Actually Finding the Restaurant

[cue the Mission Impossible song]

It is 8:30 on a Sunday night. I am dressed up. It is 40 degrees and getting colder quickly. I have 30 minutes to find The French Laundry.....or miss out on the entire reason I have driven 6 hours to Yountville.

We hastily jump in the car and confidently start typing all the pertinent information into the Navigation system. We overlook the fact that on more than one occasion it has gotten us heinously lost. Despite the fact that it is a woman's voice we have named our Nav system, Hal - because clearly at certain moments, it is out to rid itself of us (turn left NOW as we're on the freeway, etc.)

The Nav system knows that there is a Yountville - but it argues with us that neither The French Laundry's address or cross streets exist. We are left with locating the restaurant with our GPS capabilities, but alas, our reservation confirmation somehow managed to exclude latitude and longitudinal information. We are flying blind.

What to do? Use the directions the hotel gave us?? They are wrong.

By now it is 8:56 and we are panicking. The only phone number we can locate is for reservations and it is entirely automated. We are lost.

At 8:58 we locate Washington street - in the pitch black, no garish street lights allowed - off Highway 29 turn. At 8:59 we find the restaurant. I instinctively leap from the moving vehicle and land squarely in the gravel near the front door. Hubby drives 2 1/2 blocks away to park the car. At precisely 9:00 p.m. I stumble through the front door, removing my black leather gloves like a debutante....on time.

We're in.

Oh my gosh!!!!

My nerves were shot just reading that! I was panicking for you! I cant imagine how anxious you must have been! played like a true CIA agent

Ooo! Now we're getting closer to the FOOD PORN!

The real questions we muses are panting to know:
What did you wear? And at any point were chocolate, kama sutra, Global knives or any combination of the above involved?

Do tell...

Lol,

it is kind of confusing finding the spot! Off highway 29...glad you made it. I wonder if they still serve those little salmon cornet's?

quote:

Originally posted by the_muse:
Ooo! Now we're getting closer to the FOOD PORN!

The real questions we muses are panting to know:
What did you wear? And at any point were chocolate, kama sutra, Global knives or any combination of the above involved?

Do tell...

I'm "in transit" today (going to San Francisco) but I'll say this much (before we get to the fooooooooood):

Wore: Grey a-line slacks, black turtleneck sweater, high-heeled black boots, long black leather overcoat, black leather gloves, and carried a long black satin clutch purse with a very spare use of beading (perfect for storing the aforementioned gloves).

And yes - chocolate, kama sutra, and Global knives were used extensively throughout the entire evening!

As was a little somethin'-somethin' called: Jurassic salt. Immediately after the multiple amuse-bouches that arrived at the table, an absolutely beautiful trio of salts came to the table on a beautiful silver Moroccan serving set, composed of 3 different little bowls on a silver tray. Each salt was a different color. The reportedly 40 million year old Jurassic salt was actually peach colored - and seriously tasty!!! Clearly, this is how our distant ancestors flavored up those dinosaurs and wooly mammoths they must have been subsisting on.

The salts were placed next to the two little miniature silver sauteuses that contained two different butters - both made locally. One was the color of cheddar cheese (which is what I thought it was when it first arrived) and the other more yellowish in color and definitely sweet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.....more to come later in Part 4: "I came, I saw, I Laundered."

Am enjoying the vicarious thrill. You're quite the writer. And thanks for including the wardrobe (sounds stunning) - gotta get the full picture here. Looking forward to the next installment!

Part 4 got held up for some reason (no idea why).

Hopefully they'll post it later.

The suspense is killing me!! Can't wait to hear all about it.

Here I am in SF playing hookie from work and studying and thinking of heading to The Balboa for a burger. Mmmmm. Burger.

Was hoping to read your post to distract me from my thoughts of a $10 burger.

I have corresponded with Tikka, and gotten a very quick thumbnail sketch of what it was like. (Besides REALLY expensive!) and all I can say is that conventional wisdom goes out the window in a Thomas Keller restaurant. I know she wants that post up soon because she still has not come down off of the high that is The French Laundry.

Okay, my SECOND attempt was held up, too. I seriously have no idea what is triggering it.

Sorry everybody! This is really getting frustrating!!

Thats ok Hopefuly your next attempt will go through. You had a great time thats all that counts.