Napa Palisades Saloon - Napa

We had a fantastic couple of meals this weekend at Napa Palisades Saloon, right in the heart of the City of Napa. Chef/owner Tim Brown is doing high-end, elevated bar food - gourmet, even. Not pretentious, just delicious, clean flavors, with obvious care taken and a pride in using local, organic, etc. produce when possible.

We came by for a late lunch and split the Reuben croquettes, a dish that was well-known to Chef Brown’s followers from his deli days in SF - still a winning dish, perfect with beer. Next, we got the famous chorizo fries (apparently a favorite of Iron Chef Morimoto!) , with cotija and a citrus crema. that crema took the fries to another level. Then, padron peppers with smoked duck, whipped feta, everything-but-the-bagel seasoning, and duck fat. OMG - this is the kind of high-end dish you’d be lucky to find at any 5 star restaurant. A stand-out dish.

Didn’t end there though, as we’d ordered a second round of beers - a Napa Palisades Little Loco for me, a Kolsch for the BF. So we got a pulled pork sandwich to split, with a fried egg on top - always a genius move. the raw Carolina mustard bbq sauce cut thru the richness of the pork and egg perfectly. along with that, we got a fantastically fresh tomato salad with local organic zucchini and squash over whipped ricotta. You can taste the care, the mindfulness, put into every bite here.

But we still weren’t done! We came back for a late dinner too. We split the flat iron steak with chili butter, garlicky fries, and an arugula salad. The key is to get the perfect bite with all three elements on your fork at the same time. I had a wonderfully balanced Paper Plane cocktail, too, at dinner, and of course, there’s wine to be had.

This is seriously a destination restaurant. It’s uber-casual, sporty (not at all my thing, but the food so outweighed that), with friendly and warm, knowledgeable servers.

Can’t wait to go back and check out the rest of the menu. We learned that there are also plans to open a full on, on-site brewery/restaurant in the next couple of years. Bring it! I’d be happy if this place lived in my neighborhood in the City.

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