Go for the water, stay for the food
Calistoga built its reputation as a tourist destination on mud. The area at the northern end of Napa Valley was already known for its mineralized hot springs water when, in 1952, John “Doc” Wilkinson figured that combining the water with the region’s abundant volcanic ash would put his eponymous “resort” on the map.
My memories of sinking – glug, glug, glug – into a vat of previously used mud while choking in a sulfurous miasma had turned me permanently off the treatment, no matter how relaxing it was. So when Sun photo editor Ryan Lely started whining about how we should take a Road Trip to Mud City, we agreed to pass on the sludge. We prefer our water filtered.
Ryan Lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
The vibe at JoLe is relaxed with a wood-burning stove and a small wine bar.
During the last heat wave, making a pilgrimage to a place specializing in hydration struck us a particularly fetching idea. Our first stop was the year-old Solage Calistoga, the flagship of a new brand of high-concept, environmentally conscious hotels and restaurants developed by Auberge Resorts. It sprawls over 25 acres, with 89 accommodations, a 20,000-square-foot spa and a trendy indoor-outdoor restaurant overlooking a 130-foot pool – affording hydration more or less by osmosis. SolBar’s chef, Brandon Sharp, an alumnus of Gary Danko in San Francisco, dishes up small-plate, contemporary “sol” cuisine alongside what high-end resorts like this call comfort food.
Ryan Lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
Melissa Trujillo prepares a custom mud bath
Visually stunning dishes such as a chilled carrot-ginger soup vie for attention and appetite with spicy shrimp freshly wrapped in lettuce leaves, hickory-smoked baby back ribs and Yukon Gold potato gnocchi carbonara with house-smoked bacon, parmigiano and a Lily’s egg yolk from a local grower of heritage chickens.
If lunch was a far cry from Calistoga’s typical fare, so was the menu at Spa Solage, where specialties include signature Kate Somerville facial treatments such as DermaLucent Phototherapy, whatever that is.
The spa’s minimalist approach to mud eschews baths entirely. Instead, it features a “mud bar” where clients select their own “cocktail” of essential oils that is blended with volcanic ash and served up in a small can along with brushes so that couples can paint each other’s skin (or be painted by an attendant).
In lieu of the traditional post-mud rough-blanket wrap, clients relax on comfy zero-gravity beds while head sets deliver New Age sounds that reverberate throughout the body. (Flash and I skipped the painting part but did persuade the attendant to give us 15 minutes in side-by-side beds.)
Calistoga used to be synonymous with Lincoln Avenue, the Old West-looking main drag lined with shops and restaurants. Now its focus has broadened on two sides, with Solage on one and wineries burgeoning along Tubbs Lane on the other. The newest arrival is the handsome and hospitable Envy Winery, where longtime Napa wine figure Nils Venge and noted Eureka hotelier/restaurateur Mark Carter make high-style sauvignon blanc and estate-grown cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit sirah.
Directly across the road is Summers Estate Winery, where the specialty is Charbono and the terrace has a direct view of the Old Faithful Geyser. That is, when it is erupting, which it does like clockwork every half-hour (except in the two-week period preceding an earthquake).
Waiting for the 60-foot plume of steaming water to appear made us late for dinner at JoLe, the hottest restaurant in town. We figured they’d heard that excuse before, even if they’d only been open for five weeks.
Experienced restaurateurs Matt and Sonjia Spector established JoLe (a contraction of their sons’ names that is pronounced joe-lee) in the Mount View Hotel space once occupied by Catahoula. Gone are those creepy pictures of the Louisiana state dog, replaced with a chocolate-and-ivory, bistro-style décor as streamlined as Matt’s cooking.
Fortified with glasses of cherry-red Gruet sparkling wine from New Mexico (one of 28 wines available by the glass), we perused the terse descriptions on JoLe’s short but intriguing “farm to table” menu. Every dish we tried delivered far more than the sum of its parts. Beets with greens turned out to be a base of whipped goat cheese nestling red and yellow chunks of beets topped with micro-beet seedlings dressed with a crushed pistachio vinaigrette. Each plate is equally composed and delightfully presented, and most cost $10 to $13.
As we drove home, with the full moon rising over our own valley, we hoped the Spectors would follow up on our suggestion that they open a branch in Sonoma, where the water’s pretty good, too.
Getting there:
Via Highway 12 and Calistoga/Petrified Forest Road, it is about 30 miles from the Sonoma Plaza to the intersection with Highway 29 just west of the town of Calistoga.
Solage Calistoga
755 Silverado Trail 866.942.7442
www.solagecalistoga.com
Envy Wines
1170 Tubbs Lane
707.942.4670
www.envywines.com
Summers Estate Winery
1171 Tubbs Lane
707.942.5508
www.summerswinery.com
Old Faithful Geyser
1299 Tubbs Lane
707.742.6463
www.oldfaithfulgeyser.com
JoLe
1457 Lincoln Ave.
707.942.5938
www.jolerestaurant.com
