This was another relaxing, while not especially memorable Saturday night out at Redd's Italian restaurant - come on, it's a pizza and pasta joint - in Napa's Disney-like town of Yountville.
I say Disney-like, because it's a little too-perfect a spin on Napa.
In a totally un-Tuscan style, there's not a blade of grass out of place in Yountville, and the many restaurants and wineries in the town fit that slightly artificial vibe. That's not to say that a bit of perfection is ever to be sniffed at, it's just that when cracks in that image ever appear, they're all too obvious.
There was nothing at all wrong with the food. However, Pavey said her pasta was not quite as good as last night's at Tra Vigne. Aside from that, I had chicken liver toast - not as good as the excellent Bar Agricole's preparation - and a pizza. Forgive me for sounding churlish, but with so many pizzerias in San Francisco, I can't get that excited about yet another prosciutto, arugula, grana padano, and black pepper plate.
Our server was affected, in a way many servers have become - a little too much detail on which end of the garden offers up the best vegetables, what the chef was wearing when he pounded the pizza base, and so on. That trait was in evidence at all three of our restaurants this weekend.
So, it is what it is. A victim perhaps of Yountville's high standards yielding too many plates with too similar components, all cooked in too similar a way, and all sold with a too similar condescension.
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