Tapas @ The Wine Bar
Italian Meat & Cheese Plate – Assorted Italian meats, domestic and imported cheeses. I don’t really know any of the names for the individual items, but many of them were standard issue. There was your typical white and yellow cheese, ham, and round crackers, but then there was another white cheese with something like an herb rub on it that was quite good. Then there was the “sausage”. We’re still not entirely sure exactly what it was, but the closest thing I could equate it to is some of the duck sausage I’ve had. However all the duck sausages I’ve ever seen have been no bigger that quarter size and are usually sliced very thin. And since this was an “Italian Meat” plate it couldn’t have been chorizo either. So the mystery continues but it was quite good. Too bad the store didn’t open early enough so we could get some (that and some Port chocolate too).
Dinner @ The Vintage House
Initially we were going to go for the Chateaubriand Dinner for Two but we were so wined-out by this point (wow I didn’t really think that was possible after the last Napa trip, but I guess there were at least some small breaks in between venues there and today was fairly non-stop) that we didn’t want to go for a full-on package deal. So we both decided to go with the Filet Mignon (Grilled 8oz filet of beef with bacon bordelaise and topped with hollandaise and a touch of Japanese horseradish) medium of course. This actually comes served on top of mashed potatoes with some little onion rings on top 
The cut of beef seemed to be rather generous as we’ve seen 7oz and 9oz steaks quite regularly; perhaps it was just the dimensions though as it was a nice thick cut but still cooked just right. The tenderness was quite notable, and yes I’m aware I’m talking about a filet here, but I mean even for that. Even more notable was the lack of any surgery-requiring bits. Even on a filet there’s usually at least something I have to trim off, a little nub or a thin strip of fat or something, but nothing here at all, it was entirely edible. On the first bite I definitely noticed a “lack” of flavor, but really that could be better described as a purposeful non-overabundance. This steak had an excellent sauce over it, almost cherry-like in nature and obviously derived from one of the port wines here. So after a couple more bites I could appreciate that the steak wasn’t seasoned in the usual “stand-alone” way and it allowed the natural flavors of the beef to be present and almost serve as the medium for introducing the bold sauce flavors to your palette.
For dessert we opted for the usual dual option attack and ordered up the Chocolate Flan Cake and the Cherries Jubilee. The couple of (homemade) flan cakes I’ve had in the past have been very good but I could definitely see at the time the potential for non-greatness. Unfortunately the streak has ended; not that it was bad, as of course the Independent Food Theory states, but it wasn’t stellar. The cake was just cake, and the flan didn’t really have anything special going for it either (which at least means it wasn’t eggy). The cherry dish wasn’t super fantastic either. I suppose it could possibly be due to me maybe starting to get sweeted-out by this point although that didn’t seem to be the case at the time. It had a lot of ingredients going on: butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, orange juice, lemon juice, various liquors, rum, the port fudge, and of course cherries (and I could even be forgetting a couple). It was prepared table-side in full-on flambe action then served on top of vanilla bean ice cream I think what saved it was the fudge; every time I had a bite with a fair amount of fudge in it it was really good, all the others were just ok.
Breakfast @ The Villa
The “European-style champagne breakfast” had a table set out with a few meats, cheeses, and fruit along with milk, orange juice, and cranberry juice with some various pastries at the end. There was also coffee and what appeared to be toast making materials off on another table. Once you grabbed that and munched for a little while you were presented with the option of champagne or mimosas; I think pretty much everyone opted for the later (thus why I went for the cranberry initially, knowing that was coming). Then the hot plate arrived with a decent sized solid hash-brown (so McDonalds format, not IHOP) and a quiche-like substance. There was great debate over whether it was chicken or tuna. I actually tried a couple bites and it was ok. But that’s certainly not my style of dish so I really couldn’t rate it accurately. Plus once the taunting of the possible tuna began my brain pretty much put a halt to any further consumption of that particular item. So I had my mimosas, most of an apple turnover, part of a chocolate muffin, and a couple more pieces of that really good sausage to finish my meal.
