Fun around Healdsburg

I was determined to get out of town Labor Day weekend, but actually flying somewhere seemed impractical for a 3-day weekend. Poking around the Web, I Googled California getaways, and hit upon the idea of visiting the Russian River area and Healdsburg. I'm really glad I did. I had a great time, and am now happy to know that a relaxing weekend getaway with great food is so close at hand.

Recommendations (day by day):

Saturday:

Wild Flour Bread - 140 Bohemian Hwy, Freestone, CA 95472 (Open Fri-Mon, 8:30AM-6PM)
It's a bit out of the way - exit Santa Rosa, located in Freestone, 5 miles past Sebastopol - but totally worth the detour. This is primarily a bread bakery, turning out perhaps a dozen varieties of wood-fired brick oven baked breads each day, along with delicious whipped cream scones, biscotti (which we didn't try) and coffee drinks. There were so many good options, we may have gone overboard on Saturday. We picked up a fougasse (a delicious sourdough based bread with chunks of potato, rosemary, garlic, and I think jack and cheddar cheeses), a sticky bun (massive - the size of one of their bread rounds), and three scones (double chocolate almond marzipan, apple ginger white chocolate, and peach strawberry nectarine(?)). The sticky bun was still warm out of the oven, and was delicious if rather daunting (we've eaten some every day and still have a bit left). The fougasse was possibly my favorite non-baguette savory bread I've ever had. The scones were large and triangular, but more like bread in texture than the harder scones I'm accustomed to. The double chocolate almond marzipan was delectable - a chocolate bread-y scone with a layer of chocolate sauce and almond marzipan sauce. I was less fond of the peach strawberry nectarine, which was moist with large chunks of fruit baked in, mostly because I didn't love the baked fruits. I don't like ginger, and the apple ginger white chocolate distinctly had pieces of ginger in it, so I only ate one bite, but my bf seemed to enjoy it. We even swung back out of our way on Monday to get some bread to bring home, picking up a red bell, green onion, jack, cheddar, and swiss fougasse which was warm out of the oven at 4:30pm (they were out of most of their other breads and scones), which is currently in the freezer since they said it freezes well. We're still working on finishing the first fougasse!

River's Edge Kayak and Canoe Trips - 13840 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, CA 95448
I love canoeing and kayaking, though I'm hardly expert at it, and really enjoy a lazy float down a calm river or canal. River's Edge met my needs handily. We rented a sit on top double kayak for $65 (they also have canoes, and single or double cockpit kayaks) to take on their 1/2 day 5.5 mile "Rio" trip. They were located not far off the highway, with clear large signs indicating their location. Check-in was quick and easy - sign a waiver form, pay, check in our car keys so they could move the car in their small lot, grab some ziploc bags in case we need them, and then hop in a school bus for transportation to the put-in point at Rio Lindo, several miles up a very bumpy dirt road. At the put-in point, we were greeted by a man who had us all grab life jackets (rather old faded, one-size ones, but they worked) and gave us pointers and information about landmarks and our take out point. We then grabbed our kayak and off we went. The section of river we went on was class I + current, quite calm and easy to navigate, though periodically getting extremely shallow. We occasionally mis-read the river and grounded ourselves in particularly shallow waters, choosing generally to scoot and push our ways out, but once just jumping out and dragging the boat back to deeper waters. There were frequent gravelly beach areas where we could stop and hang out, and deeper spots in which we could swim and splash (though we didn't really try to swim until the end). The water was in the low 70s (the day was in the high 80s), and was quite pleasant. The run ended at a beach right above the Healdsburg Memorial Dam, only some 70 ft from the River's Edge office, making it easy to pull in, leave our rented stuff on the beach, and walk back to our car. The river occasionally got a bit crowded with other groups and couples kayaking/canoeing, or swimming along the way, so it wasn't exactly peaceful, per se, but it was still a really nice float. Next time, we'll try one of the longer runs, maybe on a different section of the river. We also might go back to swim by the Memorial Beach Dam, since there was a little park there right after the boat landing, and the water was nice there.

