love that! The way it added that crunch to it.
Bakke: It’s so good.
Mantel: We tried the salmon kebab plate. Very nice filet of salmon with tomato sauce on top. Served with a little salad. Those amazing pickled cucumbers that I could die for. They were amazing.
Bakke: Yeah.
Mantel: But the star of that plate was the sweet-potato fries.
Joseph Merritt: Oh, yes.
Mantel: Oh my goodness!
All: So good!
Bakke: I forgot about that.
Mantel: Me too. They were delicious. We had the wienerschnitzel. That’s your thin-slice, pounded-out piece of pork loin. Fried. Really nice and crispy. And that came with really nice fresh peas on top and some roasted potatoes. We really enjoyed that.
Sbrocco: And what else did you have?
Joseph Merritt: That’s all we had to eat but had something delicious to drink. The Carlsberg beer, which I hadn’t had in years since I was in Denmark, in Sweden last. So I walked in. It’s like, well, if we’re at Stockhome, got to have something from the Scandinavian region. And that was delicious and refreshing.
Bakke: They also have elderflower soda and lingonberry soda. All of those are great.
Sbrocco: Did you have anything to drink?
Mantel: Oh, yes. Between my four friends, we might have had one or two bottles of the rosé.
[ Laughter ]
Sbrocco: But who’s counting? Maybe.
Mantel: Well, we were there for a long time. We really coursed it out. We sat outside, which I loved sitting outside.
Joseph Merritt: It was lovely.
Mantel: Just really beautiful.
Joseph Merritt: It’s good people watching.
Sbrocco: You got to have desserts. You need some calories when you’re biking up there, right?
Bakke: Right. I hate to say it, but I usually don’t get dessert.
Mantel: No! No! Bennett! You’re missing out! You’re missing out!
Bakke: I hate to disappoint.
Mantel: That Swedish pancake is insane!
Narrator: …Swedish candy to go.
Joseph Merritt: There was a nice candy selection. It was cute on the counter.
Bakke: Yeah.
Sbrocco: Okay. Tell us about–
Mantel: Am I the only one that got the Swedish pancake?
Joseph Merritt: Yeah. Yeah.
Mantel: You got to go back for it. You got to go back for it.
Sbrocco: It’s kind of the star of their show.
Mantel: It really is. Crêpe-like pancake. Crispy edges. They serve it with what’s clearly a homemade, heavy whipped cream with beautiful fresh berries. That was gone in 10 seconds.
Bakke: You had me at “crêpe-like.”
Mantel: That was delicious. I know.
Joseph Merritt: The thinness is what got me.
Mantel: Oh my goodness.
Sbrocco: Do you feel like you got value?
Joseph Merritt: Like I said, if the meal would have been a little bit warmer, I think would have felt fully into the value, but I thought it was really cute. The service was nice. Everyone was really friendly from the beginning. That makes it something that you want to return to. So if we’re in the area, we’d check it out again.
Sbrocco: And it sounds like you make this a regular thing.
Bakke: We kind of do. We like to go up and visit Petaluma, and that’s been our routine.
Sbrocco: And Paige is already dreaming about those Swedish pancakes.
Mantel: I will go back for those artichokes and the Swedish pancake, for sure.
Sbrocco: If you would like to try Stockhome, it’s located on Western Avenue in Petaluma, and the average tab per person without drinks is around $50. Offering a chic cocktail-bar vibe and classic Venetian cicchetti, Alexis’ pick brings the true spirit of la dolce vita to the City by the Bay. Located just a few blocks from San Francisco’s Embarcadero, it’s Bar Sprezzatura.
♪♪
[ Rattling ]
♪♪
Mastropierro: I think when you walk into our space, it kind of feels like lightning in a bottle. There is an elevated feel to it, but it feels effortless.
Man: Prego!
Splendorini: Think about “La Dolce Vita.” Fellini. Sophia Loren. Right? So, like, decadent, sexy, but, you know, with character. Cicchetti is specifically for Venetian region. The style of it is a small snack. Like a bite, a nibble.
