Get the Swing of Things
On Sunday, our final morning in Napa Valley, I'd snagged us a reservation at the trendy Farm Restaurant at the Carneros Inn. Though Ashley had postulated that its popularity may just be hype, part of our interest in going was the gorgeous property anyways. We arrived early so we'd have time to explore and take pictures on the red porch swing that I'd seen on Instagram (obviously a must). Then we headed back to the restaurant to eat.
Sometimes these places do get hyped for the sake of their popularity, but I can attest to the fact the the hype for Farm is entirely warranted. In fact our brunch at Farm was probably one of the absolute best meals I've ever eaten. Keeping in mind all of the incredible restaurants I've tried and my definite tendency towards being a bit of a snob when it comes to food, this is certainly saying something. We both ordered mimosas (Ashley's a regular and mine a blackberry-mimosa) and French press coffee to start. The way that the menu works is that you order 4 things to share for the table, family style. We chose the Blueberry Crostada with lemon zest and crème fraîche; the Beets and Berries with ricotta, garden greens, pistachios, and granola; the Lobster BLT with cherry tomatoes and garden herbs (sans bacon because I don't eat bacon); and the Flatbread with figs, caramelized onions, lardo, arugula, and I substituted goat cheese for the blue cheese bcause I don't like blue cheese. It was all incredible -- I mean truly incredible. Each dish was delicious in its own right and together satisfied literally every taste and texture you could hope for in a meal, from sweet to savory to buttery to crunchy to melt-in-your-mouth. It may have been the fastest I've ever seen food disappear from a table and between the two of us we'd cleared every plate within minutes, stopping only to wash down more mimosa and moan about how amazing it was.
Then sadly we had to head out, drive to the airport, and make our way back to reality...