Zin Restaurant - 344 Center Street, Healdsburg, CA 95448
I was looking for a more casual dining option for dinner Saturday night, since we already had reservations at Solbar in Calistoga and Cyrus for Sunday and Monday nights. Zin Restaurant fit the bill, with a somewhat upscale take on American cuisine with a focus on seasonal ingredients. I was quite happy with the food and service, with just one sour note. The couple seated next to us arrived after us and ordered after us, but were apparently friends of the owner or someone affiliated with the restaurant, and ended up a full cycle ahead of us. They ordered the same appetizer but while theirs appeared almost instantaneously, ours took I think another 10 minutes to arrive. From that point on, we had to watch while they received everything quite a ways before we did. This disparate service really made my bf grumble, while I was mostly just outraged about the appetizers b/c I hadn't heard the part where they knew someone. Aside from this, though, it was a good meal. The appetizer that both we and the table next to us ordered was the Mexican Beer Battered Green Beans with Mango Salsa. The menu failed to mention that cilantro was a liberal ingredient sprinkled over and fried into the batter, which made me somewhat unhappy, but I contented myself with picking off as much as I could and leaving the really cilantro-infested beans to my bf. It didn't matter; we were given a large cone of green beans, and there was more than enough for both of us. Unfortunately for my bf, he also ordered another appetizer, a salad with warm peaches wrapped in prosciutto with goat cheese on top of a frisee salad, which was quite delicious, but made him pretty full before his entree even arrived. Entree-wise, I mis-ordered, forgetting that short ribs, while incredibly tender, tend to fall short of delicious, just b/c the meat itself isn't that flavorful. Their BBQ short ribs with horseradish mashed potatoes and a sweet corn salad was well done, and I ate every last bite happily, but I think one of the other entrees might have been more interesting. My bf's entree was the applewood smoked pork chop with fresh apple sauce over braised greens andouille sausage & cornbread stuffing, and I kept stealing bites because I loved the flavors. The pork chop had a distinctively rich and deep smoked flavor which made up for it being slightly dry (probably because they took it back to keep it warm while he was in the bathroom), while the andouille sausage/cornbread stuffing had a nice sweet/savory combination I enjoyed. Despite being somewhat full by this point (especially my bf), we ended up not being able to turn down dessert. Both of our neighboring tables had ordered the "Zinfully Decadent Brownie Sundae with Homemade Chocolate Chunk Coffee Ice Cream" but it was just too huge for us to even contemplate. We ended up with the Mexican chocolate panna cotta with salted caramel and churros. The balance of the dish was a bit off - the caramel was over-salted and therefore dominated (I mentioned it to the waiter and he actually went back and tried some and agreed that it was definitely on the too salty side of the salt/sweet line, even though he loved salty things), while the Mexican chocolate panna cotta was delicately delicious on its own, but totally overwhelmed when eaten with the caramel. The two little churros were nice. With a bit less salt, the dessert would have been really yummy.

