Napa Valley, California. It’s a gourmet’s mecca. You go there to eat and drink wine. We didn’t eat nearly as much as we intended, and the places I really wanted to experience were all dinner places. We were back in Sonoma by evening and unfortunately, suffered from a tremendous lack of hunger the entire trip.
There was no way we were ever going to visit The French Laundry. $390pp for food way out of our league. It is a prix fixe of tiny courses, none of which we were likely to eat. The same was true of Bouchon, which has its own prix fixe menu of fewer courses, with more recognizable and much more affordable food but still out of our league.We would have eaten at Addendum or Ad Hoc, but Addendum was only open after we left Napa, and Ad Hoc was another dinner only place, with another smaller prix fixe menu with price and food we understood.
But we did get to experience Thomas Keller, sort of, twice at lunch. When I found out Thomas Keller had a burger pop-up, unceremoniously called Burger Pop-Up, we had to go. He took over a space next door to Bouchon Bakery in Yountville. It was a long-standing and much-beloved restaurant space with a footprint really large for burgers. And it was his space. Thomas Keller had La Calenda there for years before closing it. The restaurant was a community favorite.
The idea is that the pop-up will be around 7 weeks, and I don’t know what week it was, but we took no chances. If they opened at noon we would be there to get in line early. This was Yountville, so they would be a little cooler about the line than other places. I was a tourist so I didn’t have to be cool. While people sat in their cars, I got in the empty line which put me first at the rope. By the time 11:30 arrived, there were enough people in line for the manager to greet us. He marveled at our enthusiasm and brought out cups of water on a tray. I struck up a conversation with a local who told me about the defunct restaurant whose space we were waiting to enter. There was a patio with chairs that made it look Mexican, and indeed it was. Thomas Keller had La Calenda there for years before closing it.
Out on the patio beyond the chairs, an old but shiny and refurbished VW bus held liquor on tap. This is Napa, after all.
The manager decided to open early. We walked into a bar area and ordered at the counter. The menu is small. I got a burger and a fried chicken sandwich and we got an order of fries. The single patty was $15 and a double was $6 more. I talked ML out of it, and felt guilty the entire meal. If it had been a normal situation we could have just gotten another but the line was so long. I did ask about ordering more and was told we could get more fries but not another burger without doing the line again. The line was about 50 people at this point, but it moved really fast. I said yes to the fries because they were extraordinarily good.
When I went to the bathroom before we left, I passed a long counter where the food was coming out. An army of people were assembling these trays. I asked a manager about the fries, which I assumed were housecut. This was Thomas Keller, after all. He surprised me by saying no, and he casually mentioned that they were buying the fries in Scottsdale, so my mind immediately went to Frites Street, a French fry processor doing what I call “deceptively” housecut fries. These are an expensive grade of frozen fries that look like someone is cutting potatoes in the back. We had the owner of Frites Street on the show a while back.
I said to the manager at Burger Pop-up, “Frites Street?” He seemed surprised that anyone would know that.
“Yes. Flip?”
I said, “Yes.”
And with that I left him to the madness of overseeing the assembly of trays for an eager crowd, chuckling to myself that I was had again. The fries were absolutely in a class by themselves. They were crispy and the gold standard of what crinkle cut fries should be. Or any fries. Irresistible perfection.
That is how I would describe this entire meal. The buns were embossed with a black sear, imparting a standard no one else attempts. They were fantastic top-of-the-line brioche mounds.
Inside one of them was what ML called the best tasting hamburger patty she has ever experienced. She was swooning over the flavor of the meat. I have never seen this hamburger queen as excited about this great American handheld meal.
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I didn’t have the heart to steal a bite, mainly because I didn't want to trade one. My buttermilk chicken sandwich was also the very best version of a chicken sandwich I have ever experienced, by a wide margin of goodness.
This buttermilk fried chicken is legendary in the valley. It is a signature item at Thomas Keller’s family-style casual place called Ad Hoc, and the Friday/Saturday only lunch place behind it called Addendum. (He likes his cliche titles.) The buttermilk fried chicken is all anyone talks about if Thomas Keller’s name is mentioned. Addendum is wildly popular with locals who will pick up buckets of it regularly on weekends.
Thomnas Keller understands that a fried chicken sandwich should be white meat. It is not overly crunchy and not spicy, but it has just the right amount of everything, and the meat itself is tender and obviously high quality. Spectacular.
The housemade pickles and onions were perky and acidic, the sauce their version of the “secret sauce.” which with Thomas Keller means “Secret Sauce Plus.”
I also had a chocolate shake just because if you’re doing burgers and fries and a shake is available, you gotta have the shake. It was not life-changing but how could a chocolate shake be that?. It was very good, and isn’t that good enough?
We had another experience with Thomas Keller, but not really Thomas Keller. Stateline Roadhouse BBQ in the town of Napa is a much-ballyhooed barbecue place. The chef was a Thomas Keller protégé, and his partner was one of Keller’s business men. Together they partnered to start this barbecue place, introducing the next level of barbecue. ML was highly skeptical of barbecue in Napa Valley, declaring it preposterous to eat such a thing there. But we were doing burgers and Mexican food here, so why not?
This is one fancy barbecue place. Everything about it is stylish. It is fast casual with a smallish menu. We ordered the sliced brisket, coleslaw, mac’n’cheese. And curly fries.
I was intrigued to see them squirt something clear on the beautiful slices of tender smoked brisket. I asked about that and I was told it was beef tallow. That was unexpected and then I reminded myself that this was a group of Thomas Keller alums, and then it didn't seem so strange. The curly fries were fried as I would expect. They were good but not transformative. And the coleslaw was also creamy and delicious but still coleslaw.
What did pop from the crowd was the mac’n’cheese, which had a crumb on top, not of breadcrumbs, but kale chips? If I have to eat kale I prefer it in chip form, but I wouldn't in my wildest imaginings have thought this would ever replace breadcrumbs (something I always find superfluous on mac’n cheese,)
The mac’n’cheese was creamy and cheesy and made of large elbows, but what I noticed most was the kale.
Besides the tallow the most arresting thing about the meal was the absurd drink ML received when she asked for iced tea. It had only one thing in common with iced tea: it was wet. More a sad version of lemonade than tea, we couldn't figure this out at all, and left it.
Thomas Keller has joined so many others in casualizing his brand. It’s essential to make it. I remember reading that Michelin lost a large chunk of their lists when star winners either closed or went casual from one year to the next.
Everything Thomas Keller has done these last few years follows this trajectory. That doesn’t mean that these ordinary dishes are ordinary. Anything but. It’s still the brandThomas Keller.
