Cuisine:

• Others
• Contemporary

Hilltop Dining Room @ The Carneros Inn Description:
"FARM" in purple block letters on the restaurant's barn-like roof immediately signals the "chic" part of The Carneros Inn's "agri-chic" philosophy. Other cues give away that you're not in Kansas anymore: an attached outdoor lounge with pillows, a transparent box of flaming gravel that acts as a centerpiece for mingling, a courtyard with bocce ball, hip patrons sipping cocktails in low-slung couches as Audrey Hepburn on mute radiates from the bar's flat-screen TV. Ease into a leather and suede banquette in the high-ceilinged dining room to watch the chefs behind glass or the ever-changing colored lights of a wine display. A pot of grass on the table makes for a cute touch. The kitchen utilizes ingredients that celebrate the seasons. An autumn case in point: frothy roasted butternut squash soup flecked with sautéed apple bits and punctuated by cinnamon sour cream and amaranth; fleshy tuna carpaccio, pounded and sprinkled with salty-crisp potato specs, shaved golden beets and basil oil---a melded sunset of color, texture, flavor; seared snapper in lime broth tamed by honey; melted veal cheeks in a cinnamony veal reduction. Harvest the desserts, perhaps crunchy hazelnut cake with chocolate paneling. Service has matured and feels polished and relaxed. Some of the best wine values in either valley for the bottlings.


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