Not so much recommended - our hotel, the Madrona Manor (1001 Westside Rd, Healdsburg), at least not for the prices we paid. The pros: we had the "Garden Cottage", which was a standalone cottage set apart from the other buildings, so we had a lot of privacy. After living in the city for 3 years, it was blissful having no one upstairs, downstairs, or sharing walls with us. It also had a nice-sized, fairly private shady back patio with comfortable deck furniture where we enjoyed relaxing. The cons: our room was $400/night (we were indulging - I've never paid this much before) but the king bed, while having nice linens and a pillowtop, had distinct dents in the mattress, verging on sagging. It was blissful to lie down on it initially, but less blissful as we actually tried to sleep on it. It was nice having a sitting room along with the bedroom, but it felt like we were paying for privacy over niceness in terms of furnishing/decoration. The bathroom had a slipper tub that looked jetted, but we could never make the jets work, and an overhead rainfall showerhead that pointed straight down, which was a little odd. The included buffet breakfast was definitely "European-style" - a plate of cold cuts, a plate of fancy cheeses, one warm egg dish, hard boiled eggs, a basket of small croissants and breads, some bran flakes, fruit salad, and granola. That list sounds like a lot but it just didn't look that appealing (we didn't end up trying any of it, mind you, so it could have been better than I realized). Luckily we had our Wild Flour Bread to eat. The fresh squeezed orange juice was excellent, though, and was the reason we went to breakfast each morning. There was a warm pool which was pretty, but had a lot of bugs floating in it when we went to swim in it. Overall, the privacy and patio were wonderful, but it would be much more worth half the price than what we paid. Which is ironic, since they gave us a 50% off our next stay coupon when we checked out. For 50% the price, I actually might consider staying there again for the privacy and quiet grounds. The restaurant is a Michelin 1-star, tasting menu sort of place, but we didn't eat there.

Sunday:

Sunday morning we set out on a 30+ mile bike ride recommended to us by a friend, the Dry Creek - Alexander Valley ride from the Santa Rosa Cycling Club. The ride is supposed to start at the City Hall in Healdsburg, but it ran straight by our hotel, so we just started from our hotel. I really enjoyed most of this ride. The first 9 miles ran down West Dry Creek Road, a meandering, mostly flat or gently rolling 35mph local road with a lot of wineries lining the road. There was the occasional car or other bike, but for the most part it was a peaceful, partly shady, beautiful ride. The usual ride takes the Yoakim Bridge Road to Dry Creek Road, staying on this larger road for just a short distance, but we chose to try the optional out and back to the Lake Sonoma Visitors Center down Dry Creek Rd. We kind of regretted this. Dry Creek Rd is a much busier blacktop asphalt road, with a 50-55mph speed limit, a lot more cars whizzing by, including many SUV's pulling boats, a fairly narrow shoulder, and a much rougher high-friction road surface. I found the ride stressful in the extreme (riding in the city is nothing compared to trying to balance on the white line while cars zoom by you at top speeds) and harder than the first part (combination of being slightly uphill, the friction-y surface, and the heat from the asphalt). When we reached the Visitors Center, it seemed from the map that it would take a lot of work to get anywhere near the lake, and it was starting to get really hot, so we just refilled our water bottles at the water fountain there, and turned back. Luckily, when we turned off Dry Creek Rd into Alexander Valley, the ride got a lot more pleasant and pretty again. Alexander Valley isn't as rolling or full of terrain as Dry Creek, so it was a different feel, but still pretty. The roads were less busy again, and slower. It was overall a really nice ride, less hot than I expected (as long as we kept moving), and punctuated by a nice stop about 10 miles from the end, Jimtown.

Jimtown Store - 6706 Highway 128, Healdsburg, CA
Apparently a popular stop on many a bike route, as well as a popular stop for locals, tourists, and Martha Stewart, Jimtown is a cute little store with a delicious lunch counter/deli and really pleasant patio seating (as well as an indoor section to sit). We ordered the "Jimtown", a prosciutto sandwich with Pt Reyes blue cheese and a fig/olive spread. I'm not the biggest fan of olive, and despite the counterperson's reassurance that the spread was more figgy than olivey, I definitely tasted the olive. However, I still enjoyed the sandwich, which had an interesting blend of sweet, savory, salty, and pungent flavors. We also ordered the smoked albacore sandwich, was less interesting by far, but still quite tasty and refreshing. They also had a chocolate mint lemonade which was really nice - the cool, sweetly tart, refreshing lemonade with an interesting initial/undertaste of subtle chocolate mint. Overall a good stop and a great bike ride, and I very much thank my friend for the recommendation.

