For my birthday, Rayland took me to the Carneros Inn Resort in Napa :).
The Carneros Inn is basically your standard 5 star home-away-from-home, but instead of having individual rooms, you get individual cottages! The bathroom was the size of my apartment's living room! The inn was amazing and I forgot to take pictures haha. But if you google it, you will find yourself at their website, which will provide a very cool virtual tour. The best part? There was a fire place and an enormous flat screen TV.
It was pouring all weekend and I was almost sure that the the roof was going to collapse (not because I didn't think the cabin was structurally sound, but that's just how hard it was coming down).
Somehow, we managed through the storm and made it to the Boon Fly Cafe on the other side of the cottage area.
I saw corn muffins on the menu and HAD to have it (if you didn't know, I LOVE corn bread).
It came with a honey whipped butter on the side. The muffins were just average, but the butter was sensational! I've had honey butter several other times and this one is a winner.
Their soup of the day was a potato leek soup. The weather was terribly cold, so soup was a must.
I was hoping that it would be more of a chunky, hearty soup and less of a bisque. Regardless, it was good and the croutons were nice and crunchy.
This was some sort of citrus cocktail.
This was the margarita.
The drinks were less than impressive. I think they were wine based (since we were in wine country) and took away the cocktail feel. It also lacked a lot of essential flavors and "kicks".
Before we made a dining decision (there are 3 restaurants at the inn), I did some yelping. Apparently, the smoked salmon flatbread is a specialty, so we ordered it.
TA-DA!
As you can see, we could not contain our excitement and took a few bites before I snapped a shot. It was really good! Very similar to having a thin crust pizza with smoked salmon and creme fraiche, and it was just so perfectly crispy. The flatbread also had parmesan cheese in it, which, as we all know, makes everything better. It reminded me a lot of the smoked salmon breakfast pizza Linae had at La Boulangerie in San Francisco (they have great French macaroons by the way).
These mashed potatoes came with the fried chicken (below). There was nothing special about them.
We had to order the fried chicken, because the whole place smelled of the stuff! It's one of their more popular dishes.
I have to say though, it was pretty average. It was good, but nothing stood out and it was quite forgettable.
These were the ribs.
They were REALLY dry, but the chefs really got the sauce right. I think they were on the drier side because it was a really lean cut of meat. The potato salad had too much mustard seed in it.
We had a ton of food leftover, but since we weren't going to frequent this place, I insisted on dessert. Rootbeer float!
If you didn't know, I hate root beer. Period. But Rayland ordered a rootbeer float at BJ's Brewery once (they have the most amazing handcrafted rootbeer floats, PLEASE TRY) and I was hooked.
What's cool about the Boon Fly Cafe's rootbeer float was that they shove their enormous beer glass into the freezer before they serve this awesome concoction. Then they add three scoops of ice cream, bring you the rootbeer in a bottle, and let you do all the pouring (because that's the fun part, you know?). It was pretty good, but nothing compared to BJ's. :)
I know it seems like we order a lot of food, but we take home a ton of leftovers that Rayland devours the next day haha.
Love Always,
Me
