Calistoga Inn

Ahhhh, yes, the food and wine business can be BRUTAL at times. I mean, absolutely BRUTAL. Check this out. My friends and I at the Wine Country Inn are already busy preparing for several holiday get-togethers (including the Ode to the Olive celebration in November and a return guest reunion in January and February). Dinners are involved, and because it'll be the holidays, we want to splurge a bit, so that means musical entertainment of the soothing and cool type. So yours truly had -- and I mean had -- to go check out a certain guitar player last week who was playing at the Calistoga Inn.

O.k., so I get there at about six p.m. ... and learn that he doesn't start until 6:30 p.m. I had already ordered a glass of wine (come on!), so I couldn't sit there drinking on an empty stomach, right? So dinner became, as they say, involved. And that meant six oysters on the half-shell with a delicious Moscatel-shallot vinaigrette (Moscatel is primarily a Spanish wine made from the Muscat grape), and then a wonderful risotto with -- check this out -- field mushrooms. If there's a more enticing two-word combination in the English language than field mushrooms, I don't know what it is.

Anyway, the meal was fantastic, and the outdoor patio with lights and music simply spectacular. (Come to think of it, I never did make it inside the Inn, which apparently was built in 1882, and now has a brewery on site, too.) Anyway, check out the Calistoga Inn sometime. Sit on the outdoor patio. Enjoy a delicious meal.

And oh, yes -- listen the music.