Solbar - 755 Silverado Trail, Calistoga, CA (in the Solage Hotel)
Dinner Sunday night was a recommendation from my sports conditioning class instructor, who'd just spent 4 days vacationing in Calistoga, and who raved about this place. Solbar is a Michelin 1-star restaurant located in the Solage Hotel in Calistoga, a really nice resort hotel that also contains the Spa Solage, apparently Conde Nast's #1 Spa in the Americas/#10 Spa in the World, and Travel & Leisure's #2 Spa in the US. Might need to try that next time. This was probably the meal I enjoyed most and was happiest about this weekend. I loved the atmosphere and ambiance - the restaurant had a large outdoor patio which was 1/3 lounging space with comfortable-looking chairs and lounges scattered around with people enjoying a glass of wine and chatting, and 2/3 dining space with nicely spaced tables under some light greenery and lights strung about. The patio was located next to the pool, which was looked gorgeous, large, and inviting (but was separated from the restaurant by a fence). The interior, which I only went in initially and to visit the restroom was also a big open space which had a nice, airy, casual feel. We opted to dine outside since it was a nice warm summer's evening. This proved to be a great choice, as the sun went down and the hot summer's day cooled into a very comfortable warm evening. The food was as tasty as the ambiance. My bf got a chilled sweet corn soup with avocado, lime, and cilantro that was delicately flavored, delicious, and a wonderful complement to the warm day. I went heavier, and got the pasilla-chile rubbed pork cheek tacos with avocado, cilantro and lime crema. These were much more generous-sized than I anticipated, with large juicy chunks of pork filling the corn tortillas. Really delicious, though I opted to not finish them in order to save room for my entree. The bread came in 3 kinds - a sourdough I didn't try (my bf did, said it was fine but to save room for my entree), a really delicious corn muffin I wish I could have had more of, and light bread sticks. My entree was a buttermilk fried quail with cheese grits, black eyed peas, smoked ham hock, and red-eye gravy. An upscale take on southern food, that was really tasty and kind of different. The quail itself was beautifully breaded and fried, tender and moist and delicious. The combination of foods under it was alternatively savory, sour, and salty, but without being too much of any of these flavors. My bf's entree was a bavette steak in bourdelaise sauce with a potato chive agnolotti and garlic creamed leaks. The steak was wagyu from Snake River Farms, and was quite tender and marbled. Unfortunately, since neither of us like wine, the bourdelaise sauce didn't work as well for us, but my bf loved the agnolotti and garlic creamed leeks. Despite pronouncing himself full, we still couldn't resist the dessert menu, actually ordering two desserts. He got the valhrona chocolate marquise with salted almond creme anglaise, which was melt in the mouth delicious - a square of melty deep chocolate on top of a nice counterpoint of almond creme anglaise. I got the deep fried cherry pie with ginger caramel and vanilla bean ice cream, which my gym teacher had recommended. It was a bit like a fried cherry donut, with a fairly delicate fried pastry and surprisingly runny cherry filling (I thought it'd be thicker). The vanilla ice cream was thinner and lighter than I would have liked, but the pie was yummy, and I enjoyed scooping up the cherry juice/ice cream combination. Unusually for him, my bf also tried the dessert wine pairing for his dessert, the "emilio hidalgo, pedro ximenez sherry" from jerez, spain, and pronounced it very yummy cough syrup (which is a compliment from him). Overall, a very satisfying evening.

Monday:

I can't imagine anyone's read all this, but it's for my own memory as well as other people's interest. But now onto the last day.

Not really recommended, but perhaps unfairly: Bovolo Restaurant 106 Matheson St (inside Copperfield's Books) in Healdsburg.
I think this suffered from us mis-ordering while not very hungry. They're known for making their own salumi, bacon, and gelato, but all we ordered initially was the "Coo-Coo Frites", fried dough with mozzarella and salumi inside. I like all these ingredients a lot, but what we ended up with was four squares of fried dough, each with some mozzarella and a single small slice of salumi inside. The end result? Bland, doughy, and a bit too greasy. The couple next to us in the park exclaimed excitedly when they saw what we were eating and then were disappointed to hear me flatly tell them it wasn't good. We still ended up going back for gelato, getting chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. The chocolate was initially good - a nice rich flavor - but over time my bf said he could tell that it was made from Scharffen Berger cocoa powder - still good, but kind of distinctively cocoa powdery. The strawberry was delicious and fruity. The vanilla was disappointingly bland, kind of like the vanilla at Solbar the night before. Vanilla can be really good and hold its own even against strong chocolate and strawberry flavors, but not that one. So two hits and one miss.

Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve - 17000 Armstrong Woods Road, Guerneville, CA 95446
We were looking for something to do to kill time until dinner that was low exertion and cool. A stroll through a redwood forest seemed to do the trick. The reserve is bigger than we saw - there are some serious hiking trails and mountain biking trails in there, but given the "low exertion" requirement and the fact that I was only wearing sandals, we stuck to the 1.5 mile "pioneer" nature trail loop with an optional add-on loop. There's a picnic area at the end of the trail (halfway through the loop) which was large and seemingly very popular with area families. The trails themselves have people on them,but not nearly as many people as Muir Woods. Otherwise, it's a similar feel - strolling through the towering giants, pondering the trees that seem to have split from the same base, or grown together, checking out the hollowed out bases of trees that have survived fires over the years. It was definitely considerably cooler on that 90+ degree day in the forest, and it was a nice way to spend some time. You can pay a $8 day use fee to drive into the park to the picnic area, or you can park in the lot or on the street outside the entrance booth for free, and walk into the park, which is what we did.

Cyrus Restaurant - 29 North Street, Healdsburg, CA
Last, and surprisingly least of the 3 restaurants we went to for dinner, was Cyrus, the Michelin 2-star restaurant that all our friends had raved about. Going to Cyrus really drove home a few points for us - 1) we are not foodies. we are not impressed by the history of food or how creative the ingredients and creations are. we just want the food to taste good. 2) I don't like most herbs or spices, evidently (I knew I didn't like cilantro, but basil, parsley, ginger, and other herbs or spices are fast joining that list), so letting someone else control what I eat may not work that well if I don't tell them I don't like all of those things, which I didn't want to do b/c I was hoping that I'd find these things more palatable with a good preparation. 3) a cheese course really fills you up if you insist on eating the whole thing. After the 8-course tasting menu with a few small additions, we were stuffed to the point of nauseous discomfort, which is not the way you want to end a Michelin 2-star dining experience. We even had to pull over in Windsor on our way home to SF to stop by the side of the road for 20 minutes so we could digest some and not feel sick as we drove home.

I do not want to imply Cyrus is a bad restaurant, by any means. The service we received was good - we showed up 10 minutes early to our 6pm reservation and were promptly seated, our waitress was kind and thorough in her explanations, we certainly received attentive service in the filling of our water glasses, clearing and placing of our place settings, offerings of bread, etc. The food was all beautifully presented and well-executed. The option to substitute options from the vegetarian menu was appreciated, and the offer to let us tell them if there were any particular food allergies or tastes we disliked was something I should have actually taken them up on. They seemed to like to play with offering a variety of tastes on the same plate, which I guess were supposed to stimulate your taste buds or maybe combine in interesting ways, but to me just felt like a bunch of strong competing flavors fighting it out in my mouth, rather than coming together in interesting new ways. I think people who like the sort of restaurant Cyrus is would really love it. I think I'm more of a Zin/Solbar type of person. But onto the courses. We passed on the champagne/caviar cart since we don't really drink and we don't really like caviar.

They opened with canapes - five in total for each of us, each representing a different taste. This is a neat concept, but given that I don't actually particularly like bitter things, some sour things, etc, something that didn't quite work for me. What did work - sweet: a strawberry bubble, and sour: a spring roll on balsamic vinegar. What sort of worked - umami: a mushroom broth; I like mushroom but there was a strong ginger undertone/aftertaste which I do not like. What didn't really work for me: bitter: japanese eggplant puree with a dusting of ground coffee (usually I like Japanese eggplant more than American b/c it tends to have less of the bitter and odd tongue tingling properties, but in achieving "bitter" they brought back the exact eggplant tastes I do not like), or salty: a steamed clam with cilantro gel and chorizo powder, mostly because I do not like clam, and I do not like cilantro.