Offner: In Venice, because of the lagoon, you’ll see a lot of seafood. We have the bay here, so we kind of are able to replicate that. The baccala mantecato is whipped salt cod. It’s a 400-year-old recipe. It’s something that you see all over in Venice. It’s very, very traditional. As far as decadence goes, our tuna carpaccio. I get the best ahi tuna from Hawaii. It has a spicy olive tapenade that has 13 different ingredients, which are really building the flavor of the sauce. It blows people away. It really does.
Mastropierro: This is gonna be Alta Langa, which is high-elevation wine coming from Piemonte. Being a Venetian restaurant, of course, we’re going to have a natural focus in the Veneto, Piemonte. But whatever wine you really love in Italy, you should be able to find it here.
♪♪
Splendorini: As far as cocktail program, classics done very well. Freshness of ingredients. And creativity. A Negroni was the first cocktail that I made when I was 13 years old my first day behind the bar. It’s three things perfectly executed in the same glass. The orange slice has to be put in a glass before. It’s building the glass. Equal parts of gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. And the orange slice is very important because the pulp of the orange balance the Campari. What I really like about my job is the reaction of the guests.
Offner: Our goal is when you walk out of this building, you’re like, “Wow. That was a great experience. I can’t wait to tell my friends. I can’t wait to come back.”
Splendorini: You give us a chance to make it a memory for you in life. So we honored for that. We take it very seriously.
Offner: Cin-cin.
Splendorini: Cin-cin.
Offner: Cin-cin.
Sbrocco: Alright, Alexis, this spot really does feel like you’re in Venice, doesn’t it? It gives you this elegance, doesn’t it?
Joseph Merritt: It’s lovely. You walk in. It’s bright and airy. And it has these beautiful– It almost looks like street lamps that should be outside, but they’re indoors, so it’s just– It’s a beautiful setting. It’s great to go after work, on a weekend. Has great small bites. You can taste so many different things. I really love the shrimp arancini. It’s so tender. It’s creamy. It’s cheesy. And it’s fried on the outside, so you can’t really go wrong.
Sbrocco: A little fried shrimp ball.
Joseph Merritt: Yeah, a little fried shrimp ball. Also love the meatballs with guanciale. They’re really light and really tender.
Bakke: The meatballs were great. They asked me if I wanted bread, as well. And, of course, I said, “Yes, I want that.” And that was amazing.
Joseph Merritt: Delicious.
Bakke: It was a big piece, but thin-sliced. It had olive oil on it. But the perfect crispiness. It was like those sweet-potato fries. It was, like, perfectly crispy on the outside, but still squishy on the inside. So you just dip that in the tomato sauce with the meatballs.
Joseph Merritt: Yes, it’s really delicious not too sweet, not too acidic tomato sauce. You don’t want that sauce to go to waste.
Mantel: I love the cocktail vibe. So we actually sat up at the bar for a drink before we sat down to eat. I started off with an espresso martini. And I’m very caffeine-sensitive, so I asked if they would do a decaf, and they absolutely did.
Joseph Merritt: That’s great.
Mantel: It was delicious and perfect and cool and smooth. Like, everything you want in an espresso martini.
Joseph Merritt: We actually went with cocktails, as well. The wine list you can page through for days. It’s a great, wonderful wine list.
Bakke: It’s a bigger drink list than the food list.
Joseph Merritt: Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. More drinks than food, so right up my alley.
[ Laughter ]
Um, but I also had the versilia. It’s a gin-based cocktail with clarified lemon. It made it just really smooth. It was delicious.
Sbrocco: They have a whole Negroni option.
Joseph Merritt: Yes.
Sbrocco: You can really mix and match and kind of make your own.
Bakke: I tapped into that.
Sbrocco: Ohh. I’m a Negroni fan.
Bakke: Delicious.
Sbrocco: So what Negroni did you get? A classic or…?
Bakke: I got the classico, and I got a dirty.
Joseph Merritt: Ooh. I like that.
Mantel: Someone switched from lemonade.
Sbrocco: Yeah! Right?
[ Laughter ]
But it is a place like you would– In Venice, where you would just meet and greet and stand at the bar and nibble on things and have a drink.
