The Fig Cafe

The last round in my Sunday evening posting blitzkrieg:

Another gorgeous day to be in Sonoma. It was sunny and probably in the mid-70s today, but to this city mouse it felt like blazing 80 degree heat. I basked in it and enjoyed it, knowing the sunshine here is always likely to end before I've gotten enough.

I love that Fig Cafe feels the need to apologize for only allowing their guests to drink one bottle of wine per meal--per person. Ah, Sonoma!

I was promised that the bellini would be out of this world, but I really regret not getting the fig royale instead. The peach flavor was mediocre, not like the legendary Venetian bellinis you hear about that make you glad to be alive. The stamp and design on the tables were a cute touch.

Fig and apple bread pudding came in lieu of the usual bread and butter. I liked it: soft, warm, moist, and not too sweet. A great breakfast bread. Now that I typed that, I realize it's true: this was more of a breakfast bread than a pudding.

Tart du jour: a classic French quiche with gruyere, ham, and leeks. I thought this was a very stingy portion for a $10 quiche: three-quarters of an inch thick, and about the size of a 3x5 card. C'mon, at Tartine you can get a three inch tall quiche for $3 and it's almost enough food for 2 people! Granted, this quiche came with a salad, but really. Poor JC was still hungry!

Omlette du jour: three eggs, bacon, spinach, and a little cheese. The heartiest dish of the day, but reportedly not very fluffy. Then again, Wung's comparing to the Wynn in Vegas, which is hardly fair. That omlette probably cost an arm and a leg.

Being his hungry self, Wung ordered a side of apple-smoked sausage. The consensus was that this is strange. The first bite reminded us of Chinese sweet sausage, and the other herbs and smoke comes in later. But ultimately, it's a little dry on the inside, a little cold, and not well charred on the outside.

If there's something Californian restaurants know, it's salad. The boys both had great green salads as side dishes, and I just went ahead and ordered an entree salad because I was pretty sure I'd love it. Butterleaf lettuce with slices of grapefruit and an entire sliced avocado. Everything was just perfect, and the sauce was light enough that even though the salad was over dressed for my taste it was not too salty or tangy.

Overall: The Fig Cafe is an adorable little restaurant with beautiful food. It's not a bad value compared to the brunchy spots right in Sonoma/Glen Ellen, but in typical Sonoma fashion the food's a bit precious. But I really wish I could find a low brow diner-style place where we could fill up on decent good food like burgers and shakes for under $10, but we don't go enough to sniff out the neighborhood spots.

We hit a few new wineries today in addition to our usual Benziger stop:

St. Francis: loved both zinfandels on the list. Fantastic, smooth, fruity, easy to drink big wines. Wung liked the cabernet franc as well. I liked it, but found it a bit musty to drink alone. Cute winery with super nice staff. The tasting room looks very new and chic, prompting me to note that St. Francis has a "Mini Mondavi" look about it.

Blackstone: didn't see anything on the list that called to us, but there's a nice outdoor area where people had brought their own food to eat, and there's an outdoor tasting bar as well.

Kenwood: the big surprise of the day. Decent $7 table wine! I mean really and truly decent. Nice ruby color, easy to drink blend of grapes, reasonably dry but still very fruity. Just good. The $5 white wasn't half bad either, and the $14 Gewurztraminer smelled deliciously fruity while tasting dry. I'm very glad we stopped by. Kenwood is such a big name and the place is so crowded that I wasn't expecting much, but this is one of the few places offering free tastings where I've been impressed. Definitely worth a stop to look for every day table wine.

The Fig Cafe Website