The amuse bouche was an aji mackerel sashimi with compressed plums, a dashi gel, and some other stuff. It was fine, but I wasn't particularly excited by it. The amuse bouches at Manresa, which we'd gone to two weeks previous, were really interesting and tasted extremely good, which had made me excited about the possibilities for amuse bouches. Unfortunately, the one at Cyrus was not that interesting, IMO.

They offered a wide assortment of breads - I tried the mini epi (yum), the brioche (fine, but not nearly as buttery and delectable as Manresa's), and the bacon cheese biscuit (yum). I tried not to fill up too much on the bread, though, turning down any further pieces.

The first course was the Thai Lobster 2.0. This was offered with a basil/cilantro/mint puree dipping sauce that I was concerned about (not liking basil or cilantro), but ended up actually being quite tasty, with a kind of tangy undertone and a nice light mint note to it. My problem was that I just don't particularly like lobster - I find crab to be much more tasty, while lobster has an odd flavor which was subdued in this dish but still there. I don't think that was the fault of the preparation, just my own lack of enthusiasm for lobster. The dipping sauce was good, though.

Second course, I found to be a decision between two things I wasn't sure I'd like. I'm not a fan of liver and don't think I like fois gras, so the fois gras torchon was suspect, while the scallop came with pickled green papaya. I think papaya is disgusting, so this worried me, though the pickling maybe would have removed the slimy quality I particularly detest about papaya. I decided, nice restaurant, maybe I'd like their fois gras if I liked anyone's. I was wrong, though not in the way I expected. Instead of having the dusty livery texture and taste I disliked, I found the fois gras off-putting because to me it tasted exactly like I was eating a gigantic gob of butter. Good, smooth, creamy butter, but still like I was eating a gob of dense fat, which I do not want to do. It was also extremely subtle tasting - I had to hold it in my mouth and really taste it to detect any sort of meaty undertone. It came with a cherry compote rolled in pistachio that was pretty good, but the best thing about the dish was the buttermilk biscuit. That was utterly delicious, and both my bf and I ended up saving half of it until the end so we could eat it unadulterated, without any fois gras or cherry compote detracting from the flavor.

Third course, I couldn't decide between the Medai (butterfish) with sweet corn and scallions and lemon verbena, or the sweet corn and black truffle risotto on the vegetarian menu. I *love* sweet corn and black truffle, but I also love butterfish sashimi. I'd actually had cooked butterfish several times in the past that had led me to conclude I should stop ordering cooked butterfish b/c all the qualities of the sashimi were destroyed in the cooking process, so that should have decided me. But oddly, the week before, I had gone to Roy's Hawaiian restaurant in SF (someone gave me a coupon) and though I usually find Roy's completely underwhelming, had had a cooked misoyaki butterfish that was moist, flaky, and delicious in a way I loved. I figured if *Roy's* could do such a good job with butterfish, Cyrus definitely could. And since my bf was going to order the sweet corn and black truffle risotto for his next course, I figured I could just try his. Mistake. The butterfish was cooked exactly the way that had turned me off cooked butterfish to begin with - a good crispy skin but the cooking had rendered the fish meat itself dry, bland, and uninteresting. The sweet corn was nice, but did not make up for the disappointing fish.

