Dinner at Farm, at the Carneros Inn

I spent hours contemplating where to eat during our Napa trip, but in the end, some of the best food was at our hotel. Who’d have guessed?

After driving up from the airport, we checked into the Carneros Inn and unpacked, then walked to dinner at Farm.

It’s an airy place that made me feel like we were dining in a very elegant barn – with exposed trusses and windows high up along the ceiling.

Since I was starving (flying west always does that to me) we ordered oysters right away to start. They were just as plump and saline as the ones we’d have a couple days later at Hog Island – delicious, especially with a touch of the sparkling wine mignonette. It’s wine country, after all!

We ordered a bottle of 2008 Corison cabernet – it’s one of my new favorites, and we planned a visit to the winery the next day, so it seemed like a perfect choice.

I had spring garlic soup, made with cognac and garnished with creme fraîche and crispy bits of potato: all things that I like very much, and the soup lived up to my expectations. D had another winner in the carnaroli risotto, with tidbits of lobster and preserved Meyer lemon nestled in the creamy rice.

We both chose lamb as our main course (to best complement our wine, of course!). It came three ways – loin, confit, and belly – along with plenty of spring vegetables. After the winter we’ve had in Chicago, I was very excited for the vegetables! The lamb was lovely too, though a bit too much meat for me.

At this point, I found myself nearly falling asleep at the table, but I rallied myself for dessert. We shared a layered dessert of basil poundcake, strawberry mousse, and cheesecake, with graham cracker ice cream on top and fresh strawberries around the bottom. The colors reminded me of Neapolitan ice cream, but the flavors were California farm-fresh.

After finishing up our last sips of wine, we made the short stroll back to our cottage and went straight to bed – well-fed and ready for our trip to kick off in earnest in the morning.