Bakke: I had the little gem salad because, like lemonade, I’m a sucker for little gem salads. I will say the peas were just perfect. Like, they’re super fresh, crispy. Just really good veggies across the board.
Mantel: Yeah. The stracciatella was our favorite dish. I mean, fresh mozzarella drizzled with olive oil. And you know when it’s a really good olive oil you can see the green of it?
Joseph Merritt: Yes.
Sbrocco: It’s the creamy part of it.
Mantel: So creamy. The creamy inside part of the mozzarella. And beautiful focaccia that you put it on. And then they put pistachios on top, so it gives it that crunch. And that was amazing.
Joseph Merritt: Delicious.
Mantel: Yes.
Joseph Merritt: We also got the red shrimp scampi pasta.
Bakke: Oh, my gosh. Me too.
Joseph Merritt: Delicious, right?
Bakke: That was my favorite, as well.
Joseph Merritt: It was unexpectedly creamy. Unexpectedly a large portion, also. I wasn’t expecting that much pasta. But it was really delicious. And the red shrimp were cooked exceptionally well. They were really tender. They weren’t squeaky. So that’s how you know they did it right. And it was just a beautifully plated pasta.
Bakke: Yeah, it was exceptional.
Joseph Merritt: We also had stone fruit salad. Fresh heirloom tomatoes, some grilled peaches. Really yummy champagne vinaigrette. There was a little arugula in there, as well. It was outstanding.
Woman: So good.
Joseph Merritt: Something else I enjoyed was the duck ragu. It was really earthy, and you could taste, like, the nutmeg and the cinnamon in it. The noodles were a little bit thick, but they were really tasty. And once you mixed in all of that ragu that was at the bottom of the bowl, it made for a really delicious dish.
Sbrocco: And did you get good service?
Mantel: We got pretty good service. It took a while for them to come to our table to start with us, but once you order, the food came out so quickly, which was wonderful.
Joseph Merritt: I agree with the service. I think your best service is at the bar, but I think they really just lean into… it’s a relaxed environment. They don’t want you to feel rushed.
Sbrocco: And it gives you time to enjoy dessert.
Joseph Merritt: That’s right.
Sbrocco: Did anybody have it?
Mantel: We had the pistachio cake. It was two little pistachio cakes with a scoop of pistachio gelato. And the gelato was amazing. I would go back for any flavored gelato they might have.
Sbrocco: Dessert?
Bakke: No dessert. But I have a confession to make. I actually went last night.
Joseph Merritt: Did you?! You went back?
Bakke: And I got that.
[ Laughter ]
Sbrocco: So it’s seared in your memory right here.
Bakke: It was so good. Yeah, well, so I flew in last night, and like you said, it’s easily accessible from Embarcadero. So you can just take the BART in or the ferry, and it’s right there, you know, walking distance, less than a mile. Definitely make a reservation, though. If you try to just go, you’ll probably just only get a seat at the bar, which is great in itself, but if you want to–
Sbrocco: Which is kind of where you want to be, though.
Joseph Merritt: It is a hot spot. Yeah, absolutely. And the seats are very cozy. It’s very nice. They make it so you can stay for a while.
Mantel: Very cozy.
Bakke: Yeah.
Sbrocco: Well, if you would like to try Bar Sprezzatura, it’s located on Clay Street in San Francisco, and the average multi-course tab per person without drinks is around $100. Looking for more Bay Area bites you’ve just got to try?
[ Laughter ]
Check out “Cecilia Tries It” online at KQED.org/checkplease. I have to thank my fabulous guests on this week’s show. Bennett Bakke, who savors the Swedish meatballs at Stockhome in Petaluma… Paige Mantel, who goes all-in on the brisket and burnt ends at Stateline Road Smokehouse in Napa… and Alexis Joseph Merritt, who adores the arancini at Bar Sprezzatura in San Francisco. Join us next time when three more guests will recommend their spots right here on “Check, Please! Bay Area.” I’m Leslie Sbrocco, and I’ll see you then. Cheers, everyone.
Mantel: Cheers.
Sbrocco: Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