Fourth course was probably my favorite. I had the "bacon n' eggs with black eyed peas and chanterelles". The bacon was a piece of kurobata pork belly with a balsamic vinegar maple glaze - yum, I love pork belly and I love maple. The eggs was a perfectly runny soft egg with chanterelles on top and sitting on a bed of black eyed peas. I dunno about the chanterelles or the black eyed peas, I was too busy scooping up and enjoying the delicious yolk. To make things even better, my bf had substituted the sweet corn and black truffle risotto, the 3rd course off the vegetarian menu, since he doesn't like mushrooms or eggs and both the vegetarian and regular 4th course involved both. The risotto came with some black truffle foam, and both proved to be too strongly truffly for my bf, who likes truffles but hates mushrooms. He ended up eating half the risotto and giving me the rest, so I happily devoured the risotto. The black truffle foam I enjoyed at first, but it rapidly became far too salty, which I found a bit surprising.

To cleanse the palate before the last savory course, they gave us a chunk of kiwi lime ice on a stick. A nice little cold sour jolt, though I perhaps swallowed it too fast to truly cleanse my palate. Oops.

Last savory course was, for me, a crispy poussin with potato mousseline and haricots verts, fines herbes. Which is fancy sounding words for basically a crispy-skinned young chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans. Ie, something that wasn't all that different from what I ate the two nights before, except less creatively done. It tasted good, if a bit over-salty (someone was generous with the salt shaker) - the poussin tender, moist, and flavorful with a nice crispy skin, the potato also flavorful, and the haricots verts very tender. I was just a bit surprised b/c I had been told how creative Cyrus was, and this felt very standard in terms of ingredients and preparation. My bf got the striploin of beef with daikon, ginger-tomato broth. The beef itself was pretty good - tender and medium rare. But I despised the broth, thought it utterly disgusting. After just a bite of his dish, I left him to it, and noticed he was pulling the food out of his broth to drain on the ledge of the dish. For all its lack of creativity, my dish tasted infinitely better to me.

Next came the cheese course, something I could have done without. In fact, if it wasn't for the bacon & eggs, I would have happily have gotten the five-course menu in retrospect. The waitress wheeled over a large cheese cart with a large selection of cheeses. Unfortunately, I found her explanations of the cheeses to be long on history of the cheese but not very helpful in understanding what the cheese tasted like, or even whether it was hard or soft or medium, if it was strong tasting or not. I knew some of the cheeses were soft and some pungent, but the rest required more questioning to find out anything about the flavors. I ended up with a soft cheese from France (a small-format brie - which means it had a smaller wheel than usual? which means what for taste?), a medium cheese that had been rubbed with a walnut liqueur and had a faint walnut taste, and a blue cheese. I liked the soft cheese (from Vermont?) my bf got better than my soft cheese. The medium cheese was fine, but whatever. The blue cheese was tasty. My bf got a sheep's milk cheese with a hard rind he was supposed to remove that was supposed to resemble a Manchego cheese, a goat's milk cheese, and a soft cow's milk cheese. Neither of us were overly impressed with most of the cheeses, but we for some reason still decided to eat all of it, along with all the bread and crackers and fruit bread (this was more me than him) they provided us (as well as the fig gel with date in a spoon). That was a mistake, filling us up far more than we would have liked. We concluded that while we like cheese, we like very specific cheese and should just get that triple-cream or whatever brie we love and dig happily into it, and not bother with trying other cheeses we probably won't like.

I had told them I was celebrating my birthday in the reservation (well, it was within the last week and a half), and as a result, we got a surprise. The waiter brought over two small chocolate chip cookies in a bell jar with a gold balloon attached. He squeezed the balloon, causing the air to blow chocolate powder onto the cookies in the jar, before giving us the cookies. In the meantime, a waitress was busy topping off two small shot glasses of valhrona chocolate with soda water for us to take. These came with little metal straws that we used to stir the chocolate (which was very thick) and soda water together. I quite enjoyed my little cookie and chocolate soda (but I love cookies so I'm not very discerning about them - my bf was less impressed).

The first dessert arrived while I was still busily stirring my soda, a passion fruit gelato with miso custard and sesame sable. This was topped with a peach soup the waiter poured on at the table, as well as extra virgin olive oil. I found the peach soup delicious, and the passion fruit gelato tangy and refreshing but the rest of it felt like overkill. The miso custard was heavy but relatively tasteless, feeling like a weird textured lump in the middle of otherwise delicious fruity flavors.

