Kathleen Hill: Michelin Guide released and New Year’s Eve specials
New Year's Eve menus in Sonoma Valley
Most restaurants and bars will be open to help you celebrate New Year's Eve if you like to go out. Some of us prefer to stay home or join friends for dinner at our own homes or at theirs. Others consider it “amateur night.”
If you have the urge to go out, you might check out these special menus offered by a variety of Sonoma restaurants, listed alphabetically.
Bistecca e Vino
Co-owner and chef Carlo Cavallo will offer a four-course dinner where guests choose grilled garlic bread with Parma prosciutto and black truffle tapenade and Cambozola cheese, or a salad of heirloom beets, butternut squash, crispy Brussels sprouts and walnuts with warm Laura Chenel goat cheese crotin.
Then come risotto with wild mushrooms, grass fed hanger steak with Cavallo's secret Sinatra sauce and six jumbo prawns in garlic sauce with garlic mashed potatoes and broccolini, followed by a “150-year-old tiramisu recipe.” Full bar. $60. 400 First St. E., Sonoma. Reserve at 938-7110.
Depot Hotel
Gia and chef Tony Ghilarducci offer many options, except everyone gets the first course, potato leek soup. For the second course guests choose among winter greens salad of Little Gem lettuce, Bay scallops crisped with Arborio rice, Balsamic glazed pork belly or Hackleback caviar on house made rye blini.
The Depot's third course consists of choices among its famous Dungeness crab cannelloni, filet of Loch Duart salmon with white asparagus and potato gratin, spinach and ricotta ravioli, or slow roasted loin of Akaushi beef with Bordelaise sauce, horseradish potato puree, glazed carrots and watercress.
The dessert tops it off with the Depot's tiramisu, chocolate torte, sour cream glazed cheesecake with mango and raspberry coulis. $75. 241 W. First St., Sonoma. 938-2980.
El Dorado Kitchen
Enjoy an elegant four-course dinner that starts with an amuse bouche of a vichyssoise, water cress and a fried oyster and caviar. Starters bring a choice of potato gnocchi with lobster, duck consommé with foie gras dumplings, tuna carpaccio with roasted beets and puffed rice, or mixed greens with hearts of palm, quinoa and cotija cheese.
Entrées range from black truffle risotto with celery root and Swiss chard, Wagyu beef duo of New York and braised short rib with ginger carrot puree with King trumpet mushrooms, seared branzino fish with caper beurre blanc potato leeks and spinach, to suckling pig with creamy polenta and apples. Dessert choices include molten chocolate cake, coconut tapioca and housemade ice cream or sorbets. $95, wine pairing $35. 405 First St. W., Sonoma. 996-3030.
Glen Ellen Star
Chef and co-owner Ari Weisswasser has added a special menu to his regular offerings featuring a spinach, artichoke and Dungeness crab dip ($18) and a pan-roasted beef tenderloin with Hassleback potatoes, melted Swiss chard, a sauce Perigordine ($42). 13648 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen. 343-1384.
The Fig Café & Wine Bar
While the Girl & the Fig on Sonoma Plaza is serving its regular menu and full bar on New Year's Eve, owner Sondra Bernstein's Fig Café & Wine Bar in Glen Ellen will start with Parmesan gougères with herbs and Mornay sauche, followed by bacon and cauliflower bisque, which leads to smoked short rib risotto with wild mushrooms, roasted shallots and chicories. Dessert brings a chocolate terrine, caramel custard, crushed raspberries and toasted pistachio. $45. 13690 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen. Reserve at 933-3000, ext. 13.
The Girl & The Fig will be open for New Year's Day brunch and closed Jan. 7 to 11 for spiff up.
The Fig Cafe in Glen Ellen will be open New Year's Day and closed Jan. 15 and 16 for cleaning.
Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn
Sonoma Mission Inn offers the ultimate gorgeous evening with a seven-course wine-paired dinner followed by dancing and a midnight Champagne toast in the Lobby Living Room.
The seven course dinner starts with a slow cooked duck egg and caviar; toasted bread soup with jamon iberico, Delice de Bourgogne and Burgundy black truffle; bluefin toro sashimi with Santa Barbara uni and shiso; bucatini with aged pecorino, cultured butter and Alba white truffles; lacquered foie gras; slow-roasted turbot with lobster nage, cauliflower mousseline and clams; charred green onion and yuzu kosho, and a confectionary duo of cheesecake, ginger graham sable with a mandarin orange reduction, and a dark chocolate cremeux with crispy raspberry and Pop Rock dragees. Vegetarian options available $299. Wine pairing $135 includes midnight toast. Reservations at 938-9000 or fairmont.com/Sonoma.
Sonoma Grille
Owner Nima Sherpa and friends present an attractive prix fixe menu with first course choices that include raw oyster trio, crispy polenta, or salmon Carpaccio of thinly sliced salmon with fried capers. Next guests select either heirloom tomato bisque or a blood orange salad.
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