The second dessert was for me an orange blossom fritter with apricot, basil, and pine nuts. I was a bit apprehensive about this one b/c I thought it sounded odd, but the fritter turned out to basically be a big ball of fried dough with sugar on it. Like a big, high quality donut hole. I like this kind of thing, so I enjoyed it, but it wasn't at all what I expected. Also heavier than I expected, which contributed to the overfull feeling I had at the end. The fritter had a gob of apricot foam, which I found overly tart, a smear of pine nuts on pine nut butter, which I found a bit too...something I can't pinpoint but didn't entirely enjoy, an apricot which was good, and a smear of basil something on the plate, which was interesting but I didn't love. I was really confused how I was supposed to eat all these flavors, so I may not have put them together the way I was supposed to. Basically I ended up liking my fritter and not particularly enjoying the 3 other flavors on the plate. My bf got the "red velvet cake" which sounds basic, but apparently was the chef's way of playing with the elements of a red velvet cake. As the waitress explained it, a red velvet cake is traditionally a chocolate cake dyed red with beet juice. So, along with two small cubes of red velvet cake next to dabs of cream cheese frosting, he also got a chilled beet soup (with something in it that slips my mind), a smear of beet puree on the plate, cocoa crumbles, a yogurt bubble, and I think some kind of pickled melon. This was fairly interesting - at least the parts I tried - but again, a bit hit or miss for me.

By this time, we were both really stuffed, but of course they came over with the mignardises for us to choose from. So many options sounded good - they had cinnamon or some sort of Chinese fruit lollipops, guava jelly squares, coconut jelly squares, pecan shortbread, two types of chocolate (one with mint, one with salted caramel), vanilla caramels, some chocolate nut thing in a wrapper, and a couple other choices. But my stomach was loudly protesting the idea of adding more to it, so we just got one square each of the guava and coconut jellies, two chocolate mints (one for each of us), a lollipop for later, and a vanilla caramel for later. One bite of the tart guava jelly and I felt nauseous, but I still stuffed half of that, half of the coconut jelly (which was really yummy) and the chocolate mint (also yummy) into myself, and then wished I hadn't. My problem is when I get over-full, it only gets worse before it gets better, so I was seriously unhappy and uncomfortable by the close of the meal. My other problem is, I don't realize I've reached this point until it's too late =P.

Overall, I felt that Cyrus lacked both particular creativity (except in the desserts) and particular flavors of the kind I enjoyed (except in a couple courses). It was interesting to try once, but I wouldn't go back. But, what's for me and not for me is very different than what others might enjoy. With my particular array of food biases and quirks, it's probably best for me to choose from a menu with an understanding of what I'm getting, than to have a creative chef pick for me.

All in all, I had a wonderful weekend in Healdsburg and the surrounding areas and would most definitely go back for another weekend getaway, maybe not on a holiday weekend when things are more booked and hotels are less available. Next time, I'd like to try Honor Mansion, which also offers private cottages/suites and a host of amenities that Madrona does not seem to, if I'm feeling particularly indulgent, or Dry Creek Cottage or even the villa if we go up with friends, which is a private cottage with a pool and hot tub (the latter was missed keenly by my bf) which is much cheaper than many of the other options in the area. I'd also maybe try renting a canoe or kayak from King's Sport & Tackle in Guerneville to try a different stretch of the river, and maybe do one of the bike rides around Calistoga. A day of kayaking, a day of biking, and delicious meals in between sounds like a wonderful future weekend getaway.

ETA: Almost forgot to mention that Powell's Sweet Shoppe at 322 Center Street in Healdsburg is fun to walk through, just for the childhood nostalgia factor. They've got a ton of candy of all different types that you'll remember from your childhood (Pop Rocks, Nerds, Pixy Stix, etc) including old lunchboxes/historical candy packaging. It's fun to do a